Although i am quite a lurker in Lemmy, i don’t have the time to be an active contributor, nor i wish to give away too much personal information nor i want to add an unnecessary addiction into my life, which is why i don’t maintain a permanent account. However i do periodically have questions that I feel like only communities from Lemmy would be able to answer to my satisfaction, which is why i create burner accounts in my private window which i close after i am done with it.
But after creating many such accounts for this purpose, i feel like i am not doing it properly. I feel guilty abandoning accounts that take up space in servers of instances which are constantly fighting against spam and DDOS attacks; it feels like i am participating in the attack too. However i believe i should not delete the posts, for it may come useful for me in the future and for other people browsing the communities.
What methods should i adopt to further make my use of burner accounts in Lemmy more beneficial to me (in terms of anonymity and future account creations) as well as others (instances in terms of spam and members in terms of posts/comments)? Should I maintain a single account or permanently delete these accounts once i’m done with them?
For context, I use a VPN and Tor Browser and a disposable email for instances requiring email for account creation.
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
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You can always donate your account to the privacy community and someone else will use it to post. Over time these accounts will have lits of different people sharing metadata and mixing the waters.
Im not saying to do this or not. Just that its an option. There used to be an add-on for this called bugmenot. The instance will likely have your IP for a while but you can always use a VPN/ TOR or a coffee shop if you feel you need to hide your IP.
You could occasionally post or comment with innacurate personal details such as living in a different city or having a pet or interest you don’t actually have. In addition to the other advice in these comments.
As an admin, accounts are quite cheap and we get thousands of them just through federation. They’re just a row in a database of tens of thousands of rows.
I wouldn’t worry about it, the only issue is if you make them random strings of numbers you may find it difficult to get past some spam fighting measures. But apart from that, I wouldn’t worry about it. This post as a whole with the comments probably takes like 10 accounts worth of storage.
If you don’t want to abandon an account after a single post then only thing as others have mentioned is self displicine in what you share. General topics like inquiries on games, tech, and movies are probably of no special interest.
But, stuff like I’m from Atlantis and I am of noble lineage of the lobster clan who is part of an alliance to overthrow the clan of Corrals is too much info to be giving. Basically don’t share stuff you wouldn’t be comfortable people knowing in real life.
If there is this much paranoia though I think just lurking is the way to go, and keeping only an account for asking questions that is worded as unassuming as possible. Maybe even have AI rephrase what you wanted to ask.
Seems like way too much over thinking for something you say you won’t even hardly use. Like going to different grocery stores so no one knows what one you’re going to buy from next or something.
[starts taking notes]
I don’t feel there is any harm in having several accounts spread out for whatever purposes. Compartmentalize it so that each user is distinct and keep the accounts. I think this is the best way to maintain privacy but also not create new accounts constantly. Pretty sure this is good enough to not expose yourself.
Just curious why you’d go to such lengths to maintain privacy.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say you’re probably of no interest to any authority. Unless you KNOW you’re doing something illegal.
To be clear I’m not saying that we all shouldn’t value privacy but, for example, could you not just keep an account for 6 months then delete?
Or are you worried that some 3 letter agencies will bust through your door within that time frame?
part of the reason why i don’t keep a permanent account is also to not create association or interest with that account, in order to prevent me from becoming addicted by constantly posting or commenting. once i close my browser, the account becomes inaccessible since i don’t remember any credentials. this way i lose my progress of accumulated upvotes and thus I am not incentivized to post/comment for the sake of internet points.
“progress of accumulated upvotes”!
“internet points”!
these are your problem, not privacy
Hmmm I see.
I mean the real solution is practicing self discipline and if it’s not possible then you just quit social media (which is still self discipline but a more clean break kind I suppose).
But you’re the only one that can judge if the negatives of engaging with social media are outweighed by the positives.
You’re already putting a bunch of different barriers in front of yourself to limit social media engagement and maybe that’s an indication of how you should be valuing it in your life? (I.e. even less important than it is now)
If you are a human posting, you’re contributing to the community. It shouldn’t matter if it’s your only or have X accounts that you use/don’t use. In general, ddos attacks are more timing related in combination with data quantity not just raw data, since a new user account doesn’t take up much space and neither does their posts (this isn’t 100% the case, but usually the case. Also haven’t read lemmy’s source code, just general discussion)