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Discord says piracy subpoena would violate users’ First Amendment rights (www.theverge.com)

submitted 20 hours ago by Gemini24601@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Discord defends itself against efforts to stop piracy on its platform by saying no to more invasive data collection. Even though Discord isn’t exactly known for privacy, this is a great move for its users. What are your thoughts?

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[-] Mandy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 hours ago

I had a server with a respectable size.
Did a hard cutoff due to some stupid discord thing.
I managed to get a total of 50 people of about 3k to switch and out of those like 7 actually stayed.

Yet I had to get a burner account again to get in touch with certain people.

Its all be man.

[-] Mwa@lemm.ee 5 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Sad am forced on this app, I love matrix more.

[-] ItsComplicated@sh.itjust.works 178 points 19 hours ago

If they did not collect any information, they would not have any information to give when they are served a subpoena.

[-] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 19 points 16 hours ago

How else would they store and sync the information?

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 hours ago

Sync from another online user. If each message is signed by the author, there's a built-in protection against tampering.

It's really not hard, they just have to care enough to build it that way.

[-] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 1 points 8 minutes ago

Can't feds also sync them from other users?

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 minutes ago

Sure, if they're granted access to the channel. But that access would come from users of the channel, not the service itself, and if the service doesn't store the keys (i.e. you need at least one user online to get access), the service can't really help the feds.

And whether to provide access to history for new users can absolutely be a setting on the channel. I'm just saying that having the messages only on the clients doesn't preclude sharing those messages with a newcomer.

[-] Grunt4019@lemm.ee 43 points 15 hours ago

Encrypt it end to end with them not having the keys

[-] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 15 points 15 hours ago

They do have to retrieve old messages when new users join though. I’m sure the government can force them to lett them in a server and unlock the roles

[-] fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works 1 points 22 minutes ago

Keep the data but encrypted. Let users send links that contain the pki info to decrypt the messages. Have that pki info generated client side.

Discord would only need to shuffle data, provide authentication, and provide the web app data down to the client. But every bit of user shared and generated content would be encrypted to them.

[-] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 1 points 11 minutes ago

Like I said, Discord can still be compelled to let feds join the server, thus receiving the PKIs.

[-] stoy@lemmy.zip 3 points 11 hours ago

Why?

Why is channel history needed for new users?

Back in the IRC days you joined a channel that was just empty, if you wanted the history you had to run an IRC client continously, I remember running screen irssi on a separate computer and sshing into the server, reconnecting the screen with irssi in it.

If you want the history automatically, you can't expect privacy.

[-] GamingChairModel@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago

At the same time, expecting privacy in a room where a bunch of strangers hang out is already unreasonable. If everyone already in the channel can log the chats, for example by idling in the channel, then adding E2E on top of that is probably a false sense of security.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 hours ago

If you want the history automatically, you can’t expect privacy.

That's not true, you can pull the history from other users who happen to be online.

[-] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 1 points 10 minutes ago

The feds can also pull such history when they join the server

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 minutes ago

Sure, and the users of the channel could decide whether to share that history with new users or not. My point is that if you don't have messages on the server, the service can't help here, and it's up to the users of the channel to set their own policies. If the data is stored on the server, the service could be legally obligated to provide that data.

[-] rooster_butt@lemm.ee 1 points 2 hours ago

I have an issue with something I'm using and there is a discord server I will join it. I then search my issue and its usually been adressed in the past. Without history I would be forced to ask the question that has probably been answered many times in the past.

[-] JustARaccoon@lemmy.world 15 points 8 hours ago

Because a lot of people go to discord servers to access existing information?

[-] deathbird@mander.xyz 1 points 2 hours ago

Far more than should tbh. Too many little game mods will have a Discord for questions and reporting issues rather than using their GitHub or a forum.

[-] JustARaccoon@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

Oh I agree, it's very much a "forcing a round peg into a square hole" situation, but I doubt discord will make any changes to push back against it

[-] stoy@lemmy.zip 9 points 8 hours ago

That is a good point, I have never done that, and to me it is just a chat system....

[-] vithigar@lemmy.ca 4 points 7 hours ago

I remember running screen irssi on a separate computer and sshing into the server, reconnecting the screen with irssi in it.

I still do that today.

[-] Chadus_Maximus@lemm.ee 22 points 11 hours ago

90% of the reason I even have discord is because people much smarter than me use it to share information. Nobody uses other areas suited for sharing information anymore. It's either Reddit or discord.

[-] knightly@pawb.social 76 points 19 hours ago

Discord sucks and nobody should use it.

[-] Drigo@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 hour ago

There is no alternative that can do the same

[-] knightly@pawb.social -2 points 51 minutes ago

Good.

Discord sucks at such a fundamental level that the lack of any competing apps for this particularly awful niche actually restores some of my faith in humanity.

[-] stoly@lemmy.world 61 points 18 hours ago

The only thing that really sucks about it is that knowledge that was openly searchable is now locked away behind logins.

[-] example@reddthat.com 24 points 14 hours ago

no, you're also effectively locked out of any participation unless you provide an email address and phone number, which they won't even tell you about in advance but use dark patterns and gaslighting that they noticed "suspicious activity" to step by step first ask you for an email and then once that is validated they prompt you for a phone number. the only thing they don't do yet is ask for ID.

[-] HawlSera@lemm.ee 8 points 11 hours ago

I keep trying to take out my phone number because I don't want strangers seeing that shit, but... then "suspicious activity" gets detyected seconds later...

[-] subignition@fedia.io 7 points 11 hours ago

Validation level is set by server owners, you are unlikely to need to verify a phone number except in the biggest (and therefore spammiest) servers

[-] example@reddthat.com 6 points 8 hours ago

it doesn't seem to be server specific because once prompted there is no way to use the account again, even if you decided to just not use a server that may have these settings set.

[-] subignition@fedia.io 4 points 5 hours ago

Odd, I've never had that experience. Maybe you're using a VPN or something that makes your IP look more suspicious.

[-] SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 21 points 16 hours ago

I say we return to IRC

[-] JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz 8 points 2 hours ago

Discord is a fantastic IRC replacement.
The issue is that people try to use it to replace forums, wikis, personal websites, issue trackers, git, and the kitchen sink, and it does none of these.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 hours ago

Exactly. It's like IRC w/ audio (and probably video now?) chat, and you can post gifs and whatnot. It should be used for discussion, and it's perfectly okay for that. I would prefer something a bit more privacy focused (again, IRC is decent here, just needs some cryptography), but it's okay.

But yeah, not a fan of it being a resource for anything beyond meeting like-minded people to have discussions with.

[-] Gemini24601@lemmy.world 59 points 19 hours ago

While this is true, Discord has a massive user base, so it’s somewhat a privacy win for the common person

[-] Estebiu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 39 points 19 hours ago

its still the old chicken&egg problem: if you dont have communities you dont have users, and if you dont have users you dont have communities

thats why everyone sticks to discord

[-] FierySpectre@lemmy.world 20 points 19 hours ago

Well, you are on Lemmy aren't you

[-] Estebiu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 11 hours ago

Well yeah, cuz there are quite a lot of communities and users already

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 8 points 16 hours ago

And he's the only one.

[-] villainy@lemmy.world 7 points 14 hours ago

We are all Estebiu alts.

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[-] metaStatic@kbin.earth 35 points 19 hours ago

The attorney called Nexon’s demands “improper and overly burdensome”

They will give you up in a heartbeat as long as they don't have to do the extra work of finding you.

Discord isn't protecting anyone's privacy just their bottom dollar

Discord is committed to fulfilling its obligations under the law

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this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2024

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