SYSTEM COLORS Telegram Themes

SYSTEM COLORS

Make no mistake - I did virtually nothing to create the following themes, nor do I know anything about Telegram theme development, generally. Frankly, I shouldn’t have even taken the time to whip these up, but I wanted to at least dip my toe in the experience for a strangely sentimental essay I’ve been working on about the service’s service in my working life.

The one thing I did do is track down the most accurate translation of iOS’ core system colors in hex I could find, which I spammed in each reasonably-generateable format all over every dead end group chat and channel I once created and have (shamefully) subsequently neglected and forgotten on this service.

--color-pink: #ff2d55;
--color-purple: #5856d6;
--color-orange: #ff9500;
--color-yellow: #ffcc00;
--color-red: #ff3b30;
--color-teal-blue: #5ac8fa;
--color-blue: #007aff;
--color-green: #4cd964;

I originally started using the Big Boy Editor and immediately realized that there is no apparent means of translating the iOS themes I’d found recently into .tdesktop themes without 1.) implementing an unofficial, but highly tedious translation matrix between the entirely different formats, or just 2.) fuckin eyeballing it.

I started with perhaps the best light theme for this app I’ve ever found in terms of ultimate legibility in blinding sunlight, loading its (apparently early iOS-inspired?) style as a duplicate in the Bitch Mode “editor” found within the iOS app, itself. Then, I simply replaced its singular hex color asset with the equivalents you see above in the three classes to which it was assigned…

SYSTEM COLORS Horizontal

…and now I’m a real life Software Developer™! How amazing is tech in 2021, right???

"Telegram Privacy Policy"

03-10-2021 15:53

For a detailed explanation of Apple Privacy Labels used by Telegram, see this page

Introduction This Privacy Policy…
1. Introduction

This Privacy Policy sets out how we, Telegram Messenger Inc. (“Telegram”), use and protect your personal data that you provide to us, or that is otherwise obtained or generated by us, in connection with your use of our cloud-based messaging services (the “Services”). For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘our’ refers to Telegram, and ‘you’ refers to you, the user of the Services.

1.1 Privacy Principles

Telegram has two fundamental principles when it comes to collecting and processing private data:

We don't use your data to show you ads.
We only store the data that Telegram needs to function as a secure and feature-rich messaging service.

1.2. Terms of Service

This Privacy Policy forms part of our Terms of Service, which describes the terms under which you use our Services and which are available at https://telegram.org/tos. This Privacy Policy should therefore be read in conjunction with those terms.

1.3. Table of Contents

This Privacy Policy explains the following:

1.4. EEA Representative

If you live in a country in the European Economic Area (EEA), the Services are provided by Telegram, which for the purposes of applicable data protection legislation is the data controller responsible for your personal data when you use our Services. However, as Telegram is located outside the EEA, we have designated one of our EEA-based group companies, Telegram UK Holdings Ltd (71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, England, WC2H 9JQ), as a representative to whom you may direct any issues you have relating to our processing of your personal data.

2. Legal Ground for Processing Your Personal Data

We process your personal data on the ground that such processing is necessary to further our legitimate interests (including: (1) providing effective and innovative Services to our users; and (2) to detect, prevent or otherwise address fraud or security issues in respect of our provision of Services), unless those interests are overridden by your interest or fundamental rights and freedoms that require protections of personal data.

3. What Personal Data We Use

3.1. Basic Account Data

Telegram is a communication service. You provide your mobile number and basic account data (which may include profile name, profile picture and about information) to create a Telegram account.

To make it easier for your contacts and other people to reach you and recognize who you are, the screen name you choose, your profile pictures, and your username (should you choose to set one) on Telegram are always public. We don't want to know your real name, gender, age or what you like.

We do not require your screen name to be your real name. Note that users who have you in their contacts will see you by the name they saved and not by your screen name. This way your mother can have the public name 'Johnny Depp' while appearing as 'Mom' to you and as 'Boss' to her underlings at work (or the other way around, depending on how these relationships are structured).

3.2. Your E-mail Address

When you enable 2-step-verification for your account or store documents using the Telegram Passport feature, you can opt to set up a password recovery email. This address will only be used to send you a password recovery code if you forget it. That's right: no marketing or “we miss you” bullshit.

3.3. Your Messages

3.3.1. Cloud Chats

Telegram is a cloud service. We store messages, photos, videos and documents from your cloud chats on our servers so that you can access your data from any of your devices anytime without having to rely on third-party backups. All data is stored heavily encrypted and the encryption keys in each case are stored in several other data centers in different jurisdictions. This way local engineers or physical intruders cannot get access to user data.

