People have asked me why I prefer Matrix and Mumble to the online call/messaging platform 'Discord' so I thought I would write this page in hopes of clearing some of it up.
Sources are highlighted in pink.
Current Discord CEO and co-founder Jason Citron's previous software company 'OpenFeint' was sued for illegally harvesting user data.[1][2]
Currently Discord's privacy policy states that while it doesn't "sell" user data, the company is free to give their data to their investors.[3]
What's extra worrying about this is due to Discord's encryption model, every message you send as well as any calls Discord records (which their privacy policy states they can freely do) would be considered 'their data' to give away to their investors[4] including Tencent.[5]
The above 'Reddit' comment was since "deleted" by the original poster, however the "Staff Reply" flair/tag still indicates that it was an official response.
Also worth mentioning is that while Discord having a universal key to all their stored messages doesn't make hacking easier, it makes decrypting stolen messages in the event of a data breach actually possible!
Lastly, some of Discord's staff have been heavily and rightly criticized for their disturbing views on "mythological creatures".[6]
Personally, any one of these reasons would be more than enough for me to stay completely clear of Discord as a platform yet it remains one of the largest social media platforms despite how easy it is to set up your own call/chat server using a spare computer due to lack of knowledge and spread of misinformation.[7]