There is a really good privacy feature on Mastodon and the rest of the Fediverse:
When you post a link on Mastodon etc, it remains exactly as you posted it. There is no analytics or tracking going on, no one is monitoring clicks on links.
By contrast, on Twitter/X and Bluesky the links people post are redirected so clicks can be monitored. We don't know exactly what Musk or Bluesky do with this info, but they do it by redirecting all links to sites they control (t.co & go.bsky.app).
@FediTips Great for publishers, not great for privacy :(
@TheHCJ @FediTips
There's nothing to stop Bluesky giving publishers a useful Referer [sic] and legally binding themselves from using that information for marketing.
They just don't.
(They also don't strictly need to use a redirect to track links themselves. But maybe the other way is not as good, idk).
@sourcejedi @FediTips I doubt they would be using it for marketing as they don't plan on advertising in the future. Things can change though
I didn't remember that. For privacy-trap purposes, I think it's fair to be cynical. It'd be great to see a non-ad funded model, but it's fairly novel (ignoring user donations).
I was reading the privacy policy. They do allow themselves to use "personal information" for marketing.
Though, it doesn't explicitly say they can share it for marketing purposes. AFAIK, "partners with whom we jointly offer products or services" is not an accepted euphemism for 3rd party ads.
Bluesky have said on multiple occasions they may introduce advertising in the future, and as a for-profit owned by VCs it's very likely they will do this.. This kind of redirect is perfect infrastructure for promotions etc.