"Allow Contacts to Add" is a vector of attack
Discord just introduced a lot of features for protecting minors, yet, this new feature from the mobile update is actively dangerous for them.
If a minor is closeted in real life but openly gay on their discord profile, or uses pronouns that do not match their in real life gender presentation, this is immediately exposed by a family member, school mate, teacher, so on, auto adding them through this feature.
Of course, this goes for closeted adults too, who may suddenly be added by coworkers.
Not everywhere in the world is as accepting of other lifestyles as California, USA, discord devs! This is putting people in genuine risk of harm.
You're exposing tons of people that have valid reasons to not share aspects of themselves with other people. Please, if you remove one feature of the new mobile update, have it be this.
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This is entirely opt in and is a feature that exists on just about every messaging platform out there. Contacts cannot be seen by the app until a user gives express permission, no matter how the app itself is setup.
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to add context to humulos above, the feature is on by default, and doesn't notify you that it exists. as an IOS user, i received no notification nor option in the settings to disable this feature. basically, OP is completely correct.
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Love that I am getting downvoted for providing correct information. The feature is not on by default, that checkbox is not the feature. That checkbox will do nothing on its own until you choose to proceed with the prompt and enable the feature.
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Regardless of if the feature is entirely opt-in and that Discord is not actively connecting to your contacts, the fact that this is even in question points back to how horrible the update is and how Discord is responding to it. I should not have to question whether an app has access to my data or not. The functionality of the toggle option on Discord is deliberately obtuse, and borderline nonfunctional as a toggle anyway (my group of friends all had issues with the toggle either disappearing entirely or refusing to stay turned off). Discord is doing its users a disservice by either A) putting them directly in danger and violating privacy if the app is automatically connecting to your information or B) causing unnecessary fear and emotional harm by having this completely useless toggle automatically read as opt-in even if it isn't able to access your information at all. Whichever option it is doesn't really change the fact that Discord needs to fix it. And personally, given that Discord has been leaning towards suspect data scraping schemes recently, I'm especially wary of anything that they might try to misconstrue as me giving them my consent.
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I agree, updating it to make things clearer would be great.
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