I think there is a bit of hysteria about Threads/Meta and some people are trying to push back. There are plenty of people in this thread that don't fully understand federation and are knee-jerk reacting because it's Meta.

However, I totally agree with the sentiment being expressed, which is to keep Meta and large corporations as far away from Lemmy as possible. This is a community-run space that is a haven from the corporate internet, and indeed capitalist society in general. Protecting this space should be our highest priority.

I feel that some of our more technical users are losing the forest for the trees in this discussion. Believe it or not, some Lemmings don't come from a 30 year tech background and don't fully understand how the platform, or indeed the internet as a whole, actually functions.

This group of people, which includes me, are acting rationally by opposing any interaction with Meta on grounds of principle. We don't know exactly what we are scared of, but we do know if there is any vulnerability or weakness that Meta is trying to exploit, they already know their plan and we won't know until it's too late. Meta is a terrifying behemoth just waiting for a chance to consume Lemmy. I would argue that a little bit of hysteria is justified in this case.

Edit: just to clarify, this is more of a response to the parent comment, I think we are in agreement. I didn't want to start another reply thread so I figured I would build off your point.

Like I said, that's a fine opinion to hold. What isn't fine is the constant spinning of facts and narratives to suit a personal bias, regardless of how I feel about that bias.

not because of any existing tangible evidence in this circumstance

If you're going to quote me I'd appreciate if you didn't cut out relevant parts of it to fit your argument.

Oh, I do. I'm my own instance admin, I work as a senior architect and grasped the concept of Fediverse quite fast.

The "you" in my comment was a generalized "you", not you specifically.

Thanks for the clarification. That claim seemed really off.

I've assumed that what you see publicly is basically what's synced. Obv. your instance can have a few more meta details on you, like IP, device info, possibly all the exif they've stripped from uploaded photos, but these things aren't in the ActivityPub outbox

That's just how adtech works in general. Every ad company has a profile on who they think you are, well more technically a cohort of potential similar profiles. Also not all profiles can equated to a single person and a single person may have multiple. That's how wishy washy the whole tech is. It's good enough though. Way better than seeing those flashy "download these smiley trail mouse cursors" ads the old internet used to have. Still. I don't see the problem here, it's just about making ads more relevant to you. If you're not the kind to let ads sway you anyway than what's the big deal? And if you are the kind to be swayed at least they'll be actually relevant to what you're into.

Yeah, that should be possible, back it up with the GDPR as well.