473

Discord defends itself against efforts to stop piracy on its platform by saying no to more invasive data collection. Even though Discord isn’t exactly known for privacy, this is a great move for its users. What are your thoughts?

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] ItsComplicated@sh.itjust.works 215 points 2 months ago

If they did not collect any information, they would not have any information to give when they are served a subpoena.

[-] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 28 points 2 months ago

How else would they store and sync the information?

[-] Grunt4019@lemm.ee 61 points 2 months ago

Encrypt it end to end with them not having the keys

[-] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 24 points 2 months ago

They do have to retrieve old messages when new users join though. I’m sure the government can force them to lett them in a server and unlock the roles

[-] stoy@lemmy.zip 5 points 2 months ago

Why?

Why is channel history needed for new users?

Back in the IRC days you joined a channel that was just empty, if you wanted the history you had to run an IRC client continously, I remember running screen irssi on a separate computer and sshing into the server, reconnecting the screen with irssi in it.

If you want the history automatically, you can't expect privacy.

[-] Chadus_Maximus@lemm.ee 31 points 2 months ago

90% of the reason I even have discord is because people much smarter than me use it to share information. Nobody uses other areas suited for sharing information anymore. It's either Reddit or discord.

[-] JustARaccoon@lemmy.world 21 points 2 months ago

Because a lot of people go to discord servers to access existing information?

[-] stoy@lemmy.zip 9 points 2 months ago

That is a good point, I have never done that, and to me it is just a chat system....

[-] deathbird@mander.xyz 7 points 2 months ago

Far more than should tbh. Too many little game mods will have a Discord for questions and reporting issues rather than using their GitHub or a forum.

[-] JustARaccoon@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

Oh I agree, it's very much a "forcing a round peg into a square hole" situation, but I doubt discord will make any changes to push back against it

load more comments (8 replies)
[-] GamingChairModel@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

At the same time, expecting privacy in a room where a bunch of strangers hang out is already unreasonable. If everyone already in the channel can log the chats, for example by idling in the channel, then adding E2E on top of that is probably a false sense of security.

[-] vithigar@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 months ago

I remember running screen irssi on a separate computer and sshing into the server, reconnecting the screen with irssi in it.

I still do that today.

load more comments (7 replies)
load more comments (5 replies)
[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 months ago

Sync from another online user. If each message is signed by the author, there's a built-in protection against tampering.

It's really not hard, they just have to care enough to build it that way.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] knightly@pawb.social 91 points 2 months ago

Discord sucks and nobody should use it.

[-] stoly@lemmy.world 81 points 2 months ago

The only thing that really sucks about it is that knowledge that was openly searchable is now locked away behind logins.

[-] example@reddthat.com 38 points 2 months ago

no, you're also effectively locked out of any participation unless you provide an email address and phone number, which they won't even tell you about in advance but use dark patterns and gaslighting that they noticed "suspicious activity" to step by step first ask you for an email and then once that is validated they prompt you for a phone number. the only thing they don't do yet is ask for ID.

[-] subignition@fedia.io 18 points 2 months ago

Validation level is set by server owners, you are unlikely to need to verify a phone number except in the biggest (and therefore spammiest) servers

[-] example@reddthat.com 10 points 2 months ago

it doesn't seem to be server specific because once prompted there is no way to use the account again, even if you decided to just not use a server that may have these settings set.

[-] subignition@fedia.io 6 points 2 months ago

Odd, I've never had that experience. Maybe you're using a VPN or something that makes your IP look more suspicious.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] HawlSera@lemm.ee 11 points 2 months ago

I keep trying to take out my phone number because I don't want strangers seeing that shit, but... then "suspicious activity" gets detyected seconds later...

[-] Gemini24601@lemmy.world 63 points 2 months ago

While this is true, Discord has a massive user base, so it’s somewhat a privacy win for the common person

[-] Estebiu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 47 points 2 months ago

its still the old chicken&egg problem: if you dont have communities you dont have users, and if you dont have users you dont have communities

thats why everyone sticks to discord

[-] FierySpectre@lemmy.world 24 points 2 months ago

Well, you are on Lemmy aren't you

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago
[-] villainy@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago

We are all Estebiu alts.

