New forwarding messages feature: Why is it unsafe?
I had already heard about the new message forwarding feature before it was introduced, and my opinion remains the same as it was when I first came across it:
It is extremely unsafe.
Not only does this feature share any message from any server or chat, which could be used for scams or for sharing private information that was meant to stay private, but it could also be used for a large majority of other negative reasons.
- Forwarding messages out of context to other users to harm someone's reputation.
- Forwarding messages from a server that the receiver is not part of and claiming it is from a user that it's not from.
- Forwarding messages from a server that the receiver is banned from so that they can leak that information elsewhere.
- Forwarding messages from servers that are private due to containing spoilers, such as game development.
- Forwarding artwork from a server that the receiver is not a part of and claiming it's yours.
- Forwarding messages from an alt account, or a friend forwarding from their account because the account that wrote the message was blocked by the receiver.
- Forwarding banking information or a photo ID.
- Forwarding NSFW to a minor.
- Forwarding messages before they're deleted to share private information and/or information without consent.
I have seen a lot of responses to this already. “Screenshotting messages is already a thing so it doesn’t matter” “Copying text is already a thing so it doesn’t matter”. My response to these ‘throwing it over the shoulder’ responses is this. Yes, those things do happen, and they will continue to happen, but when you add message forwarding as a feature, people are obviously going to use it more. It does become more of a problem, and privacy is really at risk here.
How do I think this can be fixed?
Without outright removing the feature, as it can be helpful in some cases, adding an opt-out option would be an extremely beneficial safeguarding feature. This option could lie in each server's privacy settings, as well as your user privacy settings. Similarly, having forwarded messages sent by users that you've never spoken with before/aren't in your friend's list be blurred by your privacy filter would be beneficial as a safeguarding measure.
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