@volkris Say more what you mean...

@freeschool those notices will do nothing to stop a company from vacuuming up your postings to help build their marketing profiles of you or train AI or whatever.

They will be more content to put in their databases, though.

@volkris This was written for someone elsewhere and edit a bit - so I just paste it mostly just for the constructive points which I'd love if you counter to...

"...so let me say MASTODON IS BEING DATA SCRAPED (you find a copy in google search regularly) which might be new to you or not but I'm not happy about it - SO by your own logic if they don't give a fuck, just being on Mastodon counts for less (and it's usefulness getting almost to near-0 as time goes on unless people DO SOMETHING ABOUT DATA-SCRAPING.)

I think you probably are doing something about it - but if your logic is do less or near-0 about it (if that's the case) you are out of your fucking mind that just being on Mastodon is not going to help while external forces close in and people rely on what Mastodon was / started out as, but the masses just turned it into the next Twitter with millions of YouTube and Google links per day, so by the millions almost the same mass-media farming, feeding all the same big websites... and Gargron telling me he doesn't even need to recommend better links to people almost like not recommending his own software (like alternatives of #nitter / #invidious etc to filter / redirect exactly the same links and lessen / nullify the add / tracking damage FROM Mastodon) so from top down this "Mastodon is the answer" might just end up as another feeder to those BigTech / Newspaper / American silicon valley type things... And BigTech even acknowledging Mastodon or ActivityPub is a sure sign they will have plans to do the same shit here... And then "people" (maybe you) might just expect to move to 'the next thing' BUT ONLY when it gets unbearable and beyond repair and clear what is happening (which is why I have contacted people to say "Not another ad-farm platform using your instance / not another take over funded by all these links by us?" or "your movement is only as strong as you users?". These I feel have no doubt to their practice truth? (say no if you don't believe it's true)

So probably you know some of this - but isn't it true YOU HAVE TO FIGHT / DEFEND YOUR GROUND MUCH EARLIER OR RIGHT NOW? If you're doing that in some other way please say - please educate us.
Really I would like to learn AND DO.

Else JUST TALKING ABOUT IT is also kinda of without action (and can be even worse).

Even for the people who agree and are just like you talking only, not putting NO CONSENT for things might be limited or useless, but at least easy to do and visually evident as your responsibility / saying no does have legal weight... ok it might not come down to that but cover yourself / give it a chance... NOT DOING has no weight. and not doing it is reckless - almost letting them in with that logic of "they are too big to fail, let's not stand in their way a bit"... why lock the door if they get in through the window. You got to make is harder or clearer andcheck yourself with minimal responsibility otherwise what are you doing?...

Some people (maybe you) almost sound like a Facebook person to say "why bother clicking off these options or checking all these things and even why come off Facebook because Meta or Google they still data scrape elsewhere etc. So you're here and that gives indication you know somewhat, but you can't just stop there.

At least to back up what you talk about - do your side .

Mastodon without us is going down (maybe with us too if link habits don't change), and yes it doesn't help that admins or developers don't seem to mind the data-scraping as they could even add it in the footer of the Mastodon template.
One of the instances or #Law groups could sue one day with all the collective evidence accumulated later...

We need to prep for that Law scenario or whatever is the right way that helps, even if we don't know how things are going to be used for our benefit now.

If you don't say NO you can very much seem like you're ok with it instead and people assume it isn't a problem... "

@freeschool again, my point is that posting these things is worse than unhelpful, if anything they actually contribute to the scraping.

This IS a platform where you broadcast content to anyone who wants it, including companies scraping. That's just the reality, and if you don't want to be doing that, then you don't want to be on this platform.

It's like using a bullhorn and then complaining that people can hear you. Don't use the bullhorn if you don't want to be heard.

To broadcast these notices not only doesn't stop the broadcast, but it sends more content into the scrapers, which is apparently the opposite of what so many want to do.

@volkris Ok got the point and agree. Does it then break this point if the same time about *this* topic and less sensitive one warns others about the scrapings... (ok no need copy it to your bio etc but just warning?)

@freeschool I hope so.

The ax that I grind is that so many people use this platform without realizing just how open it is to scraping, just how little privacy there is here, and just how open they are being to the whole world.

As long as people are aware of that, great! They can make the informed decision about whether they use this platform or not. But unfortunately I come across a lot of people who don't know that there really is no privacy control here at all.

So yeah, spread the word! Anything a person puts here is probably going to be scraped, even if they try to set it to private or whatever, and they need to be aware of that if they continue to use this platform.

@volkris I have to be honest it's not clear to people from the start that ***Mastodon is on Google*** and as Alternative Software it isn't what they would be reasonably assumed / expect as alternative itself.

Even by those who know a bit more than the average, it's like "oh they actually bother to copy all this as well, faaaaa"

So yes if aware a bit better - They can make the informed decision about whether they use this platform or not, or how they use it with consideration it's on Google also.

AND ADMINS for me are interestingly not doing much...
The fact many Admins don't actually seem to want to defend against this is interesting...

❓ Are there any out there that make it clear as an instance / individual / for their users / anything (?) that you know of... ?