[-] Estebiu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 2 months ago

Well yeah, cuz there are quite a lot of communities and users already

Social inertia and an extra helping of users hate having to learn things.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 26 points 2 months ago
[-] JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz 18 points 2 months ago

Discord is a fantastic IRC replacement.
The issue is that people try to use it to replace forums, wikis, personal websites, issue trackers, git, and the kitchen sink, and it does none of these.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 months ago

Exactly. It's like IRC w/ audio (and probably video now?) chat, and you can post gifs and whatnot. It should be used for discussion, and it's perfectly okay for that. I would prefer something a bit more privacy focused (again, IRC is decent here, just needs some cryptography), but it's okay.

But yeah, not a fan of it being a resource for anything beyond meeting like-minded people to have discussions with.

[-] Halosheep@lemm.ee 15 points 2 months ago

What's a good alternative that allows easy instant message, voice and video calls, and makes it easy to group my friends by game?

[-] femtech@midwest.social 7 points 2 months ago

I have been using revolt, going to setup my own server once I get better lol, last 3 times have been a cluster fuck to get it working. I got mattermost working the first try but it's a slack replacement not discord.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] Voyajer@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Steam group chat? It's structured in the same way.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (5 replies)
[-] Drigo@sopuli.xyz 8 points 2 months ago

There is no alternative that can do the same

load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] metaStatic@kbin.earth 40 points 2 months ago

The attorney called Nexon’s demands “improper and overly burdensome”

They will give you up in a heartbeat as long as they don't have to do the extra work of finding you.

Discord isn't protecting anyone's privacy just their bottom dollar

Discord is committed to fulfilling its obligations under the law

[-] AbsoluteChicagoDog@lemm.ee 36 points 2 months ago

Discord still sells your information for advertising so it's meaningless posturing.

[-] donuts@lemmy.world 22 points 2 months ago

I'm gonna get flak for this but no, Discord does not sell any user data, no matter how many times people keep repeating it. Quoting a legendary redditor here:

Discord's privacy policy repeatedly states that they do not sell your personal information:

We don’t sell your personal information. Our business is based on subscriptions and paid products, not from selling your personal information to third parties.

We make money from paid subscriptions and the sale of digital (and sometimes physical) goods, not from selling your personal information to third parties.

We do not sell the personal data of our users or share personal data for targeted advertising purposes.

‍No sale or “share” of personal information: The CCPA sets forth certain obligations for businesses that sell or “share” personal information. We do not sell or share the personal information of our users as defined in the CCPA.

This is a legal document that they will get in trouble for if they were lying. They've already been fined hundreds of thousands of euros for GDPR violations but that curiously did not include a fine for "took people's personal information and then sold them without consent whilst explicitly saying they didn't do that"

Discord further has no third party advertisements which they can use to "sell" your data by allowing those advertisements to target you.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] qarbone@lemmy.world 21 points 2 months ago

Not meaningless but certainly undercuts the grandstanding.

[-] Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

Yes, the authorities will have to pay for data like everyone else.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] subignition@fedia.io 17 points 2 months ago

Of course it's Nexon.

[-] Mandy@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 months ago

I had a server with a respectable size.
Did a hard cutoff due to some stupid discord thing.
I managed to get a total of 50 people of about 3k to switch and out of those like 7 actually stayed.

Yet I had to get a burner account again to get in touch with certain people.

Its all be man.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago

I've never played a Nexus game, and I'm definitely not going to start now. People who are pirating a game aren't usually doing it bcz they hate the company, or have a vendetta of any kind. It's usually a money issue. People are more than happy to pay for games when they have money, and you're not a shit company.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] obinice@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago

Well, I have no First Amendment rights, so there's that.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Mwa@lemm.ee 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Sad am forced on this app, I love matrix more.

[-] swankypantsu@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

I know the feeling. Similar thing happened in a discord I'm in. Rate limit ban on a leader account, no response from support even via burner, then jumped ship to a new one that could actually be managed.

At least discord has to foot the storage costs of a dead server pestered with bots because of their own incompetence.

load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2024
473 points (99.0% liked)

Technology

60130 readers
2767 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS