It would depend on whether I thought the service was run by some entity that was trying to harvest data or was genuinely providing a free service without collecting any data.
@virtuous_sloth Yep, this is exactly me. SO many social media platforms want to get access to all your contacts to show you where your friends are, but I'd want something more targeted and privacy-first,
@jessamyn I would look for what their funding model appears to be. That is a huge ball of wax, but I think many people understand the heuristics by now.
e.g. If it is VC funded, then it will eventually sell your personal information.
If it is open source but also has a main hosted instance, I would look to how the main developers are funded and how the main instance is paid for.
If it is built as part of some federated and distributed protocol, like ActivityPub, I would likely trust.
@virtuous_sloth I agree. I'd also be looking for a place that is located in the EU because I think part of GDPR compliance is making sure that data can be deleted on request so they are more likely to have ways of doing that (and have thought about it already) and could build it in to a tool.
@virtuous_sloth @jessamyn a lot of interesting results. for both of you, if you knew that the service was only keeping hashes of identifying data, would that be meaningful?
@jessamyn I'm having trouble envisioning how it would end up connecting two people. I mean, it could see that it could match the hashes but unless we live-connect and say "match us" because I have the hash of someone's phone number and it hands one of us the IP of the other, I can't see how it connects us only using hashes.
@virtuous_sloth @jessamyn two steps. First, I go to the service and share my phone number. It confirms that I control that # by sending a text with a code. I opt in to allow anyone who knows my phone number to find my Fediverse handle. The service stores the hash of my phone number and my Fediverse handle.
@virtuous_sloth @jessamyn second, you let an app look through your phone contacts. It hashes each phone number and asks, do you have a Fediverse handle for the person whose phone number hashes to this value. It says yes and returns my Fediverse handle, which the app uses to initiate a connection.
@jessamyn Ah, ok, I was not incorrect in my thinking. They need to store at least your account identifier in the clear to be able to send it to matches. That and learning the phone number for at least as long as it takes to prove you own it and likely forever to be able to repudiate it later if you drop that number, it later gets reassigned, and the new owner wants to use it with the service. At that point the new user would want you to not 'have' it.
@Lazarou I did exactly that during the November 2022 twitter migration, before Dilbert Stark killed the external API and the find-your-twitter-tribe-in-the-fediverse services.
Nope. If I want to know the fediverse accounts of someone I know, I'll ask them. I neither need or want a service which aggregates contact information, especially given the tendency of such services to become sources of spam and scamming, whether intentionally or not.
@mardor what if your contacts never left your local device? what if you knew the operators of the service, at least by reputation? what if client and server are open source?
Still no. I would have to provide personal information of other people to this service. This information was not meant to be given away. What might be imaginable was a download of a list of all users of a service and a local search for matching accounts.
I probably wouldn't use it directly (because if people I know have joined the Fediverse, it's usually either that I met them there or I was the one who made the join 😅)
But I'd still sign up to make things easy for other people whom I get onboard, so that *they* can easily find new users the way they're used to 🔍
(In fact it's the same reason I've registered my number on #Quicksy for #XMPP folks)
I answered qualified yes, but rethinking it, I think it's realistically a strong no. I like the idea, but I like having boundaries regarding who follows me among people I know in real life.
I think trust and consent are key. Trustable entity running the service. Opt in only ( I don't think it could work reliably otherwise.). open source. No permanent storage of data, and preferably no in the clear data shared with the service at all.
I think it could be very compatible with an invitation service. Connect to people I know who have Fediverse handles registered. For those who don't have handles, optionally (opt in) send an email or text inviting them to join and automatically connect.
I think there might be a selection bias, especially with such a short poll duration: anyone who hasn’t found enough of a social graph probably isn’t on here frequently enough to have seen the poll. I like not having algorithmic promotion but it means news spreads slower, and I think the death of Twitter also lead many people to reconsider their relationship with social media in general.
like in most things, I feel deeply unqualified, but I'm picking "qualified no" because I know that sort of thing has definitely helped a lot of people out in the earlier Twitter migrations.
Adriano
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Abigail
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Evan Prodromou
in reply to Abigail • • •Abigail
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Pelle Wessman
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Nathan Lowell (he/him)
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •I need the find the people I don't know yet but might like to.
So far, the one I have seems to be working pretty well. 🤪
Tak!
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Bruce Elrick
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Jessamyn
in reply to Bruce Elrick • • •Evan Prodromou
in reply to Jessamyn • • •Bruce Elrick
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •@jessamyn
I would look for what their funding model appears to be. That is a huge ball of wax, but I think many people understand the heuristics by now.
e.g.
If it is VC funded, then it will eventually sell your personal information.
If it is open source but also has a main hosted instance, I would look to how the main developers are funded and how the main instance is paid for.
If it is built as part of some federated and distributed protocol, like ActivityPub, I would likely trust.
Jessamyn
in reply to Bruce Elrick • • •Bruce Elrick
in reply to Jessamyn • • •Evan Prodromou
in reply to Bruce Elrick • • •Bruce Elrick
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •@jessamyn
I'm having trouble envisioning how it would end up connecting two people. I mean, it could see that it could match the hashes but unless we live-connect and say "match us" because I have the hash of someone's phone number and it hands one of us the IP of the other, I can't see how it connects us only using hashes.
Or are the account identifiers not hashed?
Evan Prodromou
in reply to Bruce Elrick • • •Evan Prodromou
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Bruce Elrick
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •@jessamyn
Ah, ok, I was not incorrect in my thinking. They need to store at least your account identifier in the clear to be able to send it to matches. That and learning the phone number for at least as long as it takes to prove you own it and likely forever to be able to repudiate it later if you drop that number, it later gets reassigned, and the new owner wants to use it with the service. At that point the new user would want you to not 'have' it.
So not nothing but fairly minimal.
Rémi du Nord
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Evan Prodromou
in reply to Rémi du Nord • • •Charlie Stross
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Jakub Klawiter :mastodon:
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •By giving read access to my "contacts" or something like that?
NO! NEVER! 😁
In other way? Who knows…
Evan Prodromou
in reply to Jakub Klawiter :mastodon: • • •Curtis Smith
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Irka
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •rival
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Evan Prodromou
in reply to rival • • •rival
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Martin Vogel
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Evan Prodromou
in reply to Martin Vogel • • •Martin Vogel
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •What might be imaginable was a download of a list of all users of a service and a local search for matching accounts.
Evan Prodromou
in reply to Martin Vogel • • •Evan Prodromou
in reply to Martin Vogel • • •Martin Vogel
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Evan Prodromou
in reply to Martin Vogel • • •Hippo 🍉
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •I probably wouldn't use it directly (because if people I know have joined the Fediverse, it's usually either that I met them there or I was the one who made the join 😅)
But I'd still sign up to make things easy for other people whom I get onboard, so that *they* can easily find new users the way they're used to 🔍
(In fact it's the same reason I've registered my number on #Quicksy for #XMPP folks)
Evan Prodromou
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •These are interesting results.
I'm a qualified yes.
Rabbit Cohen
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Evan Prodromou
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Evan Prodromou
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Evan Prodromou
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Evan Prodromou
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Evan Prodromou
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Evan Prodromou
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Pelle Wessman
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Chris Adams
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Badly-optimised primate
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •like in most things, I feel deeply unqualified, but I'm picking "qualified no" because I know that sort of thing has definitely helped a lot of people out in the earlier Twitter migrations.
For me personally, it's strong no, though.
Baral'heia Stormdancer ΘΔ🐲
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •