[HN Gopher] No Instagram, no privacy
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       No Instagram, no privacy
        
       Author : wouterjanl
       Score  : 108 points
       Date   : 2025-05-05 15:37 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (blog.wouterjanleys.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (blog.wouterjanleys.com)
        
       | igor47 wrote:
       | i've thought the same thing about email. i run my own email
       | server, so i'm one of a very few number of people whose email is
       | opaque to gmail. on the other hand -- almost everyone i exchange
       | email with uses gmail, so actually gmail has almost all my email
       | anyway.
        
         | 2Gkashmiri wrote:
         | I bought into mailinabox like 3-4 years ago.
         | 
         | Zero issues since then. First time my emails got into spam but
         | after unspamming, it worked.
         | 
         | Havent had issues. I use a cheap racknerd $12/year server so
         | its way cheaper than proton or stuff and I have dozens of
         | emails across family members.
        
         | AndriyKunitsyn wrote:
         | Did you have any problems with Gmail not trusting your server
         | and moving your letters to spam?
        
           | SoftTalker wrote:
           | Don't immediately start hosting your own email on a brand new
           | domain especially if you're using a free or very low-cost VPS
           | provider.
           | 
           | Pay a bit more for a better reputation provider. Use a domain
           | you've owned for a while. Set up all SPF, DKIM, and DMARC
           | properly.
           | 
           | Or just pay fastmail to do it for you.
        
             | chrisweekly wrote:
             | Strong rec to use Fastmail; it's a fantastic, reliable,
             | inexpensive service w/ excellent performance and UX.
        
             | 2Gkashmiri wrote:
             | I disagree. I followed luke smiths video on email hosting
             | and adapted to miab and I was up and running. Checked the
             | IP for problems beforehand. Have had to request a different
             | IP once.
        
             | ddoolin wrote:
             | I didn't have any issues with it. I ran the same server
             | straightaway on a new domain maybe 7 years or so, maybe
             | more. I recently changed hosts from AWS to somewhere else,
             | so the IP changed, etc, and I did have one major e-mail
             | provider ding me for a single outgoing e-mail after that,
             | but it didn't happen twice and never any issues since then.
             | I feel like if you follow all the DNS recommendations, it's
             | not a problem anymore.
        
             | chaoskitty wrote:
             | You're conflating a few different issues: the newness of a
             | domain, and the quality and cost of of your VPS.
             | 
             | Some email providers don't like brand new domains, yes, but
             | if a domain is brand new, nobody is going to immediately
             | start using it for mission critical things. That's just
             | common sense, although now I want to buy a domain to see
             | how much of an issue this really is.
             | 
             | The cost and quality of a VPS means very little because if
             | a VPS is on a network with a poor reputation, one can
             | easily smarthost through a mail provider that has a good
             | reputation.
             | 
             | Likewise, people can run servers at home, or they can
             | colocate, or whatever, and don't have to run a VPS at all,
             | although I think you're just generalizing and aren't
             | suggesting that people can't use other servers.
        
           | delusional wrote:
           | I've been running a mail server for years. Never had any
           | problem. I switched ip a year or two ago and didn't even warm
           | up the new one. I do have DKIM and DMARC and that stuff
           | though.
           | 
           | I'm sure you'll have some problems if you start serving
           | newsletters right away, but as a personal mail server, you
           | don't really need to do anything.
           | 
           | I even fucked up the config at one point for a week, and all
           | the mail just patiently waited on the senders mail server for
           | mine to be up again. I really love email.
        
           | igor47 wrote:
           | I run mailman, which requires extra setup with ARC. In
           | practice Gmail works pretty well. I've had more issues with
           | smaller email providers like ... Umm Microsoft. Yahoo. Once
           | someone working for 18F couldn't get my email on their .gov
           | address.
        
         | barbazoo wrote:
         | Interesting. I never thought about adjusting my message based
         | on the email provider they use. Would be hard to do, someone
         | could be using their own domain but the email goes through
         | Gmail.
        
