Lemmy Privacy and Security
You can ask your question in the c/newtolemmy community.
If you'd like to contribute, please get in touch.
Federation is a key feature of Lemmy, allowing users to interact with communities across different instances. For this to work, some data must be shared across multiple servers. See below to understand what data is shared with whom, and any relevant privacy and security considerations.
Legend
| Icon | Meaning |
|---|---|
| You can see your own information | |
| Yes, the actor can see this information | |
| Yes, the actor can see this information IF it is federated to their server. | |
| No, the actor can NOT see this information | |
| Complicated, read further for an explanation |
Personally identifiable information
| Actor | (Your) Password | IP | Browser Agent | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| You | ||||
| Other Users | ||||
| Community Moderators | ||||
| Instance Admins | ||||
| Other Instance Admins | ||||
| Lemmy Developers |
Instance Admins & Passwords
Your password is stored in a hashed format at REST. This means that even if someone gets access to the database, they cannot see your password.
However, if someone (for example instance admin) would modify the server code, they can potentially see your password in transit and/or save it somewhere. This is the same for all websites and web applications.
Joining a trustworthy instance is important. However you can also take precautions yourself. Using a password manager to generate a random password is good practice, and can ensure that even if someone gets access to your password, they cannot use it to log in to your accounts on other websites.
Instance admins require access to IP addresses and email in order to handle user accounts.
Community Interaction Information
| Actor | Votes | Posts | Comments | Profile | Private Messages |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| You | |||||
| Other Users | |||||
| Community Moderators | |||||
| Instance Admins | |||||
| Other Instance Admins | |||||
| Lemmy Developers |
Community Moderators & Vote Data
Community moderators were given the ability to see votes as of April 2025 (v0.19.11).
Access to private messages by Other Instance Admins
If a user from instance A sends a private message to a user from instance B, only the admins of instances A and B will be able to see the message. This is required to deal with spam and abuse.