Hello World!
The Lemmy.World Terms of Service was recently updated, and we have also published 3 new documents set to be in use, starting from today. These documents are:
- The Privacy Policy, which may be found at https://legal.lemmy.world/privacy-policy/
- The Cookie Policy, which may be found at https://legal.lemmy.world/cookie-policy/
- The Fair Use Policy, which may be found at https://legal.lemmy.world/fair-use/
they’re too long, didn’t read
Okay.
Here are some simplified explanations to save you from the trouble. This update of our documentation was made to further reassure transparency towards our users, to comply with applicable laws to the best of our abilities, and to make it more convenient for all of us to use Lemmy.World safely.
The Changes Made to the Terms of Service
Highlights:
- Section 8 was updated to refer to our new documents.
- Section 5 was updated to further accommodate some of our communities, which were requesting exemptions from the previous version.
- The minimum age was raised from 16 to 18.
https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/
The Privacy Policy in Short
We don’t collect any real data from you. The only actual data we do collect are your username, password, the e-mail address you provide, and your Internet Protocol(IP) address.
We will never share your data with anyone for any reason, unless you do illegal stuff.
https://legal.lemmy.world/privacy-policy/
What’s the Fair Use Policy?
The Fair Use Policy defines the main user and bot rules, and it is made so that rules of conduct and participation are easier for our users to read and access.
https://legal.lemmy.world/fair-use/
The Cookie Policy
Lemmy.World uses cookies like any other website. If you’d like to learn more or disable cookies, then visit the relevant link to our Cookie Policy.
https://legal.lemmy.world/cookie-policy/
end of relevant content
Upon these bits of info, we are also dying to tell you about why are we even bothering with any of this at all, and much more about our efforts and struggles that we hadn’t had the time to tell you yet. But let that be a topic for our next post, haha :) stay safe, and with love!
Lemmy.World
❤️
Don’t forget to support the instance! They don’t sell your data or inundate you with ads, so throw some cash their way to keep non-corporate social media alive!
❤️
I just donated ~$2, I hope it helps.
That’s like … some thousands of ad watches worth? Solid contribution. Digital economy works great at the penny-ante level, since there’s so god damn many of us. Standard “if everyone gave a dollar…” line.
FYIE: They have a $2/month tier and I highly encourage you to do this, if you can!
Thanks for continuing to provide this platform free of data collection and advertising!
Thanks so much for pinning the update! I do have a question regarding illegal content. The governing laws for the site are still the Netherlands, and from what I can see laws about airsoft are very restrictive. Is simply talking about or posting pictures airsoft guns that would be illegal in the Netherlands be considered not allowed, if the airsoft guns are in countries where they are legal? Or would TOS restrictions only be for discussing how to circumvent Netherlands laws regarding airsoft? The latter seems to make more sense to me, since a picture of the item and discussion on it’s own as long as it doesn’t veer into how to break the law shouldn’t cause any issues for the server, but I do want to be clear so that if I post my realistic airsoft gun in the airsoft community I don’t get on the admin badside.
As a moderator of multiple larger communities, i am here to express my gratitude for the admins who maintain this platform.
What does it mean that e-mail, username and passwords must be complete and true? No anonymous e-mail? No unique usernames for Lemmy, it must correlate with an external service?
What are your demands for content federated to you?
How does it work if a user wants to delte their account and all relevant data as per GDPR or similar if it’s federated?
Update: How does the 18+ rule relate to users on instances with lower or no age requirements?
I’m not trying to be negative, I think we all are trying to figure out how this new methods of interaction can safely occur between both users and instances.
Okay.
What does it mean that e-mail, username and passwords must be complete and true?
Burner e-mails are not allowed on Lemmy.World. Any content in conflict with the Terms of Service is also not allowed, usernames also being content. Passwords must be complete and true in the sense they should meet the security requirements of Lemmy(World) during sign-up, and this standard be maintained during any other later change.
What are your demands for content federated to you?
We have not a Federation Policy in place, as does no one. Any content visible on Lemmy.World(which also includes federated content) would be moderated in accordance to the Fair Use Policy of Lemmy.World.
How does the 18+ rule relate to users on instances with lower or no age requirements?
This rule, as well as simply serving to fulfill legal obligations, is also an extension of a statement from our Privacy Policy, which states in case we realize an user is underage, we will delete all data associated with them, including their account. Since the Lemmy software does not run a feature to check or confirm user age, this policy is only to be enforced upon moments of being made aware. As with our local users, upon the moment of realization, a federated underage user would also be restricted from interacting with our instance, and any data associated with them deleted.