           | immibis wrote:
           | In many cases you could check their MX or SPF records. See
           | what advice Google gives to use Gmail on your domain; then
           | see if the domain followed that advice.
        
       | paxys wrote:
       | "I went on a weekend trip and didn't invite friend A, so I hope
       | friend B keeps it a secret and doesn't tell anyone I was there"
       | is the kind of social dynamic that people grow out of in high
       | school. If you are having trouble with it as an adult then it
       | isn't really Instagram's fault. People talk to each other and
       | share stuff, and sometimes they talk about you, both online and
       | offline. Just live your life without being so bothered about
       | offending other people. They are adults as well, and care about
       | it less than you think.
        
         | alwa wrote:
         | There's value in grace. For all sorts of reasons you might be
         | right to do things that make other people feel bad. That's no
         | reason to rub their nose in it.
         | 
         | What's the virtue in offending people when you could instead be
         | kind?
         | 
         | I know one woman who is having a baby shower, and I know
         | another woman who recently dealt with the loss of her child.
         | It's not "secrecy" to celebrate the baby shower and avoid
         | bringing it up with the recently bereaved, it's respect and
         | good taste.
         | 
         | I feel like we used to call it discretion...
        
           | rootnod3 wrote:
           | The people being offended could just act like an adult.
           | 
           | If you want to go out with friend A but don't want friend B
           | to see it for whatever reason (maybe B has a feud with A),
           | then that is a thing between B and A, but not you.
           | 
           | I think the whole point of the OP comment is to just go with
           | it. If you don't flauntingly advertise it, it is not your
           | fault.
           | 
           | But in a very social media centric world, even if you are
           | just a participant in a picture can feel like "flaunting it"
           | to 3rd parties.
        
             | ryandrake wrote:
             | As someone who doesn't use any social media, this whole
             | thread sound exhausting to have to worry about. "I
             | shouldn't post X because Y might be offended at Z..." Holy
             | crap, I feel vindicated for my decision to entirely stay
             | off of this drama machine.
        
           | standardUser wrote:
           | > I feel like we used to call it discretion...
           | 
           | That's a stretch, considering previous generations forbid
           | people from discussing all manner of life issues and events
           | out of "discretion", which in my estimation has been a key
           | factor in perpetuating shame and all of the horrifying things
           | that come from societal shame.
        
           | colechristensen wrote:
           | Secrecy isn't grace or discretion when it comes to vacations
           | or baby showers.
           | 
           | Not bringing up a sensitive topic when interacting with
           | someone is discretion. Hiding a major life event because it
           | might trigger one person is silly.
           | 
           | There's a phase in a big chunk of people's lives where the
           | only thing on their social media is about having a baby. If
           | you're traumatized by that it's up to you, not everyone else,
           | to keep it away from yourself (e.g. stay off social media or
           | start a new profile and only follow hyperpop jazz trombone
           | and COBOL enthusiasts... or whatever).
           | 
           | Not wanting to share your life on social media is one thing,
           | picking and choosing to keep things secret from person A or B
           | because of some drama or another is childish.
        
           | dghlsakjg wrote:
           | As someone whose wife has lost two pregnancies recently,
           | please don't assume this kind of thing.
           | 
           | I don't want to be locked out of the joys of celebrating with
           | friends due to misguided attempts to protect me. If going to
           | a baby shower is going to be a problem, let me decide that.
           | 
           | I'm an adult, and I can use my words to say no for myself.
           | For the record, our own experience hasn't kept us from
           | enjoying time with pregnant couples, children or babies.
           | 
           | On the other hand, if I found out that my friends were
           | excluding me or my wife from social events, I would actually
           | be upset at having my agency removed.
           | 
           | If the person suffering the loss has asked to not be
           | included, that is different.
        
           | paxys wrote:
           | If a random guest came to me on my wedding day and said "I
           | don't want you to post any photos of this event online
           | because one of my friends just lost their spouse and I don't
           | want them to see me at a wedding at this time", my response
           | would (rightly) be - I'm sorry for their loss but that isn't
           | going to stop me from celebrating my day in whatever way I
           | see fit. Yes I obviously wouldn't go out of my way to call
           | and tell the grieving person about how much fun I had, but
           | people understand that life goes on, and the entire world
           | doesn't have to be sanitized to meet individual people's
           | preferences.
        
