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Using Discord in a private way?

Hi all,

I haven't used Discord in a while, but it became so that now I have to use it for communication with certain people getting support for some services that I use. What I'm doing currently is:

  • using a separate randomised e-mail address only for the Discord account
  • using a randomly generated username
  • no profile picture
  • tweaking the settings as best I can for privacy

Other than these points, I'm also being wary of talking about anything personal on Discord. Would you add anything so I can be even safer when using Discord?

mp3 ,
@mp3@lemmy.ca avatar

Always consider what you say on Discord as potentially public, since there is no E2EE.

autonomoususer , (edited )

Worse, anti-libre software, Discord, bans us from proving it's claims, if it ever claims privacy, security, anything.

breadsmasher ,
@breadsmasher@lemmy.world avatar

If youre just talking to friends directly without joining servers so this might not matter. But discord might require a phone number for verification? Im not sure what triggers it specifically- I dont think its required just for an account though

variants ,

It depends on the server. Most servers set it to require an email verified account because of all the bots and spammers, I haven't joined any that required a phone number but might if they support a product and want to link your discord to their orders or something

Harvest5634 ,

Use any matrix client unstead.

just_another_person ,

Nope

tobogganablaze ,

You forgot the VPN.

GolfNovemberUniform ,
@GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml avatar

Discord doesn't have encryption and, according to the terms of service, can read your messages. If you care about privacy, I definitely would not recommend using it for private conversations, especially after recent rumors about adding ads. I think they won't lose the opportunity to use your DMs for it

UnfortunateShort ,

You can use it in a browser or opt for WebCord.

Note that any text send to discord currently stays there forever. I don't know when, but you can bet your ass they will be investigated for a violation of the GDPR, which hopefully stops that for good.

JustMarkov ,

[Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

    •
    UnfortunateShort ,

    I heard the messages even stay when you delete them. At least people claimed they could recover then, don't know whether that's actually true.

    inlandempire ,
    @inlandempire@jlai.lu avatar

    No way when this https://lifehacker.com/tech/discord-data-sold-to-ai-and-law-enforcement and this https://spy.pet/ exist

    sic_semper_tyrannis ,

    Did you sign up with a VPN turned on? Are you always using a VPN and private DNS? You could also use a voice changer.

    kitnaht ,

    getting support for some services that I use

    NAME AND SHAME please.

    refalo ,

    That could potentially open them up to legal problems. Whether it's technically legal or not, nobody wants the possibility of their livelihood being taken away by court costs just because some idiot who is wrong wants to fight them and lose anyway, because they can afford it and you can't (and often times they know it).

    I once paid for access to a stock options trading group, but they only used discord. Their website had no other contact info at all. My discord account got randomly banned (it happened right after I joined an innocent server, but maybe because a bunch of people were joining at once, that triggered it? idk), so I could no longer use the service I was paying for. The service auto-renewed on my credit card and I had no way to contact the people to cancel my account (couldn't even make a new discord account). I had to dispute the charge with my CC company and it took months of back and forth with them because they simply could not understand that I could no longer access the only method of support that they offered.

    autonomoususer ,

    You don't know how to post from an alt account?

    kitnaht ,

    It's not illegal to tell people that a company uses discord for support. You're not slandering them if it's the truth.

    helenslunch ,
    @helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

    Honestly the list of ones that DONT use Discord would be shorter. It's extremely unfortunate. I championed Discord for many years as well.

    Asudox ,
    @Asudox@lemmy.world avatar

    Don't share any personally identifiable information and use the TOR network when using it for additional privacy.

    possiblylinux127 ,
    @possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip avatar

    Good luck with that

    Interstellar_1 ,
    @Interstellar_1@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    Use vencord, which bundles OpenAsar, which disables the built-in tracking from the app.

    Dymonika ,

    Is Vencord superior to Discord in the web browser?

    EDIT: Never mind; it has browser extensions! https://vencord.dev/download/

    MigratingtoLemmy ,

    A VPN and the other stuff you mentioned will deal with it

    refalo ,

    VPNs do not protect your privacy. Please don't spread FUD

    MigratingtoLemmy ,

    They do not protect one's privacy if someone is motivated enough, i.e. nation states, or if OP's VPN company sells their information. You can be reasonably assured that Mullvad and IVPN aren't exactly doing that. In terms of obfuscating one's IP, if that's a step towards one's privacy from big tech, then yes good VPNs definitely protect one's privacy

    LazerDickMcCheese ,

    I know interested people don't like to talk about it...but we, the people, should really be moving away from Discord. A bucket of water doesn't fix a burning house, ya know?

    flux ,

    Moving away from Discord can mean you need to stop interacting with the community using it. My personal examples are: Tilt5, Makera, Turbo Sliders. In the these cases Discord is also the way to access support for something you've paid for.

    Getting thise communities to move into something open (e.g. Matrix) can be a tall order.

    LazerDickMcCheese ,

    I get your point, but that's exactly what I do. When someone say "just use discord", I drop their product/service/etc. and move on. I'm not saying everyone else should do that, but my life is too short for "support" via Discord

    rar ,

    It's a hostage situation they're doing like any proprietary social network. You want to encourage people to move away from them, but then you need to interact with those same people in order to do that.

    Scolding7300 ,

    Do you game with friends? If so, what do you use instead of discord?

    LazerDickMcCheese ,

    Yeah, I text and call them

    Mazoku ,

    An end to end encrypted chat app that supports group chats and calls.

    mox , (edited )

    In that situation, I would also:

    • Only use it through a browser (with fingerprinting protection), never a Discord app.
    • Dedicate a browser installation, or at least a user profile, to Discord.
    • Only use it over a VPN connection dedicated to Discord, or Tor if it's allowed.
    • Have an alternative channel (maybe Matrix?) ready and waiting for contacts who might be willing to switch.
    rar ,

    When I tested it, VPN do work after sms verification. Tor nodes, however, resulted in all my test accounts being banned.

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