3.3.2. Secret Chats

Secret chats use end-to-end encryption. This means that all data is encrypted with a key that only you and the recipient know. There is no way for us or anybody else without direct access to your device to learn what content is being sent in those messages. We do not store your secret chats on our servers. We also do not keep any logs for messages in secret chats, so after a short period of time we no longer know who or when you messaged via secret chats. For the same reasons secret chats are not available in the cloud — you can only access those messages from the device they were sent to or from.

3.3.3. Media in Secret Chats

When you send photos, videos or files via secret chats, before being uploaded, each item is encrypted with a separate key, not known to the server. This key and the file’s location are then encrypted again, this time with the secret chat’s key — and sent to your recipient. They can then download and decipher the file. This means that the file is technically on one of Telegram’s servers, but it looks like a piece of random indecipherable garbage to everyone except for you and the recipient. We don’t know what this random data stands for and we have no idea which particular chat it belongs to. We periodically purge this random data from our servers to save disk space.

3.3.4. Public Chats

In addition to private messages, Telegram also supports public channels and public groups. All public chats are cloud chats (see section 3.3.1 above). Like everything on Telegram, the data you post in public communities is encrypted, both in storage and in transit — but everything you post in public will be accessible to everyone.

3.4. Phone Number and Contacts

Telegram uses phone numbers as unique identifiers so that it is easy for you to switch from SMS and other messaging apps and retain your social graph. We ask your permission before syncing your contacts.

We store your up-to-date contacts in order to notify you as soon as one of your contacts signs up for Telegram and to properly display names in notifications. We only need the number and name (first and last) for this to work and store no other data about your contacts.

Our automatic algorithms can also use anonymized sets of phone numbers to calculate the approximate number of potential contacts an unregistered phone number may have on Telegram. When you open the 'Invite friends' interface, we display the resulting statistics next to your contacts to give you an idea of who could benefit most from joining Telegram.

You can always stop syncing contacts or delete them from our servers in Settings > Privacy & Security > Data Settings.

If you are using Android, Telegram will ask you for permission to access your phone call logs (READ_CALL_LOG). If you grant this permission, Telegram will be able verify your account by transmitting a phone call instead of asking you to enter a code. Telegram uses this permission only to confirm receipt of the confirmation call by verifying the number in the call log.

3.5. Location Data

If you share a location in a chat, this location data is treated like other messages in cloud or secret chats respectively.

If you share your Live Location in any chat or turn on ’Make Myself Visible’ in People Nearby, Telegram will use your data to display your location to those users with whom you are sharing it, even when the app is closed – for as long as you keep these optional features activated.

3.6. Cookies

The only cookies we use are those to operate and provide our Services on the web. We do not use cookies for profiling or advertising. The cookies we use are small text files that allow us to provide and customize our Services, and in doing so provide you with an enhanced user experience. Your browser should allow you to control these cookies, including whether or not to accept them and how to remove them. You may choose to block cookies with your web browser, however, if you do disable these cookies you will not be able to log in to Telegram Web.

4. Keeping Your Personal Data Safe

4.1. Storing Data

If you signed up for Telegram from the UK or the EEA, your data is stored in data centers in the Netherlands. These are third-party provided data centers in which Telegram rents a designated space. However, the servers and networks that sit inside these data centers and on which your personal data is stored are owned by Telegram. As such, we do not share your personal data with such data centers. All data is stored heavily encrypted so that local Telegram engineers or physical intruders cannot get access.

4.2. End-to-End Encrypted Data

Your messages, media and files from secret chats (see section 3.3.2 above), as well as the contents of your calls and the data you store in your Telegram Passport are processed only on your device and on the device of your recipient. Before this data reaches our servers, it is encrypted with a key known only to you and the recipient. While Telegram servers will handle this end-to-end encrypted data to deliver it to the recipient – or store it in the case of Telegram Passport data, we have no ways of deciphering the actual information. In this case, we neither store nor process your personal data, rather we store and process random sequences of symbols that have no meaning without the keys which we don’t have.

4.3. Retention

Unless stated otherwise in this Privacy Policy, the personal data that you provide us will only be stored for as long as it is necessary for us to fulfill our obligations in respect of the provision of the Services.

5. Processing Your Personal Data

5.1. Our Services

Telegram is a cloud service. We will process your data to deliver your cloud chat history, including messages, media and files, to any devices of your choosing without a need for you to use third-party backups or cloud storage.

