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Discord Unveiled: A Comprehensive Dataset of Public Communication (2015-2024)

arxiv.org

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Re: Discord Unveiled: A Comprehensive Dataset of Public Communication (2015-2024)

#11

Post by Y_Y »

candiddevmike wrote: post #4

> Usernames are replaced with consistent pseudonyms generated by the mimesis library, ensuring that identifiers remain unique and contextually meaningful across records. Similarly, user IDs and message IDs are hashed using the SHA-256 algorithm and truncated to 12 characters. This deterministic hashing approach maintains linkage between related records while effectively masking the original identifiers. The global na…

So if I can identify a chat, that I have direct access to, in the dataset, I can get the hashed user ID of my contacts, and the search for any other messages from them?

Re: Discord Unveiled: A Comprehensive Dataset of Public Communication (2015-2024)

#13

Post by kd5bjo »

A quick read through of their anonymization process seems to indicate that they didn’t scan the message contents for PII (other than usernames).

If true, that seems like a huge oversight. I also wonder what would happen if someone finds their information in the dataset and requests it to be removed per GDPR or other privacy legislation.

Re: Discord Unveiled: A Comprehensive Dataset of Public Communication (2015-2024)

#14

Post by AStonesThrow »

It says they used ethical anonymization, but we’ve seen other scrapers are always completely in violation of Discord’s TOS.

So did Discord cooperate, or give special authorization for this collection? It wouldn’t appear that they could do so, if privacy belongs to their users at all.

Re: Discord Unveiled: A Comprehensive Dataset of Public Communication (2015-2024)

#16

Post by spencerflem »

Y_Y wrote: post #11
candiddevmike wrote: post #4

> Usernames are replaced with consistent pseudonyms generated by the mimesis library, ensuring that identifiers remain unique and contextually meaningful across records. Similarly, user IDs and message IDs are hashed using the SHA-256 algorithm and truncated to 12 characters. This deterministic hashing approach maintains linkage between related records while effectively masking the original identifiers. The global na…

So if I can identify a chat, that I have direct access to, in the dataset, I can get the hashed user ID of my contacts, and the search for any other messages from them?

seems like. or if your chat mentioned a person IRL and not a discord username. or used a nickname.

Re: Discord Unveiled: A Comprehensive Dataset of Public Communication (2015-2024)

#17

Post by xnorswap »

candiddevmike wrote: post #4

> Usernames are replaced with consistent pseudonyms generated by the mimesis library, ensuring that identifiers remain unique and contextually meaningful across records. Similarly, user IDs and message IDs are hashed using the SHA-256 algorithm and truncated to 12 characters. This deterministic hashing approach maintains linkage between related records while effectively masking the original identifiers. The global na…

> public spaces on the internet

But discord servers aren't considered "public spaces", hence the concept of an "invite".

This is akin to someone revealing they've been going to private parties and secretly recording everything.

It might not be illegal, but it's definitely not polite.

Re: Discord Unveiled: A Comprehensive Dataset of Public Communication (2015-2024)

#19

Post by drooopy »

SirMaster wrote: post #5

The biggest problem that sucks about discord is that it isn't normally publicly searchable. And it seems to be a modern replacement for internet forums which historically were publicly searchable and often had a lot of great information about various hobbies and things.

There is a special place in hell for software (including game) developers who exclusively use Discord to release patch notes, documentation, technical support, etc.

Re: Discord Unveiled: A Comprehensive Dataset of Public Communication (2015-2024)

#20

Post by pteraspidomorph »

mavamaarten wrote: post #8
SirMaster wrote: post #5

The biggest problem that sucks about discord is that it isn't normally publicly searchable. And it seems to be a modern replacement for internet forums which historically were publicly searchable and often had a lot of great information about various hobbies and things.

Agreed. Some use it as a knowledgebase and issue tracker and forum and chatroom in one. I absolutely despise it for that use case. I mean I use it for voice chatting with friends while gaming too and it's fine for that. But if I have to beg and plead to a discord bot to join a channel to just read some docs, I'm just going to ignore your project. Not sorry about that at all.

Speaking as someone who has been running discord servers since 2015 - plus I maintain my own discord bot and am deeply familiar with the API - it's absolute garbage as an issue tracker. People really need to stop using it for that.

I think part of the problem is that they confuse the semantics of nomenclature. "Servers" are not really servers, "forums" are not really forums, and so on and so forth.

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