Discord users need to be extra careful when using the popular chat service as a third-party company is currently scraping their messages and tracking millions of individual profiles.
As reported by The Register, the internet-scraping company Spy.pet has been actively harvesting data from Discord since November of last year. In the time since, it has collected over four billion messages and as of right now, Spy.pet is tracking 14,000 Discord servers and keeping tabs on more than 620 million users.
While data scraping is nothing new and happens on plenty of social media sites from Facebook to X (formerly Twitter) to LinkedIn, Spy.pet is being quite blatant about it. For instance, the Transparency section on its site leads to a page that only has the word “transparency” written on it, while clicking on the since removed “Request Removal” link just led to a video clip from 2004’s Spider-Man 2 in which J. Jonah Jameson laughs at Peter Parker.
Getting access to information about Discord users requires that you buy credits for $0.1 a pop using cryptocurrency first with a $5 minimum buy-in. Cached profile information costs 7 credits, while profile information with at least one server costs 10 credits. This means you can buy access to someone’s Discord profile for less than $1.
Besides stalking Discord users, Spy.pet also offers a special “enterprise” option, but you need to get in touch with the site’s owner to access it. The site’s creator highlights training AI models using Discord messages and gaining new intel sources for federal agents as some of the reasons why you might want to upgrade.
An investigation is already underway
Spy.pet might not be long for this world, though, as Discord is already looking into the data-scraping service. In a statement to The Register, a company spokesperson provided further insight into the matter, saying:
"Discord is committed to protecting the privacy and data of our users. We are currently investigating this matter. If we determine that violations of our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines have occurred, we will take appropriate steps to enforce our policies. We cannot provide further comments as this is an ongoing investigation."
Likewise, while writing this article, I noticed several changes to the site, including the removal of its “Request Removal” page. The site’s owner could be getting nervous, or Discord may have already gotten its lawyers involved. It’s hard to tell whether or not Spy.pet will be shut down at the moment, but given how blatantly it's abusing Discord’s data, the service’s days are likely numbered.
How to stay safe when chatting online
The discovery that Spy.pet is scraping Discord user data and selling it is the perfect reminder to be careful when posting online.
While the best encrypted messaging apps can keep your chats safe from snooping, the same can’t be said for public services like Discord. This is why you should use a handle instead of your real name and avoid sharing personally identifiable information (PII). At the same time, if you want to avoid being tracked across different services, you may want to use a separate handle that isn’t the same as the one you use on Steam, Xbox or PlayStation.
If you use Discord frequently, you should also consider investing in one of the best antivirus software solutions since cybercriminals have used the platform in their attacks in the past. For those who are really concerned about their data and how it could be misused, you might want to look into the best identity theft protection services too.
We’ll likely hear more from Discord regarding Spy.pet once the company finishes its investigation into the matter. In the meantime, though, it’s worth reevaluating how you act and what you say online, even if you think you’re just in the company of friends.
