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Reddit makes it impossible to delete PII, refuses to do it itself violating GDPR (youtu.be)
submitted 1 year ago by ruffsl@programming.dev to c/technology@beehaw.org
41 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/251752

It is important to note that although this may be a result of Reddit's UI not displaying the content users posted to now-private subreddits, it remains a problem. Additionally, I agree with the author's comments in the video description, as it appears strategically unrealistic for Reddit to ask that users manually delete the content themselves.

This is particularly true when considering that many automated methods to accomplish this task will be hindered by Reddit's upcoming API pricing changes. Furthermore, Reddit has demonstrated a recurring pattern of rolling back databases using historical backups, thereby disregarding user deletion requests that were submitted prior to the database rollback.

See similar discussion of this video on Hacker News:

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[-] storksforlegs@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Does changing your comments to or replacing them with garbled text work if reddit wont delete?

(i realize this shouldnt be necessary but more as a last resort)

[-] Lazycog@lemmy.one 10 points 1 year ago

Seems like it worked for me. Last I checked my deleted account's comments are still up and display replaced text.

I overwrote my comments with a message that clearly states why I overwrote my comments and deleted my account.

[-] Kir@feddit.it 2 points 1 year ago

This is great. If we coul do it somehow automatically, it would greatly damage the platform.

[-] Tzeentch@beehaw.org 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

There is a way, the Power Delete Suite script can overwrite all your comments with any message you give it, and then follow it up with mass deletion if you wish, only catch is that the original doesn't account for reddits current rate limiting and so misses stuff , but this fork of it seemed to do the trick for me

https://github.com/pkolyvas/PowerDeleteSuite

[-] Lazycog@lemmy.one 3 points 1 year ago

There are programs for that! Even an app AFAIK, but sadly I don't remember the good ones right now. Maybe someone could pitch in and suggest?

[-] agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

That's probably how they detect it in the first place. A "normale" user won't delete hundreds of comments in a row.

[-] thebardingreen@lemmy.starlightkel.xyz 3 points 1 year ago

I was thinking of editing mine to be links to information about Lemmy.

[-] GiantBasil@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

I deleted some, but not all of my reddit posts and they're not back yet and some people had their garbled posts restored. So to m the trick might be doing it in batches at different times, delete some, garble some, maybe change some to lorem ipsum.

this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2023
177 points (100.0% liked)

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