It's definitely not impossible to contact all instances; it's a finite list. But we should have a tool to make this easier. Something that can take a given username or post, do a search, find out all the instances that it federated-to, get the contact for all of those instances, and then send-out a formal "GDPR Erasure Request" to all of the relevant admins.

Did you read the article and the feedback that you've received from your other users?

Any FOSS platform has capacity issues. I run my own FOSS projects with zero grant funds and where I'm the only developer. I understand this issue.

What we're talking about here is prioritization. My point is that you should not prioritize "new features" when existing features are a legal, moral, and grave financial risk to your community. And this isn't just "my priority" -- it's clearly been shown that this is the desired priority of your community.

Please prioritize your GDPR issues.

Very nice. Unfortunately it doesn't look like Boost is available on F-Droid.

Fortunately, in my case, my image was "orphaned" and never actually attached to a post or comment, so it wouldn't have federated.

If the image has already federated then that's a whole next level problem :(

Unfortunately, the Lemmy devs literally said it would take years to fix this issue. If you think this should be a priority for them, please advocate for them to prioritize it on GitHub:

https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/4433

Hi, unfortunate author here 😅

The issue happened in Jerboa. I opened a few tickets in the Jerboa app's GitHub to address this:

Can you please tell us which Lemmy client apps you use that store the delete token and have a UI to delete uploaded images?

This is a big problem. At the time of writing:

Users cannot delete their images on Lemmy
If a user deletes their account, their images don't get deleted
There is no WUI for admins to delete images on Lemmy
It is very difficult for admins to find & delete images on Lemmy (via the CLI)
The Lemmy team didn't bother documenting how admins can delete images on Lemmy

How to purge images in Lemmy

pict-rs is a third-party simple image hosting service that runs along-side Lemmy for instances that allow users to upload media.

At the time of writing, there is no WUI for admins to find and delete images. You have to manually query the pict-rs database and execute an API call from the command-line. Worse: Lemmy has no documentation telling instance admins how to delete images 🤦

For the purposes of this example, lets assume youre trying to delete the following image

    
https://monero.town/pictrs/image/001665df-3b25-415f-8a59-3d836bb68dd1.webp

There are two API endpoints in pict-rs that can be used to delete an image

Method One: /image/delete/{delete_token}/{alias}

This API call is publicly-accessible, but it first requires you to obtain the images delete_token

The delete_token is first returned by Lemmy when POSTing to the /pictrs/image endpoint

    
{
   "msg":"ok",
   "files":[
      {
         "file":"001665df-3b25-415f-8a59-3d836bb68dd1.webp",
         "delete_token":"d88b7f32-a56f-4679-bd93-4f334764d381"
      }
   ]
}

Two pieces of information are returned here:

file (aka the alias) is the server filename of the uploaded image
delete_token is the token needed to delete the image

Of course, if you didnt capture this images delete_token at upload-time, then you must fetch it from the postgres DB.

First, open a shell on your running postgres container. If you installed Lemmy with docker compose, use docker compose ps to get the SERVICE name of your postgres host, and then enter it with docker exec

    
docker compose ps --format "table {{.Service}}\t{{.Image}}\t{{.Name}}"
docker compose exec <docker_service_name> /bin/bash

For example:

    
user@host:/home/user/lemmy# docker compose ps --format "table {{.Service}}\t{{.Image}}\t{{.Name}}"
SERVICE    IMAGE                            NAME
lemmy      dessalines/lemmy:0.19.3          lemmy-lemmy-1
lemmy-ui   dessalines/lemmy-ui:0.19.3       lemmy-lemmy-ui-1
pictrs     docker.io/asonix/pictrs:0.5.4    lemmy-pictrs-1
postfix    docker.io/mwader/postfix-relay   lemmy-postfix-1
postgres   docker.io/postgres:15-alpine     lemmy-postgres-1
proxy      docker.io/library/nginx          lemmy-proxy-1
user@host:/home/user/lemmy# 

user@host:/home/user/lemmy# docker compose exec postgres /bin/bash
postgres:/#

Connect to the database as the lemmy user

    
psql -U lemmy

For example

    
postgres:/# psql -U lemmy
psql (15.5)
Type "help" for help.

lemmy=#

Query for the image by the alias (the filename)

    
select * from image_upload where pictrs_alias = '<image_filename>';

For example

    
lemmy=# select * from image_upload where pictrs_alias = '001665df-3b25-415f-8a59-3d836bb68dd1.webp';
 local_user_id | pictrs_alias | pictrs_delete_token | published 
---------------+--------------+---------------------+-----------
1149 | 001665df-3b25-415f-8a59-3d836bb68dd1.webp | d88b7f32-a56f-4679-bd93-4f334764d381 | 2024-02-07 11:10:17.158741+00
(1 row)

lemmy=#

Now, take the pictrs_delete_token from the above output, and use it to delete the image.

