The first sanction for disagreements in France. The American platform, which allows you to chat with groups of friends by text, voice or video, has failed to comply with a number of obligations under the European Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Cnil therefore announced on Thursday that it had decided to impose an €800,000 fine on Discord.
This sanction, measured, takes into accountefforts made by the company during the procedure to complyRegarding GDPR and the fact that Discord doesn’t monetize its users’ data, unlike many other social networks. The platform really lives off of optional subscriptions that internet users can subscribe to to unlock features.
Discord is used by 7.6 million French people every month, mostly under the age of 25.
Passwords that are too weak
During its investigation, the CNIL was able to find that Discord kept the data of inactive users for too long. Its databases contained 58,000 French accounts that had been inactive for more than 5 years and 2.4 million that had not been used for more than three years. Discord will now delete accounts after two years of inactivity.
The American platform also allowed new users to use extremely insecure passwords. “A six-character password consisting of letters and numbers was entered at the time of control– writes Cnil. This is insufficient”to ensure account security.Consequently, the controversy has raised its level of demands. Passwords must now contain at least 8 characters that combine at least three of these four categories: lowercase letters, uppercase letters, numbers, and special characters.
Finally, Discord has come under fire for deceptive practices towards its users. The PC version of Discord, which comes as a web app, runs continuously on a computer. When the user thinks to close the app by clicking the “X:At the top right of the screen, Discord actually just goes into the background. For Cnil, this is a concern when an Internet user is connected to a voice channel because their microphone remains active.
“This can lead to users hearing other members of a voice channel when they think they have left it.“, the regulator emphasizes. “Discord must notify the user that their words are still being heard by third parties.This is now done by displaying a pop-up window.
Source: Le Figaro
I am Ben Stock, a passionate and experienced digital journalist working in the news industry. At the Buna Times, I write articles covering technology developments and related topics. I strive to provide reliable information that my readers can trust. My research skills are top-notch, as well as my ability to craft engaging stories on timely topics with clarity and accuracy.