Anything closed source with a privacy policy is spyware to Lemmy users.
Comment on Discord is on a quest to become a better messaging app
deranger@lemmy.world 9 months agoI see a few claims of spyware in here. Not that I doubt you, but where can I find out more?
sirfancy@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 months ago
Why do you read Lemmy, while discounting the opinions and perspectives of other people here?
sirfancy@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Because I don’t want to live in a bubble? Isn’t the whole point of Internet forums to have dissenting opinions? I made that comment to start a discussion or have others reflect on what their perspectives might be, because it really seems like almost all of Lemmy is anti-corporate, pro-hyper-privacy. I’m not pro-corporate by any means, but I really think it’s time people reflect and think of reasons why some people may use a platform like Discord, instead of just assuming they are stupid, or otherwise lesser, and like being spied. Because it’s just simply hyperbolic and not true.
Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 months ago
So the basics of what I’ve read is:
- Discord stores all messages and media. If you delete it, or delete your account, its still there.
- Discord does not SELL that data. Instead, they hand it over to the ad companies that are the shareholders of Discord.
- Discord has lots of security flaws that are abused by third parties all the damn time.
I know its different now because Discord has nitro and there are lots if good reasons to subscribe. But Discord ran without all if that subscriber funding and in that time they probably found ways to make money off of what resources they had at the time… Information.
MacNCheezus@lemmy.today 9 months ago
Discord stores all messages and media.
I mean, how else do you think they can make it so all your existing chats show up when you log into your account from a different device? Signal stores all your messages and media as well, the difference is they encrypt it on their servers. Discord doesn’t.
If you delete it, or delete your account, its still there.
That’s more problematic, and there should honestly be a law against that. Come to think of it, doesn’t that violate the GRDP? Either they have to treat their EU customers differently when it comes to this, or there’s a lawsuit waiting to happen. In the former case, you might be able to force them to delete your data by using a VPN to pretend you’re in Europe.
Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 months ago
If you connect to Discord via VPN they will ask for your phone number haha
Traister101@lemmy.today 9 months ago
That’s how Reddit works/worked. Probably lemmy too though I haven’t looked too close. Deleting your account doesn’t necessarily mean the content your account created is taken with it. Things not being deleted with your account is a werid thing to cite for spy ware, lots of stuff works like that and you can delete it, just isn’t automatically deleted with your account.
Discord having security flaws does not make it spy ware. There have been some pretty severe security issues but almost every one I’ve heard of has its roots in a gullible user running some sort of application on their machine or scanning a QR code with the Discord app which makes it extremely clear you are logging into another device… The only one I’m aware of that I found very concerning was iirc a werid video player vulnerability that could yank your token.
I highly doubt Discord is giving advertisers access to the messages on their platform. That sounds insanely illegal and also largly a waste of time cause if they are doing that it doesn’t work very well.
Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 months ago
On reddit you can simply use a tampermonkey script to remove your data. On discord, there is no option to delete all your messages. To the extent that there’s a discussion worth having about whether Discord is following the GDPR.
Not tackling security issues means discord is okay with third parties exploiting the software to gain info about certain users - which could include hacker groups or government actors targeting single targets.
I dont think discord can give individual messages over, legally, although they are stored unencrypted on Discord’s server.
Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 months ago
Alright, replies to my initial comment got me motivated to look for the receipts:
discord.com/…/how-discord-stores-billions-of-mess…
- yes discord saves every message forever, to an extent that they are almost certainly breaking GDPR laws.
reddit.com/…/you_should_never_use_discord_and_her…
meaww.com/discord-who-owns-jason-citron-microsoft…
I heard this argument so long ago that basically Discord doesnt sell data but instead shares it with shareholders, which includes many ad companies, including tencent. They probably give this data to their linked partners like twitch and Microsoft. Discord still isnt profitable and they are a public company, they are expected to exhaust every opportunity to give value to those shareholders.
deranger@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Thanks! I’ll take a look this evening.
BaldProphet@kbin.social 9 months ago
I'm not sure it's correct to call Discord spyware, but it certainly has privacy implications. https://nerdbot.com/2023/02/24/using-discord-consider-these-security-and-privacy-factors/