So I can create an instance and automatically start scraping people’s info? Or is an instance not even necessary? I understand how web crawlers and spiders will index but do they have access to the granular account data? If so how do we mitigate this?

You know I didn’t think of this. Does every new instance created, if it chooses to, federate and download data automatically from the other instances? Like upvotes downvotes etc, or is that only possible when something like kbin or lemmy.ml agree to federate with instance x?

But they would if they’re allowed to federate. This is a company that builds shadow profiles on people that don’t even use fb. You really think they’re not going to try and get what they can get their hands on by any means necessary?

No thank you, give them access to user info even one time is too many.

I really hope Reddit dies a slow painful death, it's already mostly bots talking with each other in the main subs. They got too greedy and think they're so large their sh* don't stink. Apologize for the crass, but man I just hope we get more major blunders and fuckups from spez&co