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I need opinions on a HappyView feature: inspection for atproto spaces. TL;DR - should the dashboard be give admins a clean view into spaces content? More deets in the thread. 🧵 #atproto

Basically, spaces are fully accessible to server admins. This is the same for spaces hosted by HappyView, as well as spaces on your PDS. If somebody has access to the database, they can read anything in your spaces.

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Wait really? I thought it's PDS hosted space, and therefore only the PDS admin has access. I didn't realize spaces also has access. If they do, HappyView should provide the admin overview

Theoretically, there's a separation of concerns here: • user = which apps can do what • PDS host = which app/user combo can access what data (read or write) • space host = which users belong to space (read access to view) • appview = which users belong to space (write access to view)

Unless I've misunderstood @dholms.at, the protocol: • prevents a standalone space host from forging user credentials to con my PDS host into allowing the wrong user/app to access my data (proactive) • lets me revoke credentials for appviews which overshare the data I let them access (reactive)

But when a single entity plays multiple such roles, that can blur the ability of users to reason about who they're entrusting with how much access to (copies of) their data

Yeah, the intent is that the repo host (the user's PDS in most circumstances) holds the space data. However, spaces isn't generally available yet so HappyView provides a polyfill for the time being that allows operators to implement spaces, even for users whose PDS doesn't support it.

Since it's a polyfill, HappyView is acting as a repo host for users' spaces. That said, when an AppView is the authority for a space it'll still index the data from that space and have a fully readable copy. Basically, this will likely be a concern for /all AppViews./

From a technical perspective, this is not surprising. Spaces are not encrypted. They provide access control, not privacy. If you want privacy (even from admins), you need some form of E2EE.

From the perspective of a server operator, it actually makes a lot of sense. The operator of a PDS needs to be able to moderate the content on their PDS. We don't need bad actors creating spaces just to store their CSAM. That would be Very Bad™.

Having access via the database is one thing, but having a tool for a clean view into that data feels like a whole different ball game. So here's the question: Is it too skeevy for HappyView to provide an interface for browsing space data?

Of course the goal isn't to give operators a creepy tool to rifle thru your private stuff, but any tool that provides this sort of auditability CAN be exploited in that way.