I just found out reddit sold everything we wrote to AI companies… and honestly I don’t know how to feel

I just found out reddit sold everything we wrote to AI companies… and honestly I don’t know how to feel

So I was reading about Reddit’s API controversy from 2023 and fell down a rabbit hole.

Turns out every post, every comment, every opinion you’ve shared here - reddit licensed it to openai and google. No opt-out. No warning. Just. - done.

And that’s just reddit. Meanwhile Google, Meta, and basically every major platform are quietly building a profile on you — your interests, your political leanings, your daily routine, your insecurities. All from things you said or clicked on “anonymously.”

The wild part? We already knew this was happening. It’s not new. Yet here we all are, still posting.

So I’m genuinely curious — why do you still use reddit (or big tech in general) knowing this?

Is it because:

  • The alternatives (Lemmy- kbin- etc…) just aren’t there yet?
  • You’ve accepted it as the price of the internet
  • You actually don’t think it’s that big a deal?
  • Or you simply never thought about it until now?

Not judging anyone — I’m still here too. Just want to hear honest answers.

  • Saprophyte@lemmy.world
    0·
    5 days ago

    I deleted all of my posts days before the mass “adult settings of everything so it can’t be searched” and subsequent removal of most mods. I went back a month or so later to log in and found many of my posts restored. From that point I said I’d never go back to reddit once my history was removed.

    It took two more visits to re-delete my posts. One to lorem ipsum all the text and another to delete again, and two final visits to verify they had not been restored. After that I purged my account. If someone sends me a reddit link now, I don’t click on it. If Google sends me a reddit link in search results, I don’t click on it. Reddit doesn’t exist to me and I keep wondering why people keep posting reddit news on here like someone keeping up with their ex after a breakup.

    It’s over. Spez doesn’t want you back. It’s time to move on.

      • Saprophyte@lemmy.world
        0·
        5 days ago

        I do wish there were more niche groups I could find to fill the gaps with Lemmy. I have a group of former twatterers I follow on mastodon now but it’s not the same. Hopefully things will improve over time as reddit continues to enshittify and there’s a need for these niche communities elsewhere.