5.2. Safety and Security

Telegram supports massive communities which we have to police against abuse and Terms of Service violations. Telegram also has more than 400 million users which makes it a lucrative target for spammers. To improve the security of your account, as well as to prevent spam, abuse, and other violations of our Terms of Service, we may collect metadata such as your IP address, devices and Telegram apps you've used, history of username changes, etc. If collected, this metadata can be kept for 12 months maximum.

5.3. Spam and Abuse

To prevent phishing, spam and other kinds of abuse and violations of Telegram’s Terms of Service, our moderators may check messages that were reported to them by their recipients. If a spam report on a message you sent is confirmed by our moderators, your account may be limited from contacting strangers – temporarily or permanently. You can send an appeal using @Spambot. In case of more serious violations, your account may be banned. We may also use automated algorithms to analyze messages in cloud chats to stop spam and phishing.

5.4. Cross-Device Functionality

We may also store some aggregated metadata to create Telegram features (see section 5.5 below) that work across all your devices.

5.5. Advanced features

We may use some aggregated data about how you use Telegram to build useful features. For example, when you open the Search menu, Telegram displays the people you are more likely to message in a box at the top of the screen. To do this, we calculate a rating that shows which people you message frequently. A similar rating is calculated for inline bots so that the app can suggest the bots you are most likely to use in the attachment menu (or when you start a new message with “@”). To turn this feature off and delete the relevant data, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Data Settings and disable “Suggest Frequent Contacts”.

5.6. No Ads

Unlike other services, we don't use your data for ad targeting or other commercial purposes. Telegram only stores the information it needs to function as a secure and feature-rich cloud service.

6. Bot Messages

6.1. Ecosystem

Telegram has an API that allows third-party developers to create bots. Bots are apps that look like special Telegram users: you can talk to them from your chat list, add them to groups or use a special “inline” interface to access their features. By performing any of these actions, you will be sending some of your data to the respective third-party bot developers.

6.2. How Bots Can Receive Data

You can send data to bot developers when you interact with their bots in one of these ways:

By sending messages to a bot.
By using an inline bot.
By participating in a group with a bot.
By pressing buttons in messages sent by a bot.
By paying for goods and services via bots (see section 7 below).

6.3. What Data Bots Receive

In any of the above cases, the developers of an automated user (bot) can get your public account data (see section 3.1 above): your screen name, username and profile picture(s).

Bots can also receive the following data when you interact with them.

Bots will obviously get your messages when you send them something.
If you click on links or buttons provided by the bot, the bot can potentially get your IP address (provided that it controls the website to which the link leads).
If the bot is a member of the same group with you, it may know you are a member.
When you start your message with the username of an inline bot (e.g. @gif) the interface transforms so that everything you type becomes a query to that bot. This query is sent to the bot so that it can provide its service. We will warn you about this the first time you use an inline bot.
Bots added to groups can operate in two modes: with access to messages in the group or without access. If the bot has access to messages, it can see everything that happens in the group. The interface clearly shows whether or not a bot has access to messages in groups.

6.4. Bots Are Not Maintained by Telegram

Other than our own bots, no other bots or third-party bot developers are affiliated with Telegram. They are completely independent from us. They should ask you for your permission before they access your data or you make it available to them.

7. Third Party Payment Services

7.1. Payment Information

The Payment Platform for Bots is available to users as of Telegram 4.0. Telegram does not process payments from users and instead relies on different payment providers around the world. It is the payment providers that handle and store your credit card details. Neither Telegram nor the merchants on the platform (bot developers) have access to this information. Although we work with payment providers they are completely independent from Telegram. Please study their relevant privacy policies before making your data available to them.

7.2. Credit Card Information

When making a purchase, you enter your credit card details into a form supplied by the payment provider that will be processing the payment, and this information goes directly to the payment provider's server. Your credit card information never reaches Telegram's servers. We do not access and do not store your credit card information. When you save your credit card info, it is saved on the respective payment provider's servers and the payment provider gives Telegram a token that you can reuse for future payments. It is not possible to reconstruct your credit card info from the token.

7.3 Shipping Information

When you enter shipping information in the process of placing an order, we send it directly to the merchant bot developer. We can store your shipping information for you if you choose to save it for future purchases. We will delete this information immediately if you ask us to.

