Last week, news broke that a website was selling more than four billion public messages, made by roughly 620 million users, logged into more than 14,000 servers. On the surface, it seemed as if there was no foul play because the data was already public-facing. Discord is essentially an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) service, meaning that with the right bots and automation, all of its data could be harvested.
Backup domain
The website advertised the database as something that could be used by law enforcement agencies, or companies looking to train AI models on large logs of human interaction. Spying on people was also an option. The service used an unknown number of Discord accounts, which accessed open servers, or those with an easy invite link. Despite the open availability of the data, Discord confirmed that this, too, was prohibited. Some of the accounts that were engaged in data scraping have also been terminated.
Spy.pet, a website that offered billions of Discord chat logs for sale, has been taken offline by the chat app provider. Discord accounts associated with the service are also believed to have been banned from the service. In confirming the news, Discord itself said that the site and the database it was selling broke its terms of service.
The Spy.pet website administrator allegedly told their followers on Telegram that they were working on propping up a backup domain, but at press time, the site was still showing as offline. “Scraping our services and self-botting are violations of our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines,” the company spokesperson said in a statement for The Register. “In addition to banning the affiliated accounts, we are considering appropriate legal action.”
Discord has taken a strong stance against unauthorized data harvesting activities, with the removal of Spy.pet being a significant step in protecting user privacy and upholding their terms of service. The proactive measures taken by Discord highlight the importance of safeguarding user data and enforcing strict guidelines to maintain a secure and trustworthy community platform.
