29 votes

FTC issues orders to Amazon, TikTok, Discord, Facebook, Reddit, Snap, Twitter, WhatsApp, and YouTube seeking data about practices related to personal information, advertising, and user engagement

6 comments

  1. [5]
    petrichor
    Link
    Interesting Discord's included in this list, they seem to be a serious outlier compared to the social media juggernauts that are YouTube / Twitter / Reddit / TikTok. I welcome it, though -...

    Interesting Discord's included in this list, they seem to be a serious outlier compared to the social media juggernauts that are YouTube / Twitter / Reddit / TikTok. I welcome it, though - Discord's data collection and monetization policies have never really gone under close scrutiny, and it's seriously doubtful that all their revenue comes from the "Nitro" plan they sell.

    8 votes
    1. [5]
      Comment deleted by author
      Link Parent
      1. [4]
        hackitfast
        Link Parent
        It's not really clear as to what information Discord really collects. Only two things that come to mind are (of course) anything that you type in and send, and most likely the specs of your...

        It's not really clear as to what information Discord really collects. Only two things that come to mind are (of course) anything that you type in and send, and most likely the specs of your machine. Then of course any statistics relevant to the services that they offer. Beyond that I'm not sure.

        1 vote
        1. lionirdeadman
          Link Parent
          From requesting the data package before privacy options were a thing. Location derived from IP is collect with every action they collect. They collect all messages, they collect when you press the...

          From requesting the data package before privacy options were a thing. Location derived from IP is collect with every action they collect. They collect all messages, they collect when you press the button in voice calls. They collect more too but I've forgotten. It was pretty shocking.

          If you want to see yourself, you'll need a good text processor because they just give you big ass JSON files.

          4 votes
        2. [3]
          Comment deleted by author
          Link Parent
          1. [2]
            hackitfast
            Link Parent
            That's a bit disconcerting. Depending on how deep they are digging into computer processes, they can probably extrapolate browsing history from Chrome tabs, or any other application with Chromium...

            That's a bit disconcerting. Depending on how deep they are digging into computer processes, they can probably extrapolate browsing history from Chrome tabs, or any other application with Chromium built in.

            1. lionirdeadman
              Link Parent
              According to them, the processes are only analysed locally, never sent to the servers unless it identifies a game.

              According to them, the processes are only analysed locally, never sent to the servers unless it identifies a game.

  2. Deimos
    Link
    Here's a generic example of the order they're being sent (PDF). I probably won't look through it in detail until later tonight, but just from a quick skim it seems to be a pretty significant...

    Here's a generic example of the order they're being sent (PDF). I probably won't look through it in detail until later tonight, but just from a quick skim it seems to be a pretty significant amount of data they're requesting.

    6 votes