No turning back now
2025年5月1日
With Discord in early talks with bankers for potential Initial Public Offering and the recent change of CEO, I believe it's the best opportunity to state my honest opinion on this voice chat service.
I first heard about Discord probably as far back as 2017, but it wasn't until 2020 that I would create my account. When I did, it was to voice chat with some friends while playing various games, but at that time I didn't use it in a regular basis. Moving on to 2022, I started using it more often because of friend groups. At the time, I didn't have such a harsh opinion on the platform because it worked relatively well for my needs and I wasn't aware about the security/privacy issues it has.
The first warning sign that something was off with Discord, was when I found out you can't delete your discord account. When you delete an account, the data itself is not deleted, but instead you lose access to the account and your name is changed to "deleted user". So… deleting your account is like not deleting at all! How come a company does not let you remove your data from their platform? It's in complete violation of the GDPR and in no way respects the "right to be forgotten".
Discord also forbids people or make it very difficult to use “tricks” to give users a smidge of control over their data, such as mass deleting messages or using alternative clients. There are privacy toggles, but they do nothing with regard to data collection. The Discord client collects data such as: every single interaction inside the program, other programs you are running in your device, geo-location data, names of pages you're looking in your web browser, cookies, history and accounts. On the phone, I noticed the Discord app heats up and drains battery very quickly while using it. As it is closed-source, we can't be completely sure of what other things it does.
Having that much information collected and stored in a central server, specially unencrypted, is pretty dangerous. The platform is a sweet target for hackers, scammers and other bad actors to take advantage of. Not that other chat software doesn't have similar issues, but I've never seen it as recurrent as it is on Discord. I remember not too long ago hacked accounts of servers I was in were promoting fake gift codes, and moderation was not doing anything about it.
Make no mistake, this is all done purposefully. Discord is a data-driven company and has basically no way to sustain itself without venture capital backing and data sales, specially for what it does. The cost of operating the service on the technical level alone massively outweighs the small revenues from Nitro, Boosts and microtransactions.
With the recent Initial Public Offering and the change in CEO from Jason Citron to a former Activision Blizzard employee, there is no turning back now. The IPO will expose the company to greater scrutiny from investors, which may lead to pressure to maximize profits. This means more bad decisions (think more ads, paywalls, or weird feature changes) that worsen the user experience for the sake of profits.
Is there a way to make Discord better? Well, my advise is to not install the client on any device that you have in the first place, keep it inside a separate browser, consider using uBlock Origin, and if possible, do not install the app on the phone. Make sure to use two-factor authentication (2FA), a strong password and an email alias as well if you can. Another personal tip is not to stay on servers where you no longer interact with or if the server itself is inactive. When it comes to the data you input through Discord, like calls, text messages, forget it. It's being collected and there's really no way to avoid it, so you need to be careful not to send important information through it. If you use it this way, then the risks are generally lower and it becomes a relatively "safe" platform to use, if like me you have friends who have no other means of communicating than Discord.
You don't have to completely ditch Discord if you have friends who still use it. But looking for alternatives that respect your freedom and privacy can be a very effective way to improve your chat experience in the long run. Which one is the best? At the end of the day, it really comes down to your personal preference. I recommend you doing your own research and find out what you're most comfortable using, but if you're curious, I personally use Revolt, Matrix and XMPP for personal and group chat. These are not without downsides, but they're all open-source, ad-free and community-driven. People can volunteer to contribute to the project, and those who can't, can still donate to support it, give feedback or suggestions for features they'd like to see in the future.
Aaaand I think that's it. It's really hard for me to say this but I don't like Discord as much as I did in the past. I had great experiences, and I sure am still having great moments with friends I know from there. I'm not gonna stop using Discord, but I will prioritize other platforms that better align with my principles. And like my friend Kibs said it better than I could:
“The thing is to be the change you want for things instead of just waiting for them to happen. If Revolt had more attention, it would already have as many features as Discord, because the pull request page is there. And it's open for a reason. But most of the time there's always a problem or an excuse. Everyone is too lazy to support a cause, but to consume products, everyone does.”
Thanks for reading, everyone. Seeya soon :)