         | mjevans wrote:
         | Less 'keep it secret' and more 'don't make a big public deal
         | out of private memories'.
        
           | bobthepanda wrote:
           | is a group trip a private memory?
        
             | citizenpaul wrote:
             | Depends. Are you a spoilt rotten rich kid? Thats the only
             | place I've seen this dynamic play out.
        
           | rapnie wrote:
           | Yes, a big difference between 'telling your friends' in an
           | offline social setting and _broadcasting_ it online.
        
         | wouterjanl wrote:
         | Good points! Totally agree that people care less than you
         | think, and it's very healthy to live your life without thinking
         | you have to please everyone all the time. The nuance I tried to
         | make, but I was perhaps not really clear, is that when people
         | talk with each other, people have the chance to make sure a
         | message comes across so that it does not offend a person. That
         | chance for nuance is lost when people post on social media. Not
         | that people do it deliberately, it's just that social media is
         | designed to be focused on the poster rather than on how that
         | message makes certain people in the audience feel. And I do
         | believe people are bothered not to offend someone, and that
         | they are less likely to do so when you actually talk.
        
         | hammock wrote:
         | Not really. It hurts people's feelings to find out they weren't
         | invited to something they thought they should have been.
         | Protecting feelings and smoothing out awkward social dynamics
         | are the the category of "very adult."
         | 
         | As a more general example, you wouldn't talk about a happy hour
         | you were going to after work with people who weren't
         | invited/aren't invited/you wouldn't invite. I believe every
         | sitcom on the planet has at least one episode with this lesson
         | in it.
        
           | w29UiIm2Xz wrote:
           | It's both things. Being an adult means not being overly
           | bothered if you weren't invited, and it's also very adult to
           | prevent the situation where the uninvited friend doesn't find
           | out, out of concern for their feelings. Both are simply
           | approaching it from different ends.
        
             | soulofmischief wrote:
             | I'm in my thirties now, and I have been on my own since I
             | was homeless at sixteen. One thing I have learned about
             | being an adult is it means that you have no obligation to
             | seriously consider any other person's idea of what being an
             | adult means.
        
               | CrimsonCape wrote:
               | I agree. The above poster is using an example for "adult"
               | which seems ridiculously juvenile. If I spent one minute
               | of my life figuring out how to "smooth-over" disgruntled
               | happy-hour-non-invitees I would be inclined to beat my
               | head against a wall on account of the absurdity.
        
             | hammock wrote:
             | We are in agreement
        
           | paxys wrote:
           | Either you invite them, or you own the decision not to.
           | Pointless secrecy and "protecting feelings" doesn't benefit
           | anyone.
        
             | tshaddox wrote:
             | > Either you invite them, or you own the decision not to.
             | 
             | Define "own the decision not to." Surely you don't mean
             | that every time you are planning an event you must
             | preemptively inform everyone who is not invited that they
             | are not invited, because that's clearly ludicrous.
        
             | bsder wrote:
             | Or perhaps you did invite them, they just couldn't make it
             | and you don't want to rub their nose in how good a time you
             | all had when they may already be feeling disappointed about
             | not being able to attend? Especially in the direct
             | aftermath of the event?
             | 
             | It's called social etiquette and consideration. Sometimes
             | it's misplaced; sometimes it's unneeded. But sometimes it
             | _is_ required.
             | 
             | Humans are not machines. Human interactions do not have
             | many hard rules.
        
