In March, Discord Will Require Photo IDs Pretty Much Everywhere

WE’RE JUST A MONTH AWAY FROM DISCORD REQUIRING FACE SCANS OR PHOTO IDS

Well, this sucks. It looks like there’s another nail in the coffin that privacy is to be buried in, sooner than later. And the nail is a big, jagged rusty one, to boot. Because all users, in all countries of the world, will have to submit their respective photo IDs to keep using the very popular messaging app, Discord. I use it, if only to coordinate min and stay informed about, an MMO I’ve gotten deep into. It’s actually been an incredibly valuable tool for the game, and I’m going to have to see what all my team mates are saying about this unfortunate development. Because I can guarantee that many will balk at this new, pending requirement.

IN THEORY, THIS IS TO PROTECT KIDS; IN REALITY, THIS WILL KILL MORE PRIVACY EVERYWHERE

And like many times before in the last couple of years, the reason for the photo IDs requirement is to “protect the children.” Now maybe it’s because I’m not a billionaire, but I am a strong supporter of protecting kids. But it sure looks like protecting kids means killing privacy, in each and every change of policy requirement for a while now. And now we can add Discord to the list, even as many of us flee the what had until now been a convenient and great messaging app. And no, I don’t think supplying photo IDs to be able to prove you’re an adult just to turn off the profanity filter is worth it. To be thematically succinct: FUCK THAT.

Home Secretary in England Really Wants AI Panopticon State

DISCORD USERS WILL BE JUST A HACK AWAY FROM THEIR BIOMETRICS TIED TO CHATS, BROWSING HISTORY

To be fair, I don’t use Discord for anything beyond gaming conversations. I don’t access any kind of sensitive content, or go into age-restricted channels, or servers, or use any app commands. I do think that protecting kids from being direct-messaged by adults is a good idea (duh), with more protections from friend requests from unknown users (double duh). But I really don’t think that suddenly requiring photo IDs in order to “protect the children” is the way to go. I mean, really, age verification on porn sites (from what I’ve read, ahem) is easier. And THEN there’s your photo ID, associated with your messaging and browsing history, there for the picking in a data hack.

What could go wrong?