Admin of an anarchist Mastodon server raided by FBI, insecure user data gets seized
www.neowin.net
An anarchist-oriented Mastodon server has seen one of its admins raided by the FBI. The admin in question was working with an unencrypted backup of the Mastodon server, which was also seized.

This is a post from theATL.social mastodon admin:

TL;DR:

  • A Mastodon server’s data in the US was seized by law enforcement due to actions of a server admin. theATL.social users are reminded that no presumption of privacy regarding their content should be made.
  • In the event that such a situation occurs, theATL.social must comply with any lawful request for information from law enforcement in the United States and State of Georgia.

Recent news in the Mastodon-universe reported that an instance’s (kolectiva.social) backups and equipment were seized by law enforcement in the US (see attached URL). The instance in question noted that their backups were not encrypted and thus announced both the seizure and that data on all server activity was now being reviewed and analyzed by law enforcement.

It is important for all theATL.social users to be aware that with the exception of personal data, login information, and passwords, content (including DMs) posted to the instance should be considered as public information. In otherwords, there is no expectation of privacy when you post content, pictures, or data to yall.theatl.social or theatl.social.

If any Mastodon server is located in the United States, they too are bound by the laws of the United States and their respective State. Moreover, the nature of the Mastodon service on the Fediverse results in content being duplicated on servers across the world.

Once you put information on the internet, that information cannot be deleted or removed. Ever.

While under Section 230, I (@michael) am not responsible for content posted on theATL.social, that law does not curtail any lawful requests from law enforcement to me, regarding information contained on theATL.social’s servers.

The server rules’ prohibitions against violence (or advocacy of violence) and against illegal activity in the State of Georgia and the United States (or advocacy of such activity) are intended to both ensure civil conversation and interactions, and to not create serious situations through which law enforcement is compelled to intervene.

theATL.social provides a wide berth for people to interact and discuss their viewpoints across a wide spectrum of political, personal and ideological beliefs. This is a good thing. There have been some very intense conversations about policies and politics in Atlanta of which I was proud to host on the instance.

With that in mind, however, all users are responsible for their own content and no user should assume absolute anonymity or privacy regarding their communiciations.

  • bayportEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    OhMyGerd what a dumpster fire.

    It just occurred to me that we/mastodon users should have no expectation of data privacy since it’s an open internet ethos, but ironically we do have an expectation that our data not be used for algorithmic marketing… it’s like we’re trying to have it both ways, lol

    • michaelOPMAEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      Indeed. I wrote this because sometimes political debates get a bit heated, and people can write things that they may regret. Law enforcement’s interest in kolectiva.social showed that federal and state authorities are very much aware of Mastodon and are willing to compel instance owners to turn over data.

      Personally, I don’t want to ever have to deal with that sort of situation, and I would not want any user to write something in haste that can have life-altering consequences.

      theATL.social is obviously a small fish in a larger fish of servers, but I just wanted users to be fully aware that they themselves are ultimately responsible for their content, and that there is absolutely no presumption of privacy when users post their content, posts, etc.