7.4. Clearing Payment Information

You can clear all payment information associated with your account at any time by going to Telegram Settings > Privacy & Security > Data Settings and selecting ‘Clear Payment & Shipping Info’. If you choose to remove your payment information, we will delete your stored shipping info and payment tokens from all providers and ask the payment providers to remove your credit card information that they store.

7.5. Payment Disputes

Due to the fact that Telegram doesn't store any credit card details or transaction information, it is impossible for us to handle complaints or cashbacks – any disputed payments are the responsibility of the bot developers, payment providers, and banks that participated in the exchange.

8. Who Your Personal Data May Be Shared With

8.1. Other Telegram Users

Other users of our Services with whom you choose to communicate with and share certain information, who may be located outside the EEA. Note that by entering into the Terms of Service and choosing to communicate with such other users of Telegram, you are instructing us to transfer your personal data, on your behalf, to those users in accordance with this Privacy Policy. We employ all appropriate technical and organizational measures (including encryption of your personal data) to ensure a level of security for your personal data that is appropriate to the risk.

8.2. Telegram’s Group Companies

We may share your personal data with: (1) our parent company, Telegram Group Inc, located in the British Virgin Islands; and (2) Telegram FZ-LLC, a group member located in Dubai, to help provide, improve and support our Services. We will implement appropriate safeguards to protect the security and integrity of that personal data. This will take the form of standard contract clauses approved by the European Commission in an agreement between us and our relevant group companies. If you would like more information regarding these clauses, please contact us using the details in section 12 below.

8.3. Law Enforcement Authorities

If Telegram receives a court order that confirms you're a terror suspect, we may disclose your IP address and phone number to the relevant authorities. So far, this has never happened. When it does, we will include it in a semiannual transparency report published at: https://t.me/transparency.

9. Your Rights Regarding the Personal Data You Provide to Us

9.1. Your Rights

Under applicable data protection legislation, in certain circumstances, you have rights concerning your personal data. You have a right to: (1) request a copy of all your personal data that we store and to transmit that copy to another data controller; (2) delete (see section 10 below) or amend your personal data; (3) restrict, or object to, the processing of your personal data; (4) correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data we hold on you; and (5) lodge a complaint with national data protection authorities regarding our processing of your personal data.

9.2. Exercising Your Rights

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, kindly contact us using the details in section 12 below.

9.3. Data Settings

You can control how your data is used (e.g., delete synced contacts) in Settings > Privacy & Security > Data Settings (using one of our mobile apps).

Sadly, if you're not OK with Telegram's modest minimum requirements, it won't be possible for us to provide you with our Services. You can delete your Telegram account by proceeding to the deactivation page.

10. Deleting data

10.1. Accounts

If you would like to delete your account, you can do this on the deactivation page. Deleting your account removes all messages, media, contacts and every other piece of data you store in the Telegram cloud. This action must be confirmed via your Telegram account and cannot be undone.

10.2. Messages

In secret chats, deleting a message always instructs the app on the other end to delete it too.
In cloud chats, you can choose to delete a message for all participants within at least 48 hours after sending. Otherwise, deleting a message will delete it from your message history. This means that a copy will stay on the server as part of your partner's message history. As soon as your partner deletes it too, it's gone forever.
As of version 5.5, any party can choose to delete any messages in one-on-one chats, both sent and received, for both sides. There is no time limit. Any party can also opt to clear the entire chat history for both parties, in which case the apps will be instructed to remove all messages in that chat, however many of them are still retained by either of the participants.
In supergroups and channels, deleting a message removes it for all participants. Note that deleted messages and original versions of edited messages from supergroups are stored for 48 hours after deletion in order to be shown in the admins log.

10.3. Self-Destructing Messages

Messages in Secret Chats can be ordered to self-destruct. As soon as such a message is read (2 checks appear), the countdown starts. When the timer expires, both devices participating in a secret chat are instructed to delete the message (photo, video, etc.). Media with short timers (less than a minute) are shown with blurred previews. The timer is triggered when they are viewed.

10.4. Account Self-Destruction

By default, if you stop using Telegram and do not come online for at least 6 months, your account will be deleted along with all messages, media, contacts and every other piece of data you store in the Telegram cloud. You can go to Settings to change the exact period after which your inactive account will self-destruct.

11. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We will review and may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes to this Privacy Policy will become effective when we post the revised Privacy Policy on this page www.telegram.org/privacy. Please check our website frequently to see any updates or changes to our Privacy Policy, a summary of which we will set out below.

March 25, 2019

Expanded [10.2. Deleting Messages] with data on the new features in version 5.5, which allow both participants to remove any messages from one-on-one chats for both sides without a time limit.