The following command should be able to be run on any computer connected to the internet.

    
curl -i "https://<instance_domain>/pictrs/image/delete/<pictrs_delete_token>/<image_filename>"

For example:

    
user@disp9140:~$ curl -i "https://monero.town/pictrs/image/delete/d88b7f32-a56f-4679-bd93-4f334764d381/001665df-3b25-415f-8a59-3d836bb68dd1.webp"

HTTP/2 204 No Content
server: nginx
date: Fri, 09 Feb 2024 15:37:48 GMT
vary: Origin, Access-Control-Request-Method, Access-Control-Request-Headers
cache-control: private
referrer-policy: same-origin
x-content-type-options: nosniff
x-frame-options: DENY
x-xss-protection: 1; mode=block
X-Firefox-Spdy: h2
user@disp9140:~$

ⓘ Note: If you get an incorrect_login error, then try a logging into the instance in your web browser and then b pasting the https://<instance_domain>/pictrs/image/delete/<pictrs_delete_token>/<image_filename> URL into your web browser.

The image should be deleted.

Method Two: /internal/purge?alias={alias}

Alternatively, you could execute the deletion directly inside the pictrs container. This eliminates the need to fetch the delete_token.

First, open a shell on your running pictrs container. If you installed Lemmy with docker compose, use docker compose ps to get the SERVICE name of your postgres host, and then enter it with docker exec

    
docker compose ps --format "table {{.Service}}\t{{.Image}}\t{{.Name}}"
docker compose exec <docker_service_name> /bin/sh

For example:

    
user@host:/home/user/lemmy# docker compose ps --format "table {{.Service}}\t{{.Image}}\t{{.Name}}"
SERVICE    IMAGE                            NAME
lemmy      dessalines/lemmy:0.19.3          lemmy-lemmy-1
lemmy-ui   dessalines/lemmy-ui:0.19.3       lemmy-lemmy-ui-1
pictrs     docker.io/asonix/pictrs:0.5.4    lemmy-pictrs-1
postfix    docker.io/mwader/postfix-relay   lemmy-postfix-1
postgres   docker.io/postgres:15-alpine     lemmy-postgres-1
proxy      docker.io/library/nginx          lemmy-proxy-1
user@host:/home/user/lemmy# 

user@host:/home/user/lemmy# docker compose exec pictrs /bin/sh
~ $

Execute the following command inside the pictrs container.

    
wget --server-response --post-data "" --header "X-Api-Token: ${PICTRS__SERVER__API_KEY}" "http://127.0.0.1:8080/internal/purge?alias=<image_filename>"

For example:

    
~ $ wget --server-response --post-data "" --header "X-Api-Token: ${PICTRS__SERVER__API_KEY}" "http://127.0.0.1:8080/internal/purge?alias=001665df-3b25-415f-8a59-3d836bb68dd1.webp"
Connecting to 127.0.0.1:8080 (127.0.0.1:8080)
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-length: 67
connection: close
content-type: application/json
date: Wed, 14 Feb 2024 12:56:24 GMT

saving to 'purge?alias=001665df-3b25-415f-8a59-3d836bb68dd1.webp'
purge?alias=001665df 100% |*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************| 67 0:00:00 ETA
'purge?alias=001665df-3b25-415f-8a59-3d836bb68dd1.webp' saved

~ $

ⓘ Note: Theres an error in the pict-rs reference documentation. It says you can POST to /internal/delete, but that just returns 404 Not Found.

The image should be deleted

Attribution

This comment was copied from the following article: Nightmare on Lemmy Street (A Fediverse GDPR Horror Story)

| |:--:| | Nightmare on Lemmy Street (A Fediverse GDPR Horror Story) |

https://tech.michaelaltfield.net/2024/03/04/lemmy-fediverse-gdpr/

This seems to suggest that you have to get it from lemmy when you first uploaded the image

https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/505#issuecomment-583784057

Thanks, but I'm asking because I didn't find the reference documentation especially helpful.