         | aaroninsf wrote:
         | It's absolutely the fault of the mechanics and submission of
         | our society to surveillance capitalism,
         | 
         | one which has been intentionally cultivated, exploited, and
         | capitalized, by Meta,
         | 
         | so yes, it is Instagram's fault. They are the primary party--
         | though I do not excuse those complicit with surveillance
         | capitalism, meaning every person who continues despite unending
         | evidence for how sociopathic and destructive the company, its
         | management, and its impact is, to use their products. Which use
         | however is also traceable in significant part back to Meta, via
         | the ugly mechanics of exploitative and amoral engagement-
         | engineering and their exploitation of monopoly.
         | 
         | This is a front upon which they might and should be
         | confronted... a class action on behalf of those have not
         | consented to participate in surviellance would be a lovely
         | thing.
         | 
         | Under the current political shitshow, also in measurable part
         | the "fault" of Meta, however, we can expect no such thing.
        
           | aaroninsf wrote:
           | Lol, Meta apologists everywhere.
           | 
           | Rue the consequences of making working for Meta socially and
           | career viable at leisure. Maybe in an El Salvador prison.
        
           | mindslight wrote:
           | You're being downvoted for making the point a bit obtusely,
           | but the general point is spot on. This culture of broadcast
           | sharing with some imagined singlular hivemind is an
           | opinionated policy, and certainly not the only way of
           | socially interacting. Many people view different groups of
           | friends as disparate communities and don't appreciate the
           | social context collapse of them mixing. And even if everyone
           | is friends, more people coming to an event doesn't always
           | make for a better time.
           | 
           | The one-community broadcast-everything model has been
           | embraced and encouraged by these surveillance-based
           | businesses who don't want you to think too hard why they are
           | also privy to all of your communications, and also want to
           | drive the maximum number of interactions for "engagement"
           | metrics. Non-corporate social media, "indie" web, and group
           | chats are much more natural organic patterns of
           | communication.
        
         | kcmastrpc wrote:
         | I've tried to incorporate the notion that it's none of my
         | business what other people think of me. I don't always get it
         | right, but having that attitude has helped tremendously on
         | reducing my cortisol levels.
        
           | ty6853 wrote:
           | This is a huge relief, but it does come at a cost. What other
           | people think of you is one of the largest inputs to access to
           | jobs, sexual partners, and likelihood you'll be referred or
           | witnessed against for prosecution for some inane zoning/HOA
           | ordinance or petty crime (whether you did it or not) because
           | you're not on someone's good side, etc etc. So the high
           | cortisol levels may be warranted from the Darwinist
           | perspective.
           | 
           | Having a good thing happen or preventing bad things from
           | happening sadly show up as high stakes butterfly effects of
           | the perverted social ranking and opinion games.
        
             | CrimsonCape wrote:
             | If you look at this from the perspective of the judicial
             | system, a huge part of the judicial process exists to
             | compel you to be physically present and in-person at a
             | court room.
             | 
             | On the other hand, social media is really the pinnacle of
             | "the court of public opinion"; people feel more comfortable
             | seeing what photos and social groups you appear in as
             | evidence of "who you are". He/she appears in <insert well
             | established group here> and therefore must be <well-
             | established person>.
        
         | tshaddox wrote:
         | I don't think that's a fair reading of the post. They're not
         | really complaining about particular friend dynamics where
         | they're trying to keep information away from one friend while
         | going out with another friend. The complaint is more about the
         | society-wide change in norms brought about by social media. I
         | don't think the author would complain about one close friend
         | calling another close friend and sharing information about a
         | trip the author was also on. The problem is that our modern
         | norms (and tech) lead to _everyone_ sharing _everything_ with a
         | large social network which includes many more people than an
         | individual would normally be able to share stories with in
         | person.
        
         | throwanem wrote:
         | > If you are having trouble with [social dynamics] as an adult
         | then it isn't really Instagram's fault.
         | 
         | Are you sure?
        
         | elric wrote:
         | Sure, people talk to each other and share stuff. That doesn't
         | magically make it ok for people to share stuff about you on a
         | (public?) instagram account. There's a huge difference between
         | those two dynamics.
         | 
         | It's fine to overshare as much of your life as you're
         | comfortable with. But we should be more mindful of how we
         | include others in this.
        
       | elAhmo wrote:
       | It is perfectly valid and fine thing to say to someone, as an
       | adult, that you don't want to be a part of their stories on
       | social media.
       | 
       | If they don't respect that, you need a new set of friends.
        
