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Discord to start showing ads in the coming week after resisting for almost a decade (www.neowin.net)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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I don't think people on this sub use it, but it's great news for us. The worse it gets the likelier people move on.

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[–] 40 points 2 years ago (1 child)

If it wasn't a privacy nightmare maybe I will consider paying, but data theft + ads? Naaaah.

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  • [+] -36 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Ah right, so it's fine if it's a privacy nightmare but combined with ads, woah there. If you're right, they already have your data. If you don't use it, why even complain?

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  • [–] 21 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    Because I'm free to complain about things I don't like.

    Many of my friends use Discord but I also use Matrix and I prefer that. This is a Signal/WhatsApp like situation.

    If Discord starts shoving them ads maybe I can bring some people over to a more secure platform easily.

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  • [+] -18 points 2 years ago*

    Yeah, sure, complain about it if you want to, it just doesn't make sense if you've already given them the data. I like Signal for privacy but it doesn't have any customization, no personalization, no personality, it's nearly sterile. It does it's job and that's it. Great for people who want privacy for like.. work but for just talking to friends Discord seems more enjoyable.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I don’t think I’ve ever seen discord get a positive mention on this sub. I’ve never used it so I don’t really have a horse in this race.

    I don’t know what people use it for, but I’ve seen all the negative memes about open source software devs using it and that causing people to skip on the software though. Never seen it get any praise around here.

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  • [+] -17 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I haven't scraped the terms of service to see exactly what kind of data they collect but I'm not extremely worried about it. I don't put sensitive information into it beyond my payment information for Nitro. I'm sure everyone here on Lemmy, a self-host and open source site/software, is against programs like Discord because they're proprietary but I personally just enjoy it and don't find it very limiting.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (1 child)
    • Your IP address will be logged as soon as you login.
    • They store everything you send in plain text on an encrypted storage unit.
    • They store if your microphone and/or camera is on or off + more of what settings you have made in your own device.
    • They force you to give them your phone number in order to identify you.

    Source: https://discord.com/privacy

    Discord is a privacy nightmare, but not as much as for an example Spotify. Spotify even logs how you hold your device and how fast you move it! Source: https://www.spotify.com/uk/legal/privacy-policy/

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  • [+] -14 points 2 years ago (1 child)
    • Everything everywhere I connect to has my IP, oh no.
    • It's not plaintext if it's encrypted..
    • So like cookies but for an application, not that intrusive imo.
    • "You may be required to verify your account with a phone number" - I provided a phone number once and they've never, at any point, sent me anything or asked me to use it. You could easily use a burner phone.

    Even thinking about a company like Google seems like more of a privacy nightmare. This is relatively tame compared to most everything else.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)
    • Nope. Not everywhere.
    • The actual data is stored in plain text. The hard drive is encrypted. This is called encryption at-rest which Discord uses. Even Google uses this for Google Drive. Hackers "can't" access the data, but the people working there can. It doesn't matter if they have fancy roles, your personal data can be access by the people at the company. Your personal data should always stay personal.
    • No cookies. Stored on their servers.
    • I was forced to enter my phone number before I got as privacy aware as I am today. I doubt that has changed.
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  • [–] -3 points 2 years ago (1 child)
    • Sure, but I think it's safe to assume your IP is near public information when connecting to any domain.
    • Okay, this is a fair point, I don't think anyone at any company should have sensitive data open to employees. That'd be as bad as having passwords accessible by X role at the company.
    • Near meaningless data though. It'd be like if it knew if your keyboard was connected or not. It's hard to use that information.
    • From what I understand, services use phone numbers because it's harder for bot accounts to be spammed. Whether they allow themselves to go beyond that is up to the company. Even Counter-Strike and Valorant, competitive games in general, do this to curb the automated userbase.
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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago
    • Your IP address should always be private even if it is good with IP bans. But IP bans do not fix the issue if it is not a static IP address that the users always has.
    • Exactly :)
    • Yepp! But they do log it anyway. So the question is why do the log this data? To build a better service? Might be, yes, but it would be much better if they let their users to choose if they want to share this information. Not log it automatically behind their backs (many do not read privacy policies).
    • I understand that, but they should not force users to enter their phone number. They should instead come up with another solution like require more CAPTCHA's. Phone numbers is "the best" solution, but should not be standard.
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