It says I need the "delete token" or "alias". How do I get that for a given URL?

I'm looking for an example that describes how to construct the commands for the API calls knowing only the URL of the image.

Thanks for your kind words :) All design-work began ~6-months ago. It takes time to research, design, and then document.

We are already working with one community to build the Eco-Libre Life-Line.

Currently we're just two people. If you'd like to help, please contact us

No, please do not deactivate downvote functionality.

(I say this as someone who has received a lot of downvotes; they're useful feedback that I appreciate)

Also, monero.town is currently a recommended instance on awesome-lemmy-instances (at the time there's only 7 recommended instances, and monero.town is one). If this instance deactivates downvote functionality, it will no longer be recommended as downvote functionality is one of the requirements for recommendation.

You definitely can do that, but if you're afraid that you might stand-up and forget you're using it, then you probably shouldn't.

It's probably enough to just use the default trigger that locks your screen. Or, once you get comfortable with it, set it to shut down your computer. Most people don't need to shred their FDE keys, unless they're facing torture.

In fact, we make it difficult to use "destructive" triggers (like the LUKS Header Shredder that wipes the FDE header) and intentionally do not include the ability to switch to it in the app. To use it, you have to do a lot of extra work. So most users don't have this issue.

Why? It defaults to just locking your screen. So you stand-up, the magnetic breakaway cable separates, and then you just have to type your password...

If you're the type of person that would forget to lock your computer before standing up and walking away, then it's exactly what you'd want.

Can you elaborate on the phone-friendly point? I spent a long time translating it to markdown so the contents would be lemmy-native and also the source article's website is responsive.

Thank you for your input, but I think it's worth mentioning that that's absolutely not true.

To be clear: I'm not asking for a no-KYC solution. I'm happy to auth with my company's official government-issued registration records, with my personal government-issued ID, etc.

I'm not aware of any regulations that require a phone number. There are regulations (eg UK's PSD2) that effectively require 2FA -- and many banks chose to implement this requirement via phone numbers.

Hopefully one day the regulations will explicitly prohibit 2FA OTPs from being transmitted at all (ie so banks are forced to use secure 2FA methods like TOTP or U2F instead of insecure methods like SMS, email, etc). But currently I'm not aware of any KYC regulations that require a phone number from the customer.

Thanks for PMing me. I've left my comments here

https://monero.town/post/1146423

In addition to being vouched-for by ProxyStore, we also have the green check box on Monerica. If you have specific criticisms of our product, please let us know. Mostly we've got "you're a scam because everything blockchain is a scam." -- but I would expect better from the monero community.

Not sure how providing journalists, activists, human rights defenders, crypto traders, etc with open-source hardware kill cords makes us illegitimate..

Sorry folks, just seeing this. Obviously I do not think I've posted spam.

I only post at most one link per month. I have no idea how one could consider publishing content that infrequently to be spam.
I post once in every relevant community on lemmy. Again, that's not spam; that's the nature of the fediverse. As there's so many "world news" communities, I am pretty annoyed when users don't take the time to post a link to an important news story to all of the "world news" comms.
Obviously many communities found value in my posts, as can be seen by the upvotes.

I make an effort to only post to communities that I think the article is relevant-to. But If someone thinks that an article is not relevant to the community in which it was posted, they can downvote it. That's what the button is for.

You associate everything that can be bought with cryptocurrency as a scam? It sounds like you haven't even read the post. I spent a lot of time making it easily accessible here on Lemmy. You don't even have to click the link. Just scroll-up and read :)

Yes, it's clearly disclosed in my profile that I am the founder of the BusKill project.

This is a PSA that our sale has started. I've had inquiries from members of our community asking about Black Friday sales.

10% off is barely any discount anyway.

Sorry, we're a very small open-source shop. I’ve paid myself nothing so-far. The price just barely breaks-even for the business.

All of this is explained in-detail in “The Finances” section here.

Prices would drop dramatically if we could do production runs (and actually sell) >10,000 units at a time. Currently we only sell a few cables per month. If you want to help, please tell all your security-conscious friends about BusKill :)

How to purge images in Lemmy

Method One: /image/delete/{delete_token}/{alias}

Method Two: /internal/purge?alias={alias}

Further Reading

Attribution