       | firefoxd wrote:
       | The social etiquette argument has been thrown away with the bath
       | water. You are now the weirdo with something to hide when you are
       | not on Instagram or Tiktok.
       | 
       | The term I like is Social Cooling, the subtle way in which people
       | change their behavior because they are both present in person and
       | online. Have you ever heard some use the term "unalive" in
       | person? It's as if they are protecting themselves from an
       | algorithm, as if the conversation will be posted online.
        
         | alwa wrote:
         | Have you had that experience, of being taken as a weirdo? We
         | may move in very different circles, but when I ask to be left
         | out of social media posts I'm always met with respect and
         | understanding, at least to my face.
         | 
         | If anything, in recent years, I'm met with something closer to
         | the respect people afford recovering addicts turning down
         | drinks: "oh man, I wish I were off of it too, good for you."
        
         | soupfordummies wrote:
         | Be the change you wanna see...
         | 
         | A lot of people thought non-drinkers were kinda weird a decade
         | or so ago when drinking wine on morning TV was popular. Now
         | half of the beer aisle is N/A offerings.
        
         | barbazoo wrote:
         | > You are now the weirdo with something to hide when you are
         | not on Instagram or Tiktok.
         | 
         | Definitely _not_ a universal feeling.
        
         | jjulius wrote:
         | >You are now the weirdo with something to hide when you are not
         | on Instagram or Tiktok.
         | 
         | You might call me a "weirdo", but this has absolutely not been
         | my experience whatsoever. Friends, family and coworkers don't
         | really give a shit that I don't participate in social media,
         | and I haven't been treated any differently for it.
         | 
         | Edit: And hell, generally, what's life without a bit of weird?
         | The homogeneity of everyone doing the same thing together all
         | the time sounds boring as hell. Here's to the weirdos!
        
           | mvdtnz wrote:
           | It just be a regional thing. I don't know a single person who
           | uses Instagram.
        
             | standardUser wrote:
             | Not even musicians, artists and the like? I have a lot of
             | friends who use Instagram at least partly for their
             | professional lives and hobbies.
        
               | AlexandrB wrote:
               | You're describing marketing, which seems like 90% of
               | posts on Instagram in 2025.
        
               | standardUser wrote:
               | Sure, it's how I learn about most of the music and art-
               | related events I go to. There's not really an equivalent
               | platform to get that kind of info. It would have to be a
               | mishmash of email newsletters and checking blogs, and
               | even then some people only promote on Instagram because
               | of it's market dominance.
        
               | mvdtnz wrote:
               | I'm talking about people who use it on a personal basis.
               | Yes my mum sends Instagram posts to market her embroidery
               | company. I don't care about marketing posts.
        
         | kube-system wrote:
         | > Have you ever heard some use the term "unalive" in person?
         | It's as if they are protecting themselves from an algorithm, as
         | if the conversation will be posted online.
         | 
         | Nobody is being socially pressured to avoid the word
         | "dead/died/killed" in person, that's just an illustration of
         | slang perpetuating.
        
         | standardUser wrote:
         | No one thinks it's weird. You'll likely have a harder time
         | making friends, flirting or networking for your career, but
         | it's absolutely not weird to not use social media these days.
        
