49 lines
3.5 KiB
Markdown
49 lines
3.5 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "Don't Use Discord"
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date: 2021-06-29T20:16:40-05:00
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description: "Discord doesn't give a shit about your privacy"
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type: "post"
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tags: ["privacy", "decentralization"]
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---
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*Originally posted on the [exozyme blog](https://git.exozy.me/exozyme/blog/src/branch/main/dont-use-discord/index.html)*
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## Discord doesn't give a shit about your privacy
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Discord [forbids third-party clients](https://github.com/Jiiks/BetterDiscordApp/issues/952), [bans people for no reason and doesn't explain why](https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=discord+ban+without+reason&ia=web), shares everything with governments, and [sells off all your data to the highest bidder](https://cadence.moe/blog/2020-06-06-why-you-shouldnt-trust-discord#business-model). It has **no encryption at all**, [not even badly implemented end-to-end encryption](https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360047118232-Add-support-for-end-to-end-encryption) like WhatsApp. Everything about the app and servers are closed source and proprietary. That just exacerbates its [already-bad security issues](https://cadence.moe/blog/2020-06-06-why-you-shouldnt-trust-discord#security-issues).
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**It collects a very large amount of data about you**, including your IP address, all your messages including "private" ones, all your voice chat data, and [even information about other apps on your system](https://teddit.net/r/privacy/comments/eiicah/trawling_through_my_discord_data_package_after_35/) if you use the desktop client. [Discord's privacy policy](https://discord.com/privacy) contains multiple occurrences of phrases such as "including but not limited to," which explicitly confirms that **Discord's privacy situation is even worse than we currently know.**
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Best of all, **you can even pay them in the form of Discord Nitro to violate your privacy!** What fun!
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## So what now?
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There are many great alternatives available, such as [Matrix](https://matrix.org/). You can even [bridge](https://matrix.org/bridges/) your Discord account to your Matrix account, although this clearly violates Discord's Terms of Service. **Literally any chat app, other than Zoom, has better privacy than Discord.**
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If you *must* use Discord, please do so in your browser, preferably in a private or incognito window. Treat everything you do on Discord as if it is public, including your "private" messages. **Do not download the spyware desktop or mobile apps at all costs!**
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Anyways, I'll end with a quote from this [very scary analysis of Discord's mass surveillance](https://teddit.net/r/privacy/comments/eiicah/trawling_through_my_discord_data_package_after_35/):
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> "Keep this in mind: - Every single thing you touch inside of the app, and even some things outside of it, are logged in an event containing your user ID, a unique event ID, a timestamp, and a very detailed description of what exactly you did. - Every single message and attachment you send may be perused by Discord staff and of course potential future hackers."
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Have fun with Discord!
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## Sources and further reading
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- [Discord — Spyware Watchdog](https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/discord.html)
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- [Reasons not to use Discord](https://stallman.org/discord.html)
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- [Friends Don't Let Friends Use Discord - The Mega-Discussion : privacy](https://archive.is/Q4N9J)
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- [Why you shouldn't trust Discord | Cadence's Blog](https://cadence.moe/blog/2020-06-06-why-you-shouldnt-trust-discord)
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- [My view on the Issues of Discord | Austin Huang](https://austinhuang.me/discord-issues)
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- [Open letter to Discord : discordapp](https://teddit.net/r/discordapp/comments/debr97/open_letter_to_discord/)
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