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by AdvancedCarrot 1520 days ago
Thing is I'm not convinced that discord is really any better from a privacy perspective.

They still retain all of your messages (including DMs) unencrypted indefinitely with no easy way to remove them. Deleting your account doesn't remove messages either.

3 comments

Yes and to be able to use discord with a VPN or Tor it requires a phone number. Unacceptable. Privacy disaster.

https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/discord.html

https://stallman.org/discord.html

I didn't say anything about message privacy, but it's still strictly better than Facebook because Discord "profiles" feature nothing except a username (which, unlike Facebook, is not required to be your legal name), an avatar, a profile banner, and 190 characters worth of freeform markdown. And unlike Facebook, it doesn't pester you to ever add personal information. A company can't store private information that it never has to begin with. By all means, if you want message privacy, use a service that offers end-to-end encryption, which isn't Discord. (But keep in mind that end-to-end encrypted group chat (as in, not strictly one-to-one) is an impossible and unsalvageable UX boondoggle.)
I'm not really worried about Discord keeping all my messages about a Robot Lawnmower or a couple pieces of software / games I discuss on there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_to_hide_argument

> The nothing to hide argument states that individuals have no reason to fear or oppose surveillance programs, unless they are afraid it will uncover their own illicit activities. An individual using this argument may claim that an average person should not worry about government surveillance, as they would have "nothing to hide".

> Edward Snowden remarked "Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say." He considered claiming nothing to hide as giving up the right of privacy which the government has to protect.