If you're using Mastodon, you can put your new posts under maximum privacy by doing both of these:
1. Log in through your server's website, go to Edit Profile > Require follow requests, save changes. This means only people you approve can follow you.
2. Set your posts' privacy to "Followers only" when you post them (the setting with the lock 🔒 logo). You can make "followers only" default by going to Preferences > Other > Posting Privacy > Followers only.
However, only do this if you are okay with greatly restricting your audience by default. These settings will completely prevent non-followers seeing your new posts (unless you manually select a more public privacy setting when you write them).
Non-followers will not be able to search for followers-only posts, or see them in shares.
Also, bear in mind this privacy setting only applies to your new posts. If you've already posted something as public, that old post will remain public.
@feditips And all the while remember that nothing is private on the fediverse. If you want to say something privately, do NOT say it on the fediverse. Imagine that the Pub in ActivityPub stands for Public.
If you want privacy, make sure you use an end-to-end encrypted system.
This post brought to you by the desire to make sure that vulnerable groups do not end up in jail or worse because they thought they were being “private”.
@aral @feditips Mastodon merged an end-to-end encryption API back in 2020, although it unfortunately doesn't seem to be used anywhere yet. https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/13820
