[opensuse] Discord on Linux?? (not the nicest player from a privacy standpoint)
On factory, I read the message about onboard tutorials being given via Discord on Linux. [opensuse-factory] next openQA tutorial/onboarding livestream on Wednesday July 29th 11 AM UTC I've heard my kids talk about it, but never tried it myself. I guess it is just a glorified IRC type chat app. I was even more surprised to find it is the main/update repos?? Okay. Well, I installed it, updated it, and it looks pretty much like it does on windows, and with any net "aware" app, I then set about picking through the settings to determine what avenues it provides for data to be lifted from my computer without my consent -- and shocked I was. Anyone installing will need to take a detailed walk through the Privacy settings and I would avoid testing the webcam. There are numerous setting your a opted-in to by default where you will be sending all kinds of data back to discord to "help make it better..." It also decides by default it will start every time you start your computer and will minimize to the system tray instead of exiting when you use the close-window control. (you may want to change both) All and all -- it looks like the same thing I've seen on the kids machine, and one of these days I'll figure out what it does. I was happy to learn how to use 'alien -r -c yourfile.deb' to turn a .deb file into an .rpm that can be installed to update it... So it was a worthwhile foray :) -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 28/07/2020 17.52, David C. Rankin wrote:
On factory,
I read the message about onboard tutorials being given via Discord on Linux.
[opensuse-factory] next openQA tutorial/onboarding livestream on Wednesday July 29th 11 AM UTC
I've heard my kids talk about it, but never tried it myself. I guess it is just a glorified IRC type chat app. I was even more surprised to find it is the main/update repos?? Okay.
As I don't have kids, I have not heard about it :-p I think there is are ongoing effort to connect openSUSE channels on discord to IRC, so that we could use an IRC client instead.
Well, I installed it, updated it, and it looks pretty much like it does on windows, and with any net "aware" app, I then set about picking through the settings to determine what avenues it provides for data to be lifted from my computer without my consent -- and shocked I was.
Anyone installing will need to take a detailed walk through the Privacy settings and I would avoid testing the webcam. There are numerous setting your a opted-in to by default where you will be sending all kinds of data back to discord to "help make it better..."
It also decides by default it will start every time you start your computer and will minimize to the system tray instead of exiting when you use the close-window control. (you may want to change both)
Well, the IRC client I use does the same. I use Pidgin. If I hit "close", an applet remains in the bar. I think (but not tried) that if I "closed" it, I can still be called by someone that wants to call me - like a phone. That's why it doesn't really close.
All and all -- it looks like the same thing I've seen on the kids machine, and one of these days I'll figure out what it does.
I was happy to learn how to use 'alien -r -c yourfile.deb' to turn a .deb file into an .rpm that can be installed to update it... So it was a worthwhile foray :)
The conference is tomorrow, I understand? There other communication avenues. I hear talking about "matrix", for instance. No, I don't know what it is. There is mention of it in https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Communication_channels +++----------------- *Other methods* Other There are plenty of other ways to communicate with openSUSE users or to get support: Telegram Discord Matrix Community Usenet (Newsgroups). Jabber Multi-User-Chat (MUC). Wikis, a great source of documentation. See in particular openSUSE.org (this site) and the openSUSE-Community.org website. -----------------++- The "matrix" link is not hosted on the opensuse wiki, it is on https://matrix.to/#/+opensuse:matrix.org and I don't understand what it is about. There is no Linux tool to use it, only for IOS, so I don't really understand why we talk about it. -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 15.1 x86_64 at Telcontar)
On 7/28/20 12:25 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
Well, the IRC client I use does the same. I use Pidgin. If I hit "close", an applet remains in the bar. I think (but not tried) that if I "closed" it, I can still be called by someone that wants to call me - like a phone. That's why it doesn't really close.
Yes granted, so does Basket, keepassx(c) and pidgin -- but none of them have pre-set privacy controls that allow then to find all social media apps on your computer and scrape you and all of your unwitting friends info.... This thing collects video and photos from your web-cam as well as your voice and it is in the business of selling all of it to the highest bidder (or dumping it to any bidder that will offer money) That is the type of app I'll see if it works and then zypper rm -u as quickly as possible. I sure hope the SuSE folks get IRC connected, because this little gem skates over the end of what is reasonable from a privacy concern standpoint. -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
On 28/07/2020 21.46, David C. Rankin wrote:
On 7/28/20 12:25 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
Well, the IRC client I use does the same. I use Pidgin. If I hit "close", an applet remains in the bar. I think (but not tried) that if I "closed" it, I can still be called by someone that wants to call me - like a phone. That's why it doesn't really close.
Yes granted, so does Basket, keepassx(c) and pidgin -- but none of them have pre-set privacy controls that allow then to find all social media apps on your computer and scrape you and all of your unwitting friends info....
Possibly. I have not installed it (yet?), so I do not know.
This thing collects video and photos from your web-cam as well as your voice and it is in the business of selling all of it to the highest bidder (or dumping it to any bidder that will offer money)
That is the type of app I'll see if it works and then zypper rm -u as quickly as possible.
