Data contamination expert 👌

ElCanut@jlai.lu to Lemmy Shitpost@lemmy.world – 1344 points –
86

You are viewing a single comment

While that's the correct thing to do in my opinion, it would be a mistake to assume that Reddit didn't store your original comments.

By corrupting their dataset, you may actually be helping them recognize maliciously edited comments.

it would be a mistake to assume that Reddit didn't store your original comments.

They were fairly specific about not doing that (I'd imagine largely because of GDPR).

I deleted 10 years of "content" before I left and checked their policies. They apparently actually do properly delete from their servers.

I've got a bridge in the desert I'd like to sell you.

GDPR is no joke. Storing a handful of comments is not worth the penalty if they get caught.

Note that I speak from experience as part of a company that needs to comply with the regulations. We do it because the risk of violation is 10000000% not worth it no matter how annoying and arduous it is to comply.

But the GDPR only covers European users tho.

That's true but it's far easier to globally implement rather than trying to segment. Very difficult to accurately prove a user isn't EU resident across an entire userbase.

That's probably why they don't let you access Reddit with a VPN, so they can have some idea of location.

Yeah, I mean I knew that when I was doing it.

Sometimes all you can do is make a symbolic gesture that really does nothing, and even if it does nothing, you should still do it.

Probably leaving and supporting lemmy by paying for some developer fees (i'm on the patreon), posting and commenting, probably 100x more damaging to Reddit.

FWIW, I requested an old reddit accounts data the other day under CCPA and all the contamination was in there. My guess is their backend updates every so often. i guess i made a good call to edit my comments and leave them there to simmer before i deleted them along with the account. perhaps this is the way?

Mass edits made rapidly are obviously suspect, too... If the same user edits anything more than a dozen comments in, say a minute, you have to ask what's going on