Edit: obligatory explanation (thanks mods for squaring me away)…
What you see via the UI isn’t “all that exists”. Unlike Reddit, where everything is a black box, there are a lot more eyeballs who can see “under the hood”. Any instance admin, proper or rogue, gets a ton of information that users won’t normally see. The attached example demonstrates that while users will only see upvote/downvote tallies, admins can see who actually performed those actions.
Edit: To clarify, not just YOUR instance admin gets this info. This is ANY instance admin across the Fediverse.
“unlike reddit” mm I’m sure they have RIGOROUS controls over which creepy staff / disgruntled plutocrats / repressive regimes get access to their voting database…
While we can certainly debate, doubt and be suspicious of the efficacy of their controls I think we can all agree that there are some in place, even if they’re shit.
No such controls exist in the fediverse.
There are near-zero privacy protections in place. If someone shows up at my door tomorrow with a warrant for my instances database I’m not going to fight it. I don’t have the pockets for it and I’m not going to bankrupt my personal self on principle.
Completely right.