Back in April 2020, Discord was featured on a list. But it wasn’t a good list. Instead, it was the Mozilla Foundation’s report on security and privacy for communications apps, and Discord was given a failing grade. It received this failure alongside Doxy and Houseparty, while other apps like Zoom, Skype, and Google Duo had a passing grade.
Since this report, Mozilla has changed its rating in response to Discord improving their security.
Discord fixed its most noticeable security flaw, which was the ability to make simple passwords. While this may seem like a simple change, it involved a lot of backend changes to verification systems, not to mention a large influx of users suddenly needing to request password changes.
The company has also doubled down on stating that they run no advertisements and do not sell user data, the latter of which is a point hotly contested by users of Discord.
Independent reports of Discord’s security have shown that Discord is not sharing data with third party companies except for processing their own analytics, although it should be noted that the Discord privacy policy leaves it open-ended, allowing them to “share” data with their affiliated companies in the future.
By all accounts, it seems like Discord is committed to making security updates that benefit the users. It’s no secret that Discord has problems with spambots and has a history of hosting toxic content and online criminal activity, which has little to do with security protocols. Discord has been cracking down on this activity lately, in an effort to appeal more to a broader base of users.