Mastodon vs Bluesky

Because Mastodon is federated, your public content can be downloaded by other servers, and even followers-only or direct messages may be delivered to other servers. That limits practical control over where your content ends up.

Direct messages are sent to recipients' servers when they are on other servers. Users should not assume DMs stay solely under mastodon.social's control.

Mastodon.social says it does not sell or trade personally identifiable information. It may still share data with service providers or when legally required, which is common but worth noting.

You can permanently delete your account at any time. This gives users a clear exit path, though copies of distributed content on other servers may persist in practice.

The policy says sessions and API traffic use SSL, passwords are strongly hashed, and two-factor authentication is available. These are meaningful baseline protections for account access.

Users can request and download an archive of their content. This supports portability and backup before leaving the service.

Authorized apps may access substantial account data depending on the permissions you grant. The positive limit is that apps cannot access your email address or password.

The service uses cookies to recognize your browser, connect it to your account, and save preferences. This appears functional rather than advertising-focused based on the provided text.

Reports are usually handled quickly, but reporters are not told whether punishment occurred, and some enforcement is not visible publicly. This helps moderation flexibility but reduces transparency for users who report abuse.

The service identifies the operating company and provides corporate registration details and contact information. That improves accountability compared with anonymous operators.

Direct messages are not end-to-end encrypted and may be accessed for trust and safety purposes. Users should not treat Bluesky DMs as highly confidential communications.

Posts, profile, likes, follows, and blocks are public by design. This makes social graph and activity data broadly visible rather than private by default.

Even if you delete your account, copies of your content may remain on other services using the AT Protocol. In practice, deletion across the decentralized network may not be fully enforceable.

Most disputes must go through a 60-day informal process and then binding individual arbitration instead of court. This usually makes it harder to bring claims publicly or use normal court procedures.

Users generally cannot participate in class or representative actions against Bluesky. That reduces leverage for small-value claims that are impractical to pursue individually.

Bluesky says it does not sell or share personal data for targeted advertising. That's a meaningful privacy-positive commitment compared with many social platforms.

Depending on location, users can request access, correction, deletion, portability, restriction, objection, and review of automated decisions. These are substantial privacy rights, especially for users in stronger-regulation jurisdictions.

You keep ownership of what you post, but grant Bluesky a worldwide, royalty-free license to reproduce, adapt, distribute, display, moderate, and promote that content. This is broad enough to cover product use and marketing uses.

Bluesky keeps data while your account is active and may retain it longer for trust and safety, disputes, audits, legal compliance, and claims. The policy does not give firm deletion deadlines for many categories.

If something goes wrong, Bluesky's financial liability is generally limited to US$100, except in narrow cases like fraud, gross negligence causing death or personal injury, or non-waivable statutory rights.

The terms explicitly say you can delete your account at any time in settings. A built-in deletion flow is more user-friendly than requiring manual support requests.

If your account is suspended or restricted, you can appeal using an in-app tool or email within two weeks. EU/EEA users also retain access to out-of-court review and local courts.