       | netsharc wrote:
       | > Imagine a friend you were on a weekend trip with. This friend
       | talks with another common friend. This common friend could have
       | equally well been on that weekend trip because you like him or
       | her but, due to circumstances, as is life, you did not invite
       | him. You probably would feel uncomfortable with that first friend
       | talking about that trip as if it was the most awesome trip ever,
       | that everyone had non-stop fun and now everyone who was on that
       | trip are best friends for life.
       | 
       | I feel like this is an issue one just has to grow up past.
       | Walking on eggshells and deception so as not to hurt anyone's
       | feelings is an annoying way to live. (I preach as a sinner).
       | Related: https://www.theguardian.com/wellness/2025/apr/01/fringe-
       | frie...
       | 
       | As to Zuck's machine having your information, yeah I can imagine
       | if they bothered, they could see that there's always a person or
       | two in all the pictures that aren't associated with any of the
       | faces of the accounts, it can also determine what the friend
       | groups of this person are. Probably even determine their wealth
       | by their clothes, accessories, vacation locations, house ("Oh 5
       | users are gathered in a particular geolocation that is none of
       | their houses [which we know about because 95% of the time a phone
       | returns to a particular geolocation at night], and we can see
       | from the photos that that 'unregistered user' is with them", that
       | must be this user's house. Oh he lives in this neighborhood, that
       | has a median income of EUR xyz. A reverse lookup of addresses we
       | have because online shops upload their customer data to our
       | system determines that one of the people living in that address
       | is named Wouter Janleys, and from the shopping data he likes,
       | amongst other things, mid-range to expensive wines.".
       | 
       | I wonder if they can even advertise to you through your friends,
       | hah, that'd be a feature improvement for a Facebook project
       | manager. Start showing your friends wine ads a few weeks before
       | your birthday (as well as "It's Wouter's birthday in a few weeks"
       | and "Remember this photo?" which is a photo of the group with
       | glasses of wine)...
        
         | mhitza wrote:
         | > I wonder if they can even advertise to you through your
         | friends, hah,
         | 
         | Probably did so through shadow profiles
         | 
         | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_profile
        
       | ruined wrote:
       | meta and its social networks have been a disaster for the human
       | race
        
         | chelmzy wrote:
         | It's radicalizing as a twenty something who hasn't had social
         | media in over a decade. Almost everything revolves around it or
         | some friend Discord server. I hate it.
        
         | alex1138 wrote:
         | They needed to have proper defaults and they needed to let
         | their social network grow organically and they needed to have
         | an actual sane, proper, feed
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14147719
         | 
         | There's a reason everyone is on Facebook (one reason is that
         | everyone is on Facebook): Myspace legitimately shot themselves
         | in the foot (I guess Friendster too by lack of proper site
         | performance, even though it was cleaner) by having 'messy'
         | pages. There's real value in being able to find the people you
         | want/need to find by their real names (except, Google, maybe
         | don't you know, hijack people's Youtube accounts in order so
         | that they use Google+)
         | 
         | But then Facebook introduces shifting privacy settings, tagging
         | without permission, not giving people control over how
         | information is displayed generally
         | 
         | I understand it's about beating the competition and about
         | growing and 'connecting the world' but some companies' DNA is
         | set a certain way from the beginning
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1692122
        
       | johnklos wrote:
       | People who know me know that even though I'm very public (my
       | handle and my email address are my name, for instance), I care
       | about privacy, and therefore it's unacceptable to post abount me
       | on corporate social media without asking permission, just as they
       | also know to not name or tag me.
       | 
       | People who post without asking don't know me well enough to name
       | or tag me, so I don't care.
       | 
       | If someone posted and named / tagged me without asking, I'd have
       | a serious conversation with them about it.
       | 
       | We need to stop acting like others' ignorance gives them an
       | excuse to do things we don't want. "But everyone does it" is
       | bull, and we're doing people a disservice when we let things
       | slide because of that.
        
       | mjevans wrote:
       | Should it be allowed / legal to 'tag' people that are not part of
       | a service?
       | 
       | I might agree that 'celebrities' and leaders of larger
       | organizations are 'public figures' and thus if there's a
       | reasonable public interest it should be allowed to tag them,
       | probably with a publishing delay for security.
       | 
       | However individuals? Random citizens who aren't part of a
       | platform and cannot manage their data? IMO the default should be
       | deny data collection and do not profile.
        
         | simiones wrote:
         | I don't think the problem raised in the article is limited to
         | tagging. Friend A can recognize me in a picture from friend B
         | regardless of whether I'm tagged there or not.
         | 
         | Then again, this is a pretty obscure problem, or more of a
         | "problem".
        
           | abirch wrote:
           | Something that is scary is Clearview AI, etc. Then you don't
           | need a person to recognize you, AI can do it. Add in Meta
           | Rayban and it'll be harder and harder to maintain any shred
           | of privacy.
        
