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Asked Reddit support to give me API key so I can delete my data. They refused

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Asked Reddit support to give me API key so I can delete my data. They refused

#1
Asked reddit support to give me API key so I can securely delete my data via ereddicator. I was honest, filling all the required fields, stating my purpose explicitly.

Here's their response: We have reviewed your request for access. Unfortunately, we cannot grant approval because the submission is not in compliance with Reddit’s Responsible Builder Policy and/or lacks necessary details.

Re: Asked Reddit support to give me API key so I can delete my data. They refused

#6
Their stance on APIs truly baffle me. Ok, I get it, you don't want people using an app without ads. And you, for some reason, think that trying to wall off the public commons from scientists and sell them snippets piecemeal is going to be a valid longterm strategy -- dumb, but coherent.

But to spend buckets of money getting 3p devs to build stupid little games in-app while also actively banning the huge suite of tools that people actually care about because they can access your actual reddit data and do actual things...

Just baffling. I blame the corrupting influence of YC, personally.

And yes, their copy around basically everything is just insultingly, laughably bad. Presumably because they refuse to hire enough people to provide details with any sort of reliability.

Re: Asked Reddit support to give me API key so I can delete my data. They refused

#7
post #6

Their stance on APIs truly baffle me. Ok, I get it, you don't want people using an app without ads. And you, for some reason, think that trying to wall off the public commons from scientists and sell them snippets piecemeal is going to be a valid longterm strategy -- dumb, but coherent. But to spend buckets of money getting 3p devs to build stupid little games in-app while also actively banning the huge suite of tool…

I blame the corrupting influence of YC, personally.

[For the record, I don’t question your personal belief.]

Did you know Conde’ Nast bought Reddit twenty years ago?

And as a publicly traded company since 2024, it is driven by Wall Street expectations?

Re: Asked Reddit support to give me API key so I can delete my data. They refused

#8

Why doesn't deleting an account come with an option to wipe all personal data?

Because the value of the site is in the user data. Even before they went public, they asked that people deleting accounts don’t delete their posts/comments before leaving, to avoid broken conversation threads.

Re: Asked Reddit support to give me API key so I can delete my data. They refused

#10
post #3

I guess you'll have to do it with browser automation. I assume that's possible?

If you are caught midway, you get banned for abuse/ToS, and you are not allowed to delete/edit your comments-account if you are unable to sign in. (I am guessing they are retaining data under some bullshit about gdpr legitimate interest in preventing abuse)

Rate limits are also quite low so it might take weeks to delete. Many subs will automatically ban you if you edit a comment to say something like 'redacted by' (ex: https://www.reddit.com/r/ModSupport/comments/1t1fekj/redact_...)

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