this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2023
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Altering the language of a service policy (or, writing a new one) is usually a good indication that something is indeed about to change at a larger level.
It's also an indication they're following US law. They can't collect data without stating it.
I'm gonna play Devil's Advocate here...
What's to stop them from scraping the Fediverse without federating? If they really want the data, they could very well find a way. At least they're spelling it out here and announced an attempt at proper federation.
The article discusses this, a bit. One of the other platforms is considering an enhancement to require request signatures on non-ActivityPub APIs, I.E. Meta can make unsigned requests, where the server doesn't know who they're from, but only get minimal (or no) data back, or Meta can make signed requests, and instance owners get to decide what data (if any) they're okay with sharing to Meta, based on Meta's privacy policies. Beyond API's, you're talking about web scraping, which is something the industry has been handling for decades.