Every server on the internet for every site you visit does this.
this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2023
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I guess what I'm asking is more about whether your info is sold the same way Reddit does, or is it simply retained for reporting abusive conduct
The website that you visit (as in your Lemmy instance) does log your IP address to fight abuse etc. Afaik it's not sent to other instances, so unless the server admin sells it somewhere (which they shouldn't but I guess you never know - that's why some folks host their own instance), it shouldn't leave the server.
Obviously that doesn't mean your IP is not logged by external services embedded in the Lemmy UI you're using - be that ads, video players, etc
This is a desicion each Lemmy instance can make. ideally you join smaller grassroots instances that have privacy values and you won't have to worry
Lemmy, itself, does NOT collect or store IP addresses. You won't find this information in the Lemmy database/application.
However, your IP address will be captured in the webserver logs themselves, which is typical for any connections to any webserver.
Admins can see the IP address+request path, but is there anything in the logs that can relate an ipaddress to a username?
Theoretically you could infer that information by counting the number of times an IP looks at a profile page. If you assume the maximum count of a profile to be the IP users own profile. It wouldn't be fact but for a lot of cases that doesn't matter.
That wasn't really what I was paying attention to the last time I looked at the logs but going off memory no, you can't.
The Lemmy logs are very privacy friendly which is good most of the times but a tragedy when someone posts illegal stuff to your instance and you have no way of tracking them down.
They can.
Instance operator here! I self-host a small Lemmy instance for developers and tech savvy folks.
The short version is that it totally depends on your home instance, so it’s too general to reason about, really. Lemmy itself doesn't keep track of your IP, but there are move moving parts than that, like the reverse proxy, potentially CDN/object store, potentially web server…. etc. That’s all up to the instance, and the admins are capable of tweaking that stuff to log or not as they see fit.
It’s worth noting that some jurisdictions legally require server operators to keep this data.
So TLDR - if you trust your instance administrators, and the country and state/province they host it in, then maybe not. Otherwise, assume you are not anonymous on Lemmy.
Yay, I finally attracted a "_____ [insert profession/qualification ] here" reply 🤗Can you comment on your view of Lemmy.world? I actually know very little about them and I wonder how you perceive them as a fellow instance operator :)
Thank you for the insider view, its succinct and informative
I’m not sure I have an opinion, honestly. They’re the largest instance at least from the perspective of communities followed from federate.cc, we have more people subscribed to stuff @lemmy.world than anywhere else. I can tell they’re having technical issues due to the scale of the instance, given the frequent downtime and slow responsiveness of the website. I think this is more Lemmy’s fault than theirs.
But I too don’t know much about its governance or policies. We’ve yet to have any issue with one of our members misbehaving, so I haven’t run up against the administration of any other instance.