Enhancing Discord Privacy: A Guide to Maintaining Usability

Discord is a popular platform for socializing, especially for gamers coordinating with friends and guildmates. However, this convenience often comes at the cost of user privacy. Many features that are intended to enhance user experience can feel like potential vulnerabilities. To address these concerns, I made several adjustments to my settings, allowing me to improve my privacy without sacrificing the functionality I rely on during gaming sessions.

Limit Data Collection by Discord

One of the first actions I take in any application is disabling telemetry. Tracking my usage feels intrusive, and frequent data breaches raise concerns about trust in how companies handle personal information. Discord collects and shares user activity data to enhance its services and personalize recommendations, such as in its Quests feature. If you rarely engage with Discord Quests, you can safely turn off telemetry features.

To adjust these settings, click on the Gear icon in the bottom navigation to access User Settings. From there, navigate to the Data & Privacy section and disable the following options:

Use data to improve Discord
Use my Discord activity to personalize Sponsored Content
Use third-party data to personalize Sponsored Content

Additionally, if you prefer a more tailored experience, you can opt to disable the Use data to personalize my Discord Experience option. Be aware that doing so may limit personalized suggestions in the Active Now and Discover tabs, which may not be significant for many users.

Secure Your Voice from Recording

When communicating via Discord, it’s vital to prevent unintentional recordings, as I often share casual conversations that I don’t wish to be public. While you cannot entirely eliminate the risk posed by external recording tools, you can disable the Clips feature that many users utilize.

To safeguard your voice, return to the Data & Privacy section and toggle off the Avoid my voice being recorded in Clips setting. This will ensure that your voice remains muted in any Clips made by others.

Disabling Voice Recording in Discord Clips

Control Information from Connected Apps

While Discord supports impressive third-party app integrations, these can expose a wealth of personal information. Linking accounts such as Reddit or Facebook can unintentionally make your username public, inviting unwanted scrutiny and interaction from bots and strangers.

For instance, I integrated my Reddit account for verification purposes, but I prefer to keep my username private from others. My recommendation is to avoid connecting unrelated accounts to maintain privacy across platforms. If account integration is necessary, ensure that visibility options are turned off.

To manage connected accounts, navigate to User Settings and proceed to the Connections section. Here, you can either unlink accounts by clicking the x button or toggle off the Display on profile and Display details on profile options.

Disabling Connections display in Discord

Manage Activity Visibility

Discord’s default setting scans for active games and displays them to other users, which can be intrusive. While this feature is useful for gaming sessions, it compromises privacy by revealing the games you play, potentially influencing social interactions. If you don’t rely on others joining your current game, it’s advisable to hide this activity.

To adjust these settings, head to the Activity Privacy section in User Settings and switch off the Share my activity option. If you wish to allow only certain friends to see your activity, you can set it to Do not share under the Server | Share With section.

Prevent Unsolicited Friend Requests

Discord is a breeding ground for scams and bots that send mass friend requests. To protect yourself from these threats, it is wise to disable the setting that allows strangers to send you friend requests. Typically, this change means you’ll only receive requests from users on mutual servers, reducing exposure to random bots.

Usually, the only downside is when you want to add someone you’ve met outside of Discord. However, you can always send the request instead of sharing your Discord tag.

To modify friend request settings, go to Content & Social in User Settings. Scroll down and turn off the Everyone toggle under Friend Requests.

While some might view these privacy adjustments as overly cautious, they are essential in today’s digital landscape, especially given Discord’s past issues with age verification. If you have teenagers using Discord, consider utilizing the Discord Family Center to help oversee their activities.

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