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0 pointsAnimalMuppet3y ago0 comments

You do it before someone has replied to it. Once someone has replied, you can't delete your comment without destroying the context of their comment. It's not just about you at that point.

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3 comments · 1 top-level

Paul-Craft3y ago· 2 in thread

We'll see about that the minute someone makes a GDPR request to delete their stuff.

AnimalMuppetOP3y ago

Does HN have to care about a GDPR request? HN doesn't have either servers or people in Europe, so far as I know.

Even so, that still may not save you. Say you decide you want your post here deleted. Say HN does so, but leaves my reply. And say my reply looks like this:

> We'll see about that the minute someone makes a GDPR request to delete their stuff.

Well, Paul-Craft, I don't think it's going to work like that...

[End of pretend reply.]

Now your post is quoted by mine, and your name is mentioned in mine as the author. Now you cannot delete all traces of your post without editing mine.

Now what?

johnnyanmac3y ago

>Now you cannot delete all traces of your post without editing mine.

gdpr =/= right to be forgotten (I'm not even sure if the latter cares about that. That's more about search indexing than perfectly scrubbing your history). GDPR is there to ensure your data can't be stored indefinitely on some private server without your ability to withdraw it.

Paul-Craft being quoted saying something that one time on June 17th 2023 is 100x less valuable to a data harvester then a directly post from Paul-Craft himself.

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