According to Instances.social QOTO currently federates with 5,532 other instances in the fediverse. You might ask how it is possible that that number is larger than the total number of instances known (108% of all instances, 5,114 instances total).
Thats because not only do we federate with all instances and have one of the largest views of the entire fediverse, but we have been doing this so long we even have old connections with instances that have since shutdown.
Furthermore #QOTO invests a lot on infrastructure to ensure that we retain a cache of **all** toots from around the fediverse and we enable full-text search. This means our users are able to search more of the fediverse, even servers that have since shutdown still have their toots in our archives.
It costs us a lot in hosting costs but thanks to generous donators and a large fund we can provide these services long into the future. We think it is worth it, and we hope you will too!
@aeveltstra Every server in the fediverse has your data, it was posted publicly and as doing so there is implied consent that other servers can federate with you. Most server do not clear their cache (as this tends to cause images and other things to break).
The best way to ensure your data is not shared with other servers is to simply make your posts follow-only. You can also block any domain you don't wish to federate with.
Though sadly due to the nature of federated networks this request is rather hard to comply with.
With that said if you'd like your data removed, and if mastodon provides an easy administrative option to do so, then I would be most happy to remove it. No need for the request to be legal. I'd be happy to investigate if mastodon software provides an option to selectively remove cached data from a single user without effecting other user's data.
@aeveltstra Please let us know if this is, in fact, a request for take down. In the meantime I will be research how to do it, assuming it is possible. If I don't hear back no action will be taken either way.
@QOTO Thank you! No, this is not, at this moment, a request for take-down. I would love to know you have a policy in place on the matter, should the situation occur in the future.
@aeveltstra We don't only because this is the first time you asked. But I am now bringing up with the admins adding an official policy to our ToS and make it easy for people to opt-out if they request it. Obviously I need to research how this is done technically and how feasible it is (if it isnt maybe i can modify the code tomake it feasable).
But since this appears to be something that concerns at least some people (well one but i assume others might feel as you do) I would like to ensure your wishes are respected.
As a side note ONLY public toots, toots that would have been viewable by the person in the first place, are searchable. A person obviously can not search private toots in our cache if they wouldnt otherwise have access to it.
@QOTO Excellent. Much appreciated!
@aeveltstra Happy to help.
@QOTO No. No, I don't. Quite the opposite, actually. Do you accept legal data take-down orders? And how long does it take you to comply?