March 24, 2021

Added 3.5. Location Data.
Improved structure, moving 3.3.5 to 3.4 and 3.3.6 to 3.6.

Important changes made to this Privacy Policy will be notified to you via Telegram.

12. Questions and concerns

If you have any questions about privacy and our data policies, please contact our @GDPRbot. Use the /access command to learn how to get a copy of your Telegram data and use the /contact command to leave a request, which we will answer at the earliest opportunity.

Telegram is an open source project. You can examine more information on our:

API at: https://core.telegram.org/api;
Bot Platform at: https://core.telegram.org/bots;
Protocol at: https://core.telegram.org/mtproto; and
Source Code at: https://telegram.org/apps#source-code.

This policy has been expanded on August 14, 2018 to add information required by the EU data protection law.

==22837== Words

Telegram Privacy Policy

"Terms of Service"

03-10-2021 15:54

By signing up for Telegram, you accept our Privacy Policy and agree not to: Use our service to send spam or scam users.… By signing up for Telegram, you accept our Privacy Policy and agree not to:

Use our service to send spam or scam users.
Promote violence on publicly viewable Telegram channels, bots, etc.
Post illegal pornographic content on publicly viewable Telegram channels, bots, etc.

We reserve the right to update these Terms of Service later.

Citizens of EU countries and the United Kingdom must be at least 16 years old to sign up.

==428== Words

Terms of Service

"Losing Facebook is bad, but losing WhatsApp is worse"

04-10-2021 19:13

Over 2 billion people were left without the messaging app. In the chaos of Monday’s Facebook outage, it’s easy to lose sight of the company’s reach. Not being able to post a new photo to Instagram is an annoyance, but it's not necessarily catastrophic. Yet for WhatsApp users, especially outside of the US, losing Facebook’s encrypted messaging service is a life-halting change, and one competing messaging services were eager to capitalize on today.

In February last year, WhatsApp announced it had 2 billion users worldwide. Compare that to original flavor Facebook’s 2.5 billion and it's easy to see how many lives WhatsApp touches. It’s become the default method to contact people in plenty of countries, including around 400 million unique monthly users in India Bloomberg writes. That goes beyond casual communication, as well: WhatsApp is also focused on becoming a critical tool for business. The app already takes in-app payments in Brazil and India. On top of that, WhatsApp claimed in October 2020 that 175 million people globally used its app to message businesses every day.

With WhatsApp down, that means calls and messages to friends and family can go unanswered, customer service requests unaddressed, and vital organizing information undisseminated. The secure messaging app is frequently also one of many tools organizers use to lead demonstrations and protests (unless it’s blocked).

A WhatsApp outage is a huge problem for the people who rely on it, but a possible boon for competing encrypted messaging apps. The major players, Signal, Telegram, and at least in the US, iMessage, all stand to benefit when Facebook and WhatsApp fumble. So far at least, only Signal has taken a public victory lap.

The company wasn’t able to disclose specific figures to The Verge but did say that Signal was hitting levels of new sign-ups, “on par with January of this year.” The same month, I’ll note, when WhatsApp rolled out its controversial new privacy policy for business messages and Facebook at large came under fire yet again for the roll it may have played in the January 6th riots at the Capitol. Telegram and Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Facebook is restoring its services and it’ll take more time before we can really know how many people the Facebook outage negatively impacted. For now though, it’s safe to say it was probably a lot more annoying than not being able to update your story.

==2388== Words

Losing Facebook is bad, but losing WhatsApp is worse - The Verge

DIscord Account Creation Date

10/21/2015 06:47 (6 years ago)

Discord Terms of Service

Last modified: May 7, 2020.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: THESE TERMS OF SERVICE CONTAIN A BINDING ARBITRATION PROVISION AND CLASS ACTION WAIVER. IT AFFECTS YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS AS DETAILED IN THE DISPUTE RESOLUTION AND CLASS ACTION WAIVER SECTION BELOW. PLEASE READ CAREFULLY.

INTRODUCTION AND ACCEPTING THE TERMS

Welcome to Discord! These Terms of Service (“Terms”), which include and hereby incorporate the Privacy Policy at https://discord.com/privacy (“Privacy Policy”), are a legal agreement between Discord Inc. and its related companies (the “Company,” “us,” “our,” or "we") and you ("you" or “your”). By using or accessing the Discord application (the “App”) or the website located at https://discord.com (the "Site"), which are collectively referred to as the “Service,” you agree (i) that you are 13 years of age and the minimum age of digital consent in your country, (ii) if you are the age of majority in your jurisdiction or over, that you have read, understood, and accept to be bound by the Terms, and (iii) if you are between 13 (or the minimum age of digital consent, as applicable) and the age of majority in your jurisdiction, that your legal guardian has reviewed and agrees to these Terms.

