Yep. I've got screenshots for both of these approaches in. https://privacy.thenexus.today/how-to-block-threads-on-mastodon/#from-profile

@Em0nM4stodon

Yes, Em's instructions will work for individual accounts. I've got more details and talk about about the limitations of this approach in https://privacy.thenexus.today/how-to-block-threads-on-mastodon/#from-profile

@fembot @Em0nM4stodon

@thenexusofprivacy @fembot @Em0nM4stodon Your site isn't resolving for me.

@thenexusofprivacy Fantastic!!

@phillycodehound thanks for letting me know ... I think it might have been a transient error. How about now?

@thenexusofprivacy @Em0nM4stodon
Thanks, yes, I've read through this.

(My understanding is that "authorized fetch" at the instance level gets you closest to the goal of preventing Threads from viewing or interacting with one's Masto/Fedi account. And there are enough holes built into the process that no matter what we do Meta/Threads can still circumvent the settings and the process. Please correct if I've got that wrong! TY)

You're correct that "authorized fetch" is hugely important ... and that even with that enabled there are holes. Being on an instance that blocks Threads provides somewhat more protection than just blocking individually.

In terms of preventing information getting to Meta, local-only posts (on instances which have them) and followers-only post (as long as you don't have any followers on Threads) are the strongest protections.

@fembot @Em0nM4stodon

@thenexusofprivacy @Em0nM4stodon
TYSM, really helpful.

My pleasure. It's really confusing!

@fembot @Em0nM4stodon

@thenexusofprivacy @fembot @Em0nM4stodon and those are very wise choices for folks who are on fedi for their own ends

some of us are here to try to be effective communicators (eg. this account is for communicate covid research and analysis)

as public speakers we are inherently vulnerable to scraping, which can only be addressed top-down

maybe I'm misreading, are you saying that even with authorized fetch and an instance that blocks Threads, we need local- or followers-only to keep Meta's nose out of our business?

that is unfortunately not really an option for some use cases (hi)

advice welcome

It's a dilemma -- you're quite right that there's a tradeoff between reach and privacy. Personally, I have multiple accounts; this one for example tries to reach as wide an audience as possible, so it's on an instance that federates with Meta (and most of my posts are public) ... and I've also got a personal account on an instance that doesn't federate which i use for stuff where the goal isn't to get wide visibility (and most of the posts are unlisted, local-only, or followers-only).

are you saying that even with authorized fetch and an instance that blocks Threads, we need local- or followers-only to keep Meta's nose out of our business

Even with authorized fetch and an instance that blocks Threads, there are some potential paths of information flowing to Meta indirectly -- for example replies from an account on an instance that doesn't block Meta can reveal your account name (and perhaps some additional information depending on what they say in their reply). Local-only posts can reduce the risk of that, as well as scraping. As to how much it matters relative to other risks ... hard to know.

@datum @fembot @Em0nM4stodon