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submitted 11 months ago by BrightCandle@lemmy.world to c/reddit@lemmy.world

I came across today one of my own comments on Reddit with a search on duckduckgo. It was still intact. The problem is I used shreddit to randomise and delete the entire contents of my account. My account comments and posts all show empty on my account pages on reddit so there should be nothing.

I did a site:reddit.com search using my username and found ~50 comments that Reddit has undeleted but also hide from my own account. I could still edit and delete them. Its curious that they don't appear on my accounts content on Reddit and yet a search engine can find them and they are still served by Reddit. Ex Reddit users who deleted their account contents should be aware this is happening and report it as a GDPR breach to their respective agencies if they are in the EU if they too find this has occurred.

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[-] CaptObvious@lemmy.world 103 points 11 months ago

Several of us have noticed this since the protests and mass exodus started. It did seem that editing then deleting might protect against Reddit's restoration of posts and comments.

Update: Just checked. They've restored a lot of my old posts. This may turn into a years-long game of whack-a-mole trying to actually get our material deleted from that site.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 21 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

This is exactly why (plus laziness) that I haven't even bothered. They're just going to put them back anyway.

I do have a post pinned in my account directing people to Lemmy though.

[-] Serinus@lemmy.ml 35 points 11 months ago

I PMed someone on Twitter asking them to use Mastodon. As soon as I sent the PM, Twitter temporarily locked my account for "suspicious activity". I had to basically fill out a captcha to get my account back, but it didn't send the message.

I rewrote it while being more careful with my phrasing and misspelling "mastedon" the second time.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

Well, if they did suspend my account for doing that, I doubt I'll ever find out.

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[-] Kittiesmom13@lemmy.world 60 points 11 months ago

I’m in the US and deleted all my posts & comments months ago. I also deleted my account when the whole ruckus started over there. Just tried this search and low and behold, my old posts came up. Not happy about this.

[-] DarkWasp@lemmy.world 27 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Should be illegal. Is it not due to GDPR in Europe at least?

[-] Send_me_nude_girls@feddit.de 18 points 11 months ago

It totally is illegal. We just need someone with a good lawyer to push through.

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[-] wazoobonkerbrain@lemmy.world 26 points 11 months ago
[-] DrQuint@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago

*low and belowed

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[-] meggied90@lemm.ee 37 points 11 months ago

Search engines do not scrape the entire internet every single time someone searches. They do routine scrapes of web content and create a cache of what was there, and search that cache. This is why updates to websites do not always reflect on searches.

You're contents are findable on Google because the last time they bothered to scrape that particular Reddit post was when your comment was intact, and they have not had a need to scrape it again since then.

[-] nan@lemmy.blahaj.zone 107 points 11 months ago

They are finding comments through Google and are then able to view, edit, and delete them on Reddit. They are not able to view them on their profile page.

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[-] BrightCandle@lemmy.world 46 points 11 months ago

They also appear when you click through the link and look at the Reddit site. They can be editted and deleted. These are not cached search results Reddit is genuinely showing those comments and yet they can not be found in your account that shows you have no comments at all. That is not what is happening here.

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[-] yumcake@lemmy.world 17 points 11 months ago

OP is not saying that Google's scrape still retains his reddit comments. He's not referring to seeing this information on Google, but on Reddit.

He's saying that reddit is retaining his comments and still serving those comments up when refreshed directly. They're de-linked from his reddit account so he doesn't see them through his reddit account, but the information is restored throughout the reddit site to be viewed.

[-] snor10@lemm.ee 34 points 11 months ago

The EU needs to smack Reddit with those fat GDPR-violation fines.

[-] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

Is there a way OP can report reddit for this?

[-] BrightCandle@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago

I have done but from past experience they don't do their job at all.

[-] kosanovskiy@lemmy.world 20 points 11 months ago

They literally rolled back subreddit comments posts and all by weeks and years. so doesnt surprise me. We were their "item sold" and they aint giving that up. Sadly seems like the protests didnt do much. Some of us left but that about it.

[-] ricecooker@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago

How about instead of deleting, you edit the comment so it's taken completely out of context. Nonsense words, random poems, list of colors, etc.

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[-] Kungolicious@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago

They’re doing It to mine too.

Cries in American

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[-] foggy@lemmy.world 17 points 11 months ago

Do you see them from a throwaway account?

[-] overzeetop@lemmy.world 14 points 11 months ago

Yes, you can. Or, at least I can see some of my (deleted, not visible in my profile) main’s comments from my alt account.

[-] foggy@lemmy.world 31 points 11 months ago

Something tells me that isn't GDPR compliant.

[-] overzeetop@lemmy.world 21 points 11 months ago

If I were European, I’d be very angry right now. Actually, I’m angry anyway…but there’s less that I can do as an American.

Though I do have an avenue as a Virginian, its not one where I control the enforcement. I would have to get my corporate bootlicking Attorney General to do something about it, and that will never happen.

[-] Luci@lemmy.ca 15 points 11 months ago

I thought some of my old posts were restored but it turned out that those subreddits were still dark when I ran the delete script and had since reopened. Don't know if this is the same situation as you but maybe check if that is the case?

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[-] over_clox@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

OP said they did exactly that using shreddit.

Edit: Lemmy acting weird, this is supposed to be a comment to user ricecooker.

Sigh, whatever.

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[-] BuckRowdy@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago

This is more a function of how Reddit’s databases and listings work. Automated tools can’t find all of your content because of the limitations on listings. It’s really funny though that people are ascribing abilities to a company with a very low competency level.

[-] june@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago

same, i used Power Delete Suite and confirmed i deleted everything, but searching my old username pulls up a lot of posts and comments. all the posts still seem to be deleted but i'm seeing comments where the username is deleted but the comment is back.

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[-] xts@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

I replaced all of mine with “fuck spez” and then deleted my account but not posts, so they’re still there. I went back and checked lol

[-] ricecooker@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

Would it be better to edit posts and change them to nonsense? Random poems, list of dog breeds, song lyrics, random SQL code...

[-] pancakes@sh.itjust.works 8 points 11 months ago

I changed all my comments over 5 karma with multiple pages of lorem ipsum placeholder text.

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[-] fallenWalnut@kbin.social 6 points 11 months ago

An easy test would be to load that thread in incognito and see if it shows the undeleted version.

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this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2023
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