The Company reserves the right to update these Terms, which we may do for reasons that include, but are not limited to, complying with changes to the law or reflecting enhancements to Discord. If the changes affect your usage of Discord or your legal rights, we’ll notify you no less than seven days before the changes take effect. Unless we state otherwise, your continued use of the Service after we post modifications will constitute your acceptance of and agreement to those changes. If you object to the changes, your recourse shall be to cease using the Service.

RIGHTS TO USE THE SERVICE

The Service provides a chat and social platform. The Service may allow you to participate in public and private chat rooms and to utilize messaging features to communicate with other users of the Service. The Service may also allow you to access certain software and/or other content that is available to purchase from the Company. Subject to your compliance with these Terms, the Company grants you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable license to use and access the Service. You agree not to (and not to attempt to) (i) use the Service for any use or purpose other than as expressly permitted by these Terms;(ii) copy, adapt, modify, prepare derivative works based upon, distribute, license, sell, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, stream, broadcast, attempt to discover any source code, reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise exploit the Service or any portion of the Service, except as expressly permitted in these Terms; or (iii) use data mining, robots, spiders, or similar data gathering and extraction tools on the Service. No licenses or rights are granted to you by implication or otherwise under any intellectual property rights owned or controlled by the Company or its licensors, except for the permissions and rights expressly granted in these Terms.

The Company reserves the right to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, the Service (or any part thereof) with or without notice. The Company reserves the right to refuse any user access to the Services without notice for any reason, including but not limited to a violation of the Terms. If you violate these Terms, the Company reserves the right to issue you a warning regarding the violation or immediately terminate or suspend any or all Accounts you have created using the Service. You agree that the Company need not provide you notice before terminating or suspending your Account(s), but it may do so.

YOUR ACCOUNT

You are responsible for your log-in credentials and for any activity resulting from the use of your log-in credentials or other activity on your account (“Account”) on the Service. Upon launching the App or the Service, if you do not already have an Account, you will be prompted to create one by providing a username and in some cases a password. You may also be required to provide a valid email address or other information to access or utilize certain applications or features. You represent and warrant that the information you provide to us upon registration and at all other times will be true, accurate, current, and complete. We reserve the right to reject any username or to terminate your username or prevent use of a username in our sole discretion, and without any liability to you. You understand and agree that other users of the Service may have the same username as you, however, users will be differentiated by a number identifier that may or may not be visible to you or other users. You will ensure that your e-mail address is kept accurate and up-to-date at all times. If we allow you to use the App without creating an Account (e.g., if we make available a single-session use feature), any username you select for use in connection with the App will be available for other users after your session ends. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your log-in credentials and are fully responsible for all activities that occur through the use of your credentials or otherwise on your Account. You agree to notify us immediately if you believe the confidentiality of your log-in credentials has been compromised or if you suspect unauthorized use of your Account. You agree that we will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from unauthorized use of your credentials.

COMMUNICATIONS

You agree to receive communications from us electronically, such as email, text, or mobile push notices, or notices and messages on the Service. For any direct marketing messages, we will ensure that we obtain your consent first, and also make it easy for you to opt out — we don’t want to send you messages you don’t want.

By using the Service or providing information to us, you agree that we may communicate with you electronically regarding security, privacy, and administrative issues relating to your use of the Service, and that all agreements, notices, disclosures, and other communications that Discord provides to you electronically satisfy any legal requirements that such communications be in writing.

You may use the Service to send messages to other users of the Service. You agree that your use of the Service will not include sending unsolicited marketing messages or broadcasts (i.e., spam). We may utilize a variety of means to block spammers and abusers from using the Service. If you believe spam originated from the Service, please email us immediately at support@discord.com.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

All rights, title and interest in and to all materials that are part of the Service (including, but not limited to, designs, text, graphics, pictures, video, information, applications, software, music, sound and other files, and their selection and arrangement), except for Your Content, collectively referred to as the "Service Materials,” are, as between the Company and you, owned by the Company and/or its third party licensors. You acknowledge and agree that you shall not acquire any ownership rights whatsoever by downloading Service Materials or by purchasing any Virtual Currency or Virtual Goods (each as defined below). You agree that you shall not modify, copy, distribute, frame, reproduce, republish, download, scrape, display, post, transmit, or sell in any form or by any means, in whole or in part, or otherwise exploit the Service Materials without our express prior written permission. You acknowledge that you do not acquire any ownership rights by using the Service or by accessing any Service Materials posted on the Service by the Company, or any derivative works thereof. All rights not expressly granted by these Terms are reserved by the Company and its licensors, and no license is granted hereunder by estoppel, implication or otherwise.

