[greymeister]

I refuse to use Discord because I don't know how or to whom they are going to sell my data yet. It's possible they go to a subscription model but I doubt it, it seems more likely they'll be acquired by one of the big data brokers at some point.

[teirce]

Discord already has a subscription model (nitro).

They tried to pivot themselves into a game store, but that appears to not have gone particularly well.

Not too sure on the privacy front. I don't believe they sell any user data, yet.

[LinuxBender]

Hopefully they won't provide chat data or metrics to others. If Discord were acquired or partnered with anyone shady, they are certainly in a position to Big-Data-AI (and other bs bing words) everyone. They brag about storing all messages. [1]

[1] - https://blog.discordapp.com/how-discord-stores-billions-of-m...

[gsich]

Getting acquired is their business model.

[lolikoisuru]

>Not too sure on the privacy front. I don't believe they sell any user data, yet.

Oh please. The CEO's last company got sued for that and this time he made sure to make it obvious in the ToS.

[redskull]

How do you think they provide a FREE service...in there TOS it says they mine all data you put on discord and essentially resell it...It's been shitcords way since Day 1....If you don't see that IDK what to tell you cause people just don't HAND out free services unless they are getting something in return

[greymeister]

Good point, I remember the game storefront being announced but had not heard about their subscriptions.

I still wouldn't recommend using it for anything because of the potential gold mine they have with the user data. I can imagine Tencent or someone similar coming in for the data alone.

[orliesaurus]

> but that appears to not have gone particularly well. source? numbers? leaks?

[mostlysimilar]

I felt similarly until I re-framed my expectations. I think of it as speaking in public -- even if I'm in a direct message with a single other user, I imagine it's like sitting next to them in a coffee shop. Probably nobody is listening to me speak, but I won't be surprised if I'm overheard by people. Not a perfect analogy but eh.

For hanging out with people and just having casual conversations I think it's fine. Don't say anything you want kept private. I do think it's unfortunate that people don't consider where their data is going or how it's used on a broader scale, but for those of us who use technology more intimately I think we can afford to make these sorts of decisions. I'm happy with the convenience and the interface and I'm okay knowing that the communications are likely going to end up in the hands of some big marketing company some day.

[cbzbc]

"Probably nobody is listening to me speak, but I won't be surprised if I'm overheard by people. Not a perfect analogy but eh."

Which is fine, except the analogy in this case is someone who is always sitting next to you and has access to all your conversational history - which may be public in isolation but private in aggregate.

[AWildC182]

Yea, the person sitting next to you doesn't have your entire chat history and a server farm to de-anonymize you.

[reificator]

Their model is to sell video games, and that has been clear for years before properly announced.

That doesn't mean they can't also sell your data, but if your root concern is where they're getting their revenue, game sales is where.

[cbzbc]

Which doesn't mean they won't do both -- because prosaically their costs are going to be higher than Steam.

[kbody]

I doubt that's a viable business model for Discord. It feels like something to go after in order to reassure reactions like the one you were replying to. (Plus any money never hurt anyone, but it doesn't seem viable at all).

[lolikoisuru]

>I don't know how or to whom they are going to sell my data yet

You do know though, absolutely everyone. Read their ToS and they make it pretty obvious.

[Hawxy]

What?

- The ToS has nothing to do with data usage

- The privacy policy explicitly states they don't sell user data

- Multiple employees are on the record as saying they don't

- There's no evidence they do

- They've said that nitro subscriptions and game selling are done to avoid ever needing to do ads/data selling.

- They're VC funded to the tune of over $100 million and thus have taken their time with monetization options.

Discord "selling data" is nothing more than a (very) weak conspiracy theory.

[Gaelan]

They have a subscription model (Reddit gold style) and also sell games.