DMing privately on Lemmy (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by mim@lemmy.sdf.org to c/privacyguides@lemmy.one

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I've just recently moved to Lemmy, and so far I'm enjoying it quite a bit. However, I've been thinking about the privacy issues whe DMing someone here.

Since this is a federated service, when you DM someone you have to trust both your server's admin, as well as the recipient's. Not that I particularly trusted reddit, but at least it was 1 corporation with (hopefully) some solid security procedures in place, and potential penalties for data breaches. Whereas in Lemmy, it might just be 2 random guys.

I've added an age key to my profile, in the hopes to make people aware of this issue. As well as giving them an option, if they wish to contact me privately.

I know, it's not user friendly. But it's the only way I could think of that wouldn't rely on email + GPG. Does anyone know of a better solution?

EDIT: I also realise that not having signing capabilities might be an issue... So maybe reverting back to good ol' GPG is a better option?

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[-] Sal@mander.xyz 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah, at least Lemmy tries to warn users not to use the DMs to send sensitive or private information, and suggests using a dedicated encrypted messenger instead:

The developers are very busy developing lemmy-specific features and encrypted DMs would be a lot of work to create something that is a bit redundant. But I am sure that if someone would want to make that, they would appreciate that help.

Not that I particularly trusted reddit, but at least it was 1 corporation with (hopefully) some solid security procedures in place, and potential penalties for data breaches. Whereas in Lemmy, it might just be 2 random guys.

Personally I wouldn't trust 2,000 random guys any more than 2 random guys. I assume any of my unencrypted communications are public.

[-] ThrowAwayAccount@lemmy.one 0 points 1 year ago

I know this isn't an answer but unless I'm using an end-to-end encrypted service like Element or Signal to communicate, I'm assuming anything I write in a DM will become public at some time. Given that, if it is something some sensitive, I will make sure to use one of those instead of the in-house DM.

[-] itsmect@monero.town 1 points 1 year ago

If you enter a matrix user name on your profile, Lemmy adds an extra button on your profile to "Send Secure Message". Example: https://monero.town/u/shortwavesurfer

I don't know if this behavior is default, or if you have to configure something for it, but I think it's a nice way to bridge forum-like communities with chatrooms (matrix itself can be bridged with irc, discord, telegram).

this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2023

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