YOUR CONTENT

Any data, text, graphics, photographs and their selection and arrangement, and any other materials uploaded to the Service by you is “Your Content.” You represent and warrant that Your Content is original to you and that you exclusively own the rights to such content, including the right to grant all of the rights and licenses in these Terms without the Company incurring any third party obligations or liability arising out of its exercise of such rights and licenses. All of Your Content is your sole responsibility and the Company is not responsible for any material that you upload, post, or otherwise make available. By uploading, distributing, transmitting or otherwise using Your Content with the Service, you grant to us a perpetual, nonexclusive, transferable, royalty-free, sublicensable, and worldwide license to use, host, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display Your Content in connection with operating and providing the Service. The Company does not guarantee the accuracy, quality, or integrity of any user content posted. By using the Service, you acknowledge and accept that you may be exposed to material you find offensive or objectionable. You agree that the Company will not under any circumstances be liable for any user content, including, but not limited to, errors in any user content, or any loss or damage incurred by use of user content. The Company reserves the right to remove and permanently delete Your Content from the Service with or without notice for any reason or no reason. You may notify the Company of any user content that you believe violates these Terms, or other inappropriate user behavior, by emailing abuse@discord.com.

RULES OF CONDUCT AND USAGE

The Service provides communication channels such as forums, communities, or chat areas ("Communication Channels") designed to enable you to communicate with other Service users. The Company has no obligation to monitor these communication channels but it may do so in connection with providing the Service. The Company may also terminate or suspend your access to any Communication Channels at any time, without notice, for any reason. You acknowledge that any user content (including without limitation chats, postings, or materials posted by users) on the Communication Channels is neither endorsed nor controlled by us. The Company will not under any circumstances be liable for any activity within Communication Channels. The Company is not responsible for information that you choose to share on the Communication Channels, or for the actions of other users. As a condition of your use of the Service, and without limiting your other obligations under these Terms, you agree to comply with the restrictions and rules of use set forth in these Terms and our Community Guidelines as well as any additional restrictions or rules (such as application-specific rules) set forth in the Service. As an example, you agree not to use the Service in order to:

post, upload, transmit or otherwise disseminate information that is objectionable as outlined in our Community Guidelines;
defame, libel, ridicule, mock, stalk, threaten, harass, intimidate or abuse anyone;
engage in conduct that is fraudulent or illegal or otherwise harmful to Discord or any other user;
upload or transmit (or attempt to upload or transmit) files that contain viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancelbots, corrupted files or data, or any other similar software or programs or engage in any other activity that may damage the operation of the Service or other users' computers;
violate the contractual, personal, intellectual property or other rights of any party including using, uploading, transmitting, distributing, or otherwise making available any information made available through the Service in any manner that infringes any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, or other right of any party (including rights of privacy or publicity);
attempt to obtain passwords or other private information from other members;
improperly use support channels or complaint buttons to make false reports to us;
develop, distribute, or publicly inform other members of "auto" software programs, "macro" software programs or other "cheat utility" software program or applications in violation of the applicable license agreements; or
exploit, distribute or publicly inform other members of any game error, miscue or bug which gives an unintended advantage; violate any applicable laws or regulations; or promote or encourage illegal activity including, but not limited to, hacking, cracking or distribution of counterfeit software, compromised accounts, or cheats or hacks for the Service.

These rules of use are not meant to be exhaustive, and we reserve the right to determine what conduct we consider to be a violation of the Terms, Community Guidelines or improper use of the Service and to take action including termination of your Account and exclusion from further participation in the Service.

FEEDBACK

We appreciate hearing from our users and welcome your comments regarding the Service. If you choose to provide feedback, comments or suggestions for improvements to the Service or otherwise (in written or oral form) (“Feedback”), you represent and warrant that (a) you have the right to disclose the Feedback, (b) the Feedback does not violate the rights of any other person or entity, and (c) your Feedback does not contain the confidential or proprietary information of any third party or parties.

