Discord is rolling out a mandatory age verification in order to use Discord and the service they’re using is closely linked with Palantir via Peter Thiel and Persona & Founders Fund both of which are his projects.
As a result a lot of platforms are abandoning Discord in favor of other options.
iNat maintains at least one Discord channel. How is iNat planning on addressing the new issues and concerns that the Discord/Palantir link raises?
To be clear, I don’t use Discord, never liked the platform, but I know many here do and anything that links back to Palantir, even via a couple of steps, is a point of privacy concern.
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The iNat Discord server is an ‘unofficial’ one; it was not created by iNat staff, and isn’t maintained by iNat staff. So I don’t think iNat staff are under any obligation to address these issues, and it would be a matter for whoever the mods are
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The CNC also has a Discord that I am a part of. What are the risks of staying there or is it the same risk as the Inat forum/Inat itself? From what I understand anyone with tech savviness can get my data just from me being on the Internet.
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Given Discords track record of data leaks I believe providing discord with personal information is placing yourself at risk
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Luckily I don’t have any personal information on there.
There is a lot to unpack in this long introductory remark…and I won’t try to. This seems to start from a question about some technical aspects of Discord but veers into corporate, personal, and potentially political overtones. I urge a bit of caution for any follow-ups.
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Ah, ok, so it’s morel like the iNat sub on Reddit.
I’ve seen the iNat Discord channel mentioned enough times in the iNat form and by mods and curators that I thought it was one set up by the iNat organization.
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Welcome to life in the present day world.
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If you are concerned about privacy just don’t use the app? I’m not sure what there is for iNaturalist to address assuming they haven’t decided to share everyone’s confidential data on Discord.
Just an aside for anyone who, like me, is less tech-y, because the two softwares are such sound alikes.
The software being discussed in this thread is in use in many places but not here in the Forum.
The forum is run by iNaturalist but exists on Discourse.org servers, running Discourse.org software.
source
(I admit I was momentarily confused because they do sound so much alike.)
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Since the original question was answered (iNat does not run any official Discord servers) and this topic has a high potential to become more political, I’m going to close it. Please reach out to the unofficial Discord admins if you have further concerns.
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