I’m not so sure about the GDPR status for the Fediverse, I don’t think there’s the law is prepared for “Jerry runs this for people, just for fun”. It’s very much “official organisation” or “money grabbing business” oriented. Someone should fund an actual lawyer to look into this and lay down the real requirements.

I'm working in the gdpr compiance field ;) Using a personnal device to monitor public space doesn't fall under the household exception, this solution even pre-dates the GDPR (https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2014-12/cp140175en.pdf).

(the case-law is about camera fixed on a private house, but the logic easily translates in a private server grabbing public data).

but when legal compliance comes up, everybody just sticks their fingers in their ears and pretends not to hear you.

Just as you did ^^