By sending us any Feedback, you further (i) agree that we are under no obligation of confidentiality, express or implied, with respect to the Feedback, (ii) acknowledge that we may have something similar to the Feedback already under consideration or in development, (iii) grant us an irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, worldwide license to use, modify, prepare derivative works from, publish, distribute and sublicense the Feedback, and (iv) irrevocably waive, and cause to be waived, against Discord and its users any claims and assertions of any moral rights contained in such Feedback. This Feedback section shall survive any termination of your account or the Services.

All rights in this section are granted without the need for additional compensation of any sort to you.

THIRD-PARTY CONTENT

We use third-party services to help us provide the Service, but such use does not indicate that we endorse them or are responsible or liable for their actions. In addition, the Service may link to third-party websites to facilitate its provision of services to you. If you use these links, you will leave the Service. Please note that your use of such third-party services will be governed by the terms and privacy policy applicable to the corresponding third party. Some of these third-party websites may use Service Materials under license from us. We are not responsible for nor do we endorse these third-party websites or the organizations sponsoring such third-party websites or their products or services, whether or not we are affiliated with such third-party websites. You agree that we are not responsible or liable for any loss or damage of any sort incurred as a result of any such dealings you may have on or through a third-party website or as a result of the presence of any third-party advertising on the Service.

USER DISPUTES

You are solely responsible for your interaction with other users of the Service and other parties that you come in contact with through the Service. The Company hereby disclaims any and all liability to you or any third party relating to your use of the Service. The Company reserves the right, but has no obligation, to manage disputes between you and other users of the Service.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright Complaints. The Company respects the intellectual property of others, and we ask our users to do the same. If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, or that your intellectual property rights have been otherwise violated, you should notify the Company of your infringement claim in accordance with the procedure set forth below. The Company will process and investigate notices of alleged infringement and will take appropriate actions under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) and other applicable intellectual property laws with respect to any alleged or actual infringement. A notification of claimed copyright infringement should be emailed to the Company’s Copyright Agent at copyright@discord.com (Subject line: “DMCA Takedown Request”). You may also contact us by mail at: Discord, Attention: DMCA Takedown Request, 444 De Haro Street #200, San Francisco, CA 94107. To be effective, the notification must be in writing and contain the following information:

an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright or other intellectual property interest;
a description of the copyrighted work or other intellectual property that you claim has been infringed;
a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the Service, with enough detail that we may find it on the Service;
your address, telephone number, and email address;
a statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright or intellectual property owner, its agent, or the law;
a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your Notice is accurate and that you are the copyright or intellectual property owner or authorized to act on the copyright or intellectual property owner’s behalf.

If you submit a notice of infringement that knowingly materially misrepresents that any Content, information, or communication on the Services is infringing upon a copyright, you may be held liable for damages and attorneys’ fees.

Counter-Notice. If you believe that Your Content that was removed (or to which access was disabled) is not infringing, or that you have the authorization from the copyright owner, the copyright owner’s agent, or pursuant to the law, to upload and use the content in Your Content, you may send a written counter-notice containing the following information to the Copyright Agent:

your physical or electronic signature;
identification of the content that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the content appeared before it was removed or disabled;
a statement that you have a good faith belief that the content was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or a misidentification of the content; and
your name, address, telephone number, and email address, a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal court located within the Northern District of California and a statement that you will accept service of process from the person who provided notification of the alleged infringement.

If a counter-notice is received by the Copyright Agent, the Company will send a copy of the counter-notice to the original complaining party informing that person that it may replace the removed content or cease disabling it in 10 business days. Unless the copyright owner files an action seeking a court order against the content provider, member or user, the removed content may be replaced, or access to it restored, in 10 to 14 business days or more after receipt of the counter-notice, at our sole discretion.

Repeat Infringer Policy. In accordance with the DMCA and other applicable law, the Company has adopted a policy of terminating, in appropriate circumstances and at the Company's sole discretion, users who are deemed to be repeat infringers. The Company may also at its sole discretion limit access to the Service and/or terminate the memberships of any users who infringe any intellectual property rights of others, whether or not there is any repeat infringement.

TERMINATION

You may terminate your Account at any time and for any reason by deleting your account through the User Settings page in the application . The Company may terminate your Account and your access to the Service (or, at the Company's sole option, applicable portions of the Service) at any time and for any reason. The Company is not required to provide you with any notice or warning prior to any such termination. You may, as the result of termination, lose your Account and all information and data associated therewith, including without limitation your Virtual Currency