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Discord Servers asking for Phone Numbers and 'Verification Levels' (lemmy.world)

submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

49 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/10799766

(Edit: Cross-posted OP (link above) was mod removed by the Discord forum 'admin' on 2024-01-19 as being "False claim, false interpreted", so the above link will no longer work.)

Recently read this on a Steam game's reviews section ...

User Comment...

The game's Discord REQUIRES your personal phone number to get access at all. This is a very intrusive, and 100% unnecessary requirement, in order to just be able to interact with others about the game, it's content, player experiences, and many other things. It's also intrusive in regards to being able to contribute any input to help other players in any way at all.

Dev Response...

It's Discord that's asking you for verification of the account. We're not getting your phone number. This is standard practice on bigger servers that allows for a better user experience, filtering bots/ spam accounts, trolls, etc.

Could companies please STOP lying about it being Discord's choice, its not, is the Discord server's choice to ask for it.

Its a "Verification Levels" setting that the server op sets, and they have multiple options that they can choose from, its not an on/off switch. They can dial it back one notch and still have spam/bot protections.

The only difference between "High" and "Highest" verification levels is the addition of asking for a phone number, all other features of "High" is in "Highest", and "Highest" has no other extra features besides asking for the phone number.

Makes it really hard to have an pseudonym account on the Internet, for gaming purposes, and then be asked for your real phone number. I don't need to be tracked 24/7.

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[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago (5 children)

It’s trivial to create new accounts and emails to verify those accounts.

Is it really that trivial, especially while having to spend your own money to do so?

And can't that be detected in the same way that virtual phone numbers are detected by Discord currently?

You get your ISPs email address, and you could have your Google address, what else?

Granted, a phone number is better than email for verification, but plenty of websites work off email verification today successfully.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (3 children)

What are you talking about? There are endless services where you can get a free email address without spending a cent. Verifying that an email is genuine is a much harder ask than you might think.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Verifying that an email is genuine is a much harder ask than you might think.

Fair enough, but then how is it used today successfully by websites?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

That's the thing, it's not. Lots, and I mean lots of sites are plagued by bot activity. The ones hardest hit are the ones that only have email validation.

I could go to Google and create a new account right now, absolutely free.

Hell, I could write a script that creates a million for me for barely any money, just paying a CAPTCHA farm a nominal sum to solve the robot tests for me. This is why sites like discord are plagued with advertisement bots, the bar to entry is literally nothing.

Phone numbers cost money to create, and are in finite supply. Even PAYG (pre paid numbers for you Americans) numbers require you to go outside and purchase a SIM card from a store. They aren't foolproof, but they stop the vast majority of fake accounts.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago

That’s the thing, it’s not. Lots, and I mean lots of sites are plagued by bot activity. The ones hardest hit are the ones that only have email validation.

But those other websites that suffer the same kind of issues work successfully without asking for a phone number, just via email verification. I don't see why Discord should be any different.

Phone numbers cost money to create, and are in finite supply. Even PAYG (pre paid numbers for you Americans) numbers require you to go outside and purchase a SIM card from a store. They aren’t foolproof, but they stop the vast majority of fake accounts.

I understand all of those ramifications, and not arguing against it.

However, it's moving the onus of dealing with the issue from the website owners to the users who use the website. It causes the users to lose their anonymity, and allows their website usage to be tracked and sold. That's a step too far.

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