         | mrweasel wrote:
         | What happens if you don't have an Instagram account, write to
         | them and demand that they take down images of you, or provide
         | you with all the images you appear in? Some level of this seems
         | to be provided for by the GDPR and the EUs right to be
         | forgotten.
        
         | bobismyuncle wrote:
         | Tagging will be redundant pretty soon with facial
         | recognition...
        
       | steveBK123 wrote:
       | One of my "its probably time to quit IG" moments prior to
       | quitting 3 years involved being on a condo board.
       | 
       | A resident sent a petition asking for a variance from the bylaws,
       | and part of the pitch was "well I saw XYZ on your IG so I thought
       | you'd approve of this".
       | 
       | Uhh thanks, rejected.. blocked on IG, quit IG, bye.
        
       | timcobb wrote:
       | This reminded me of the time ~10 years ago I was at an event
       | featuring Richard Stallman, and he started by say that no one was
       | allowed to post photos of him on FB. This was to a room of
       | hundreds of people, mostly hackers. I thought, "damn, if there's
       | an uphill battle somewhere, this guy will find it!"
        
         | lostmsu wrote:
         | In US, if that was a private event, his request is legally
         | binding.
        
           | bobismyuncle wrote:
           | How would this work in practice if it was litigated? Wouldn't
           | you need proof that this was expressly communicated to the
           | specific individual that violated and that they did so
           | knowingly? Seems like it probably isn't enforceable...
        
             | lostmsu wrote:
             | In this case I think it might be, because if the event was
             | recorded presumably so was the request to not share.
        
           | paxys wrote:
           | Unless you agreed to the terms before buying your ticket, no,
           | it isn't legally binding.
        
             | lvass wrote:
             | What if entering that room was free as in beer?
        
             | kube-system wrote:
             | RMS prefers his events to be open to the public
        
             | lostmsu wrote:
             | I may have been wrong in that RMS does not have that power,
             | but the property owner does. Not sure if this is a
             | universal rule or not.
        
               | amanaplanacanal wrote:
               | I think the only legal recourse the property owner has is
               | to kick you out.
        
           | malfist wrote:
           | Unless they signed NDAs to get into the room with him, it's
           | not. You're welcome to share the legal code, or a court case
           | that proves me wrong though.
        
           | immibis wrote:
           | According to what law?
        
         | delusional wrote:
         | Knowing Richard Stallman he didn't ask for you not to upload
         | them to Facebook but rather "Disgracebook", "FaceBurgler" or
         | something like that.
        
         | procaryote wrote:
         | You allowed to have boundaries even if there's a few assholes
         | who won't respect them
        
           | accrual wrote:
           | In this example RMS made a _request_ to the audience. A
           | boundary would be something like  "if you post photos of me
           | to Facebook, you won't be invited to my conferences" or "if
           | you do X, I won't interact with you". Might be difficult to
           | enforce, but that's on the person making the boundary.
        
             | reverendsteveii wrote:
             | That's the defining feature of a boundary: you don't
             | actually tell people what to do. You just tell them what
             | you'll do. "Don't talk to me like that" is an ask, "Talk to
             | me like that again and I'll leave" is a boundary.
        
         | II2II wrote:
         | On the flip side: if I were to attend an event featuring
         | Richard Stallman, I would rather it have a no-photos policy. I
         | am interested in many of his ideas, but I have no desire to be
         | associated with his ideas in their entirety or any public
         | figure. Unfortunately, too many people believe that A implies
         | B.
         | 
         | I also _hate_ drama, and would much rather lead a quiet life as
         | a person no one likes than an interesting life who some people
         | dislike.
        
           | timcobb wrote:
           | People will dislike you arbitrarily anyway. Can't get around
           | that it seems in my experience. There aren't many of these
           | guys out there
           | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Sharp_(politician),
           | and I bet plenty of people hated this guy too. But hey! To
           | each their own!!
        
       | mvdtnz wrote:
       | He wants to hang out with friends, but he wants his friends to
       | never speak of it with their other friends?
        