Or, just create an apparmour profile for it, and jail it.
I sure hope the SuSE folks get IRC connected, because this little gem skates over the end of what is reasonable from a privacy concern standpoint.
Well, I can tell you that the admin folks use IRC since long :-) But I do not know if Matrix connects the #opensuse-admin channel to discord. -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from openSUSE 15.1 (Legolas))
On 7/28/20 12:25 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
On 28/07/2020 17.52, David C. Rankin wrote:
On factory,
I read the message about onboard tutorials being given via Discord on Linux.
[opensuse-factory] next openQA tutorial/onboarding livestream on Wednesday July 29th 11 AM UTC
I've heard my kids talk about it, but never tried it myself. I guess it is just a glorified IRC type chat app. I was even more surprised to find it is the main/update repos?? Okay.
As I don't have kids, I have not heard about it :-p
I think there is are ongoing effort to connect openSUSE channels on discord to IRC, so that we could use an IRC client instead.
This was an unsettling article on discord: https://cybernews.com/privacy/discord-privacy-tips-that-you-should-use-in-20... -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
On 28/07/2020 21.49, David C. Rankin wrote:
On 7/28/20 12:25 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
On 28/07/2020 17.52, David C. Rankin wrote:
On factory,
I read the message about onboard tutorials being given via Discord on Linux.
[opensuse-factory] next openQA tutorial/onboarding livestream on Wednesday July 29th 11 AM UTC
I've heard my kids talk about it, but never tried it myself. I guess it is just a glorified IRC type chat app. I was even more surprised to find it is the main/update repos?? Okay.
As I don't have kids, I have not heard about it :-p
I think there is are ongoing effort to connect openSUSE channels on discord to IRC, so that we could use an IRC client instead.
This was an unsettling article on discord:
https://cybernews.com/privacy/discord-privacy-tips-that-you-should-use-in-20...
Not very tempting. It is worse or better than, say, Facebook? -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from openSUSE 15.1 (Legolas))
On 7/28/20 3:03 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
This was an unsettling article on discord:
https://cybernews.com/privacy/discord-privacy-tips-that-you-should-use-in-20...
Not very tempting.
It is worse or better than, say, Facebook?
It comes with a bonus -- not only does it gather data on its own, it will scrape your facebook's, twitter and about 5 other collections of friends data too. Other than starting and researching the thing, it looks like an immediate zypper rm -u candidate... I don't use social media for that matter, so I don't know how bad they are. I have a facebook account, but don't think I've logged in since 2016 or so. Never saw the value in that type platform and there isn't enough time in the day. The only Privacy statement I've seen that is worse is the pharmacy discount apps -- that have found a way to get your protected health information from you by agreement for sharing with 3rd parties that are not covered entities under the various protection laws. So if factory wants to do onboarding via an app like this -- hopefully they will find a way to do it over IRC/pidgin type apps. Relying on proprietary packages with use this type of data collection for profit is a non-starter. -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
On 29/07/2020 05.43, David C. Rankin wrote:
On 7/28/20 3:03 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
This was an unsettling article on discord:
https://cybernews.com/privacy/discord-privacy-tips-that-you-should-use-in-20...
Not very tempting.
It is worse or better than, say, Facebook?
It comes with a bonus -- not only does it gather data on its own, it will scrape your facebook's, twitter and about 5 other collections of friends data too.
How?
Other than starting and researching the thing, it looks like an immediate zypper rm -u candidate...
I don't use social media for that matter, so I don't know how bad they are. I have a facebook account, but don't think I've logged in since 2016 or so. Never saw the value in that type platform and there isn't enough time in the day.
I have an account, but rarely use it. Only to access data that they tell me it is there and is not accessible anonymously. I have it on a separate Firefox profile used solely for Facebook, so it is impossibly for it to gather any information from other accounts, say Google or Amazon (each of which have their own FF profiles). But this discord thing is a separate application, so it could do things like scan anywhere. It occurs to me that to try it, I would use a separate user. That would stop it on its tracks. A user that doesn't belong to the users group.
The only Privacy statement I've seen that is worse is the pharmacy discount apps -- that have found a way to get your protected health information from you by agreement for sharing with 3rd parties that are not covered entities under the various protection laws.
Pharmacy discount apps? I haven't seen any, I don't know if they exist here. New concept to me. I know that there is a computer shop that when I do a purchase, on the exit buttom claims I can recover part of the purchase if I click. I did once, then noticed it was not inside the shop, so I quited. I never clicked there again.
So if factory wants to do onboarding via an app like this -- hopefully they will find a way to do it over IRC/pidgin type apps. Relying on proprietary packages with use this type of data collection for profit is a non-starter.
The rationale is that, like it or not, there is a large community of users there, before we knew anything. So it is ignore those people, or connect. IRC may not be a good solution if it is interconnected via Matrix, anyway. -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 15.1 x86_64 at Telcontar)
participants (4)
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Carlos E. R. -
Carlos E. R. -
Carlos E.R.
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David C. Rankin