Some interesting reflections on privacy and legal considerations for the indie web.
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Thanks for sharing; that was a great read. Blasé attitudes about privacy and data protection are why I no longer use a third-party CMS (or trust “the little guys” to help with the administrative side of anything). With a locally-stored blog that I build myself with a static site generator, I have the reassurance of knowing I am in full control over my writing and can purge anything I’ve added to the internet at any time.
Also, I know this may be anathema to some folks, but I even block the Internet Archive’s crawler for the same reason. It can take snapshots of the homepage, but that’s it.
Been on the web since 1996 and I saw this problem all the way back when it came to communities on livejournal and forums. When it comes to privately owned services, it is only as good as the team running it. Granted, that can be said of all services, but the capacity for damage to be done, I think, increases with smaller services, especially when paired with an intracommunity aspect.
Betrayal from a large corporation is expected, betrayal from a small individual service not only stings in a much more personal way it can also persist for far longer and even infect all the communities it touches.
Looking to the furry fandom is such a good example of this (this is not to say that it is more common in the furry fandom, only that it has been very persistent, has a high tech ceiling, and is easy to track so it makes a good community to examine with regard to this specific topic) There have been so many services, platforms, communities, over the years that have lived and died because of one person either being really good or really awful at their job, and the effects can be extensive. It is so much easier to stalk and blackball people from individual projects than it is from larger corporate services.
And then there’s the matter of accountability. While the article brings up legal problems, the other hurdle is the parasocial aspect. A lot of those services very intentionally try to lean into a ‘friends’ vibe, which creates a polarizing effect which makes an environment for criticism especially difficult. And I don’t just mean in the sense of those that defend them but those that hate so excessively.
Ultimately, large corporate services aren’t better than small individual services, nor is it true for the opposite. Both options contain different benefits and risks, and I think even with the mess of large corporate services, there is a danger in the impulse to venerate small private services with no oversight. Which option works best for which person is going to be individual, and one must assess their needs, have an honest conversation with themselves rather than painting anything with a broad brush.
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Surprise, surprise: society is made of people and runs on trust by definition. If you can’t trust the people you’re working with, all the legal protections in the world amount to nothing. I’ll sooner place my trust in an actual person than a corporation that’s not even human and will screw me over (legally!) at the first opportunity because it’s what they do. What they’re made for.