How should I make a Discord account being paranoid?

Questions
1

Well, I’d like to have a Discord (obviously), but I don’t trust Discord at all. I’d rather trust a deep-web sale than Discord. But well, there’s some moments in life where you don’t have any other options left, and you need to use what others use, like WhatsApp.

I’ve tried before to make an anonymous account just using a VPN and an alias e-mail but just in a matter of few minutes they banned the freaking account. :roll_eyes: Another annoying problem is the phone number. It’s pretty stupid to set up a phone number to get into some servers… And yeah, I may get a VoIP number or something like that, but right now I can’t afford that (and I don’t want to spend money in that too) and even less just for Discord.

So here I am, making an overasked question: what steps should I take to keep my Discord account privacy at the maximum level possible? Is even possible at this point?

1 Like
2

Buy a phone number with monero and use this to register the account. Worked for me. This is the only way because using a VPN or Tor will lead to your account being seen as suspicious and they will request a phone number from you.

Use Discord only in a browser as their own apps will have access to much more information about you.

You cant really do that much as Discord is even worse than WhatsApp.

3

Yeah, getting a phone number in this case will be quite tricky… :cold_face:

4

Adding to @anon37939261’s reply, in my experience, Discord absolutely hates VPN connections (and I would assume the same goes for Tor). As soon as you log in to your account, you will be prompted for phone verification.
In my case, even after adding a number, if I’m using a VPN, any minor action will prompt Discord to “secure my account,” restricting it and e-mailing my a link that I have to go through. This happened every time I added someone as a friend or joined a server.
Additionally, accepting server invites can become a hassle (I’ve encountered numerous invite errors).
You can still use it, but it’s very annoying if you want to be active on there.
And, of course, only use it in a browser and avoid sharing any important personal information.

5

This is not the case for me. I use Discord every day with a VPN (as it is banned in Turkiye) and haven’t had any problems.

2 Likes
6

First of all, don’t be so paranoid, Especially if your thread model doesn’t require it.

If you need Discord, use it, just minimize personal information you provide in chat and to discord.

Second, try using a third-party client instead of the browser, it might be the problem, Webcord seems very good.

7

I haven’t been able to register an account because they don’t like my voip number. I’ve tried several times over the past few years.

8

are you able to get prepaid phone numbers around here?

9

What is your issue with Discord? What made you so paranoid? If phone number is the only thing that is holding you, buy an eSIM with crypto. I found https://silent.link/ or https://simxl.com/ (first results on web search, no idea if they are good or not)

After activation, use Discord only from your browser.

10

Yeah, I could get a prepaid SIM card but that will require an activation process after I buy the SIM with my PII, so for me it’s kinda pointless (and I have already two SIMs).

11

use something like SMS pool for making the account and then remove the number and use an authenticator for 2fa instead.

not only is there a benefit to not having a phone attached but, authenticating with TOTP also goes a lot smoother when logging in if you have a VPN on as well.

12

Oh so prepaid sims are tied to your personal information, I was hoping with like ones that don’t require giving your PII like I have here, Aw man.

13

Then maybe they allow because it is banned

14

Nope even I used discord on the web app with a VPN, no issue.

15

I was always asked for a phone number when using a VPN and my account would be locked until I did.

16

oh at the time I was clueless so I had a phone number set.
Tbh I don’t get it, we’re fine with Signal having our phone number but not discord?
I get there’s a company trust thing but still.
Anyways yeah it’s that.
I would just set a VoIP, temporary or a prepaid phone number not tied to PII

17

You should be more concerned about the particular individuals or servers you are interacting with. I don’t see an issue with not using a burner phone number if your Discord activity is not particularly notable.

If you recall the infamous Jack Teixeira intelligence leak case, Discord is more than happy to collaborate with legal requests. Best practice is to avoid these situations in the first place or not sharing unnecessary information on the server or through DMs.

3 Likes
18

Because we trust more on Signal than Discord.

19

Might it be that you can log in but cannot register via VPN? Have you tried that? It could be entirely different.

20

Your phone number is one piece of information, so is your message content and metadata. Signal only has the phone number, Discord has both. This has little to do with trust, though many people aren’t exactly happy with Signals phone number requirement either.

1 Like