How does it work if a user wants to delte their account and all relevant data as per GDPR or similar if it’s federated?
When requested appropriately and confirmed by us for security purposes, we will(and do) gladly delete all of an individual’s data that we have. We are not responsible of what content is in other websites.
Burner emails are not allowed on Lemmy.World
Does “burner email” have a legal definition? I ask this in good faith, as a privacy conscious user with multiple emails — some of which have one purpose and one purpose only.
Thanks for any input!
We do not count e-mail alisases as burner e-mails, as I assume that is what you meant. The use of temporary e-mail addresses are not allowed on Lemmy.World, and this is checked and enforced automatically during sign-up. So, as an already successfully registered and confirmed user, you have nothing to worry about.
So things like the “hide my email” addresses that iCloud generates are fair game. They are aliases. Right?
These are popular and available to very average people. All in the name of privacy, and anti-spam.
I assume this refers to some kind of automatically generated bot email thing?
Close enough. There are certain e-mail providers which one might use to generate and use an e-mail address only for a specific amount of time(eg. ~10 mins), and then will get destroyed by the provider and will no longer be valid. These services are mostly used by bots and spammers, as we have witnessed from countless spam attacks as well as CSAM incidents. Those are what we call burner mails, because they get burned quickly. And they are not allowed here anymore, since a while now.
Thank you for the reply and clarifications.
I can see some potential issues and some terms I absolutely disagree with.
Like disallowing burner e-mails, for the large parts an unenforceable rule (unenforceable “dormant” rules tend to erode respect for the enforceable rules in my experience).
It’s also a bit worrisome that (from what i understand of the fair use policy) if someone pulls a community from, say my instance, where I state “I don’t understand the rules of Lemmy.world, some of them seem unenforceable” I could per the rules get banned from your instance.
The things I disagree with is a non-issue, we live on different instances and I respect all admins right to decide what they allow on their instance. The things I find worrisome would impact the interconnectivity of the fediverse. I’m still anticipating a split in the lemmyverse.
Let’s see how it goes, so far I have a good impression of Lemmy.world and wish you good luck with your new rules.
unenforcable like disallowing burner mails
It is checked automatically and enforced automatically upon detection, for every single user. It is not unenforcable at all.
I’m still anticipating a split
Like there isn’t already? And it’s got nothing to do with anyone’s rules or documentation.
I found the two adjacent sections you are referring to in the Privacy Policy, and it’s a good question. I have no idea what it means either. Email address I can understand to some extent, but not an anonymous username or a private password no one else should ever see. Quoting for posterity:
Personal information provided by you
The personal information that we collect depends on the context of your interactions with us and the website, the choices you make, and the features you use. The personal information we collect may include the following:
- email addresses
- usernames
- passwords
Sensitive information
We do not process sensitive information.
All personal information that you provide to us must be true, complete, and accurate, and you must notify us of any changes to such personal information.
Both the advantage and disadvantage of being the largest instance is that you will be more likely to need to be the most thorough with Data Processing and faced with the most scrutiny, but should have more resources (if people donate) to have a sophisticated policy in place.
Thanks for maintaining this site so welcoming, transparently, and professionally!
On the 18+ age restriction, it’s possible that there are users in the [email protected] community that are under 18 years old, but get a lot of benefit from being a part of the community. Is there a way we can eventually have an adjustment to the terms of some sort that allows adolescents (say 16 & 17 y/o) from partaking in the community openly with their age?
Edit: [email protected] would be willing to develop a set of rules that ensure the community is considerate of 16 & 17 y/o users.
Hello @[email protected] I appreciate your inquiry. And while in my heart I would like to allow this on-the-go, in reality it would also raise a multitude of concerns, and require us to review the safety of this situation regularly. I will consider an adjustment and discuss it with other staff when possible, and be sure to get back to you.
I appreciate your response and your concerns and think they are completely reasonable. Thank you for considering it! We’ll standby at [email protected] and let the users know that if we find out they are under 18, we will have to remove them.
Thanks for listening to us!
The links to the Fair Use policy are broken. They use an underscore instead of a dash, which is giving me a 404 on mobile.
the information was updated.
Yes, this is because we have just moved the legal page into a different UI with all its content, and so some of the links on the post may not be correct. I will update them as soon as I can and notify you.
Very much appreciated, team 👊
❤❤❤❤ thank you for all the hard work!!!
Documents.
Cool
