Why just blocking Meta's Threads won't be enough to protect your privacy once they join the fediverse

I also had a privacy incident with Facebook, when they came up with "featured photos", five of my photos only viewable to friends (as all my posts were) suddenly became public in this featured photos album that was created for me. However I'm skeptical of the Mistress Matisse accusation that Facebook changed her display name to her legal name that she never gave... My guess is that either she was hacked, or that it's some sort of human error (meaning she did accidentally put in her name). Also, you can still find her account on Facebook, even though it says in the intro that it's not used (but why keep it?).

But this is pretty much beside the point for the article, that only uses this tweet to make the point that "Facebook bad". Even if Threads never federates, people there (or on Tweeter, Truth Social or wherever) can still mention your Mastodon handle or just your name and bring you unwelcome attention that way. So the premise is weak.

That said, I'm against Threads federation, but for different reasons.

4 comments

It's kind of dumb that you can boost follower-only posts. If it's follower-only, it's probably for a good reason, right?
This is a really important piece of the discussion. Thanks for sharing!
I think it's naive to assume they are not ALREADY collecting our data.
I also had a privacy incident with Facebook, when they came up with "featured photos", five of my photos only viewable to friends (as all my posts were) suddenly became public in this featured photos album that was created for me. However I'm skeptical of the Mistress Matisse accusation that Facebook changed her display name to her legal name that she never gave... My guess is that either she was hacked, or that it's some sort of human error (meaning she did accidentally put in her name). Also, you can still find her account on Facebook, even though it says in the intro that it's not used (but why keep it?).
But this is pretty much beside the point for the article, that only uses this tweet to make the point that "Facebook bad". Even if Threads never federates, people there (or on Tweeter, Truth Social or wherever) can still mention your Mastodon handle or just your name and bring you unwelcome attention that way. So the premise is weak.
That said, I'm against Threads federation, but for different reasons.