       | zombitack wrote:
       | After being friends with public people, I got in the habit of
       | asking people in pictures before I post, regardless of if they're
       | on Instagram or not. And I NEVER post kid pictures. I find these
       | rules should be obvious to most people. I'll even ask my wife
       | first, who is always just about to post the same set of pictures
       | I am. It's the decent thing to do.
        
         | noman-land wrote:
         | How often do you get a no?
        
           | hoherd wrote:
           | I take personal pride in how many of my friends have online
           | avatars that are candid portraits that I took of them while
           | we were out doing whatever, and I have had numerous people
           | contact me and ask me to remove all of their photos. In the
           | past sometimes it was "replace my name in the tags with a
           | pseudonym" but now it's "remove them all." This all happened
           | before AI took over, so you can imagine how relieved many of
           | those people are in the age of deepfakes. Candid portraits
           | are my favorite kind of photo to take, but sadly in the
           | modern age, I've chosen to take down almost all of my
           | portraits. I still have a self-hosted photo sharing software
           | set up that I personally use to look through my collection
           | and can share past memories with people, including lots of
           | portraits I would have previously posted online, but I think
           | most people and I have our guard up against AI crawlers. AI
           | crawlers have made the web much more hostile than it was in
           | the past.
        
           | elric wrote:
           | Not the original commenter, but my friends are aware of my
           | picture preferences (as in: get that camera out of my face).
           | I always say "no", and most people I know are fine with that.
           | 
           | There are (or so I've been informed) some pictures of me on
           | Facebook and Instagram. I don't have an account on either
           | website so I can't see those pictures or even request to have
           | them removed. Those were posted by the kind of older
           | relatives who are impossible to educate on anything
           | technology- (or consent-) related, and occasionally by
           | friends-of-friends who snapped a pic while I was unawares.
           | 
           | Whenever I take a picture of anyone, I always ask first, and
           | I never post them anywhere public. Feels like common decency
           | to me, but there is obviously no such thing as universal
           | common decency, so YMMV.
        
       | panstromek wrote:
       | A think this is partly why a lot of this activity moved into
       | private group chats, where it's more naturally segregated by
       | social circles. Most people around me are pretty active on social
       | media but vast majority of that activity is not in the public
       | profile.
        
       | imaginationra wrote:
       | A nothing post from a blog with a single post.
       | 
       | Its marketing and its boring.
        
       | cess11 wrote:
       | I expect people to ask me before they publish documentation of
       | where I've been and what I did on services like Instagram, and I
       | usually decline the offer. Is this considered unreasonable
       | elsewhere?
        
       | wormius wrote:
       | This sounds like it should be an AITA post on reddit based on the
       | comments in this thread.
        
       | strathmeyer wrote:
       | Does anyone want to socialize but not have to socialize? I know I
       | sure do / don't.
        
       | nalekberov wrote:
       | I'm visiting Instagram lately only to see funny reels sent from
       | my friends. My Instagram timeline is consisting of 90%
       | influencers and life coaches, who is going to tell me my life
       | sucks because I don't do what they have to tell me to do and 10%
       | my friends.
        
       | Funes- wrote:
       | This bothered me a lot in the past. I want to be in full control
       | of any information that is on the Internet concerning myself.
       | Some of the people I know will add an appeasing comment before
       | taking a picture: "don't worry, I won't upload it anywhere!", but
       | most people will just post it willy-nilly all the same.
       | 
       | By the way, during last Monday's blackout in Spain, I had a sense
       | of this kind of burden being lifted from the atmosphere... the
       | idea of nobody having the ability to record and publish anything
       | anymore (for the duration of the blackout, at least), was quite
       | interesting... relieving, even.
        
       | alistairSH wrote:
       | Approaching zero of my friends are on Meta any more. Most have
       | inactive accounts; a few have canceled outright. Those that are
       | "active" are mostly limited to wishing each other happy birthday.
       | 
       | Afaic, Meta pretty much killed their platforms by pumping rage-
       | bait clicks instead of social content.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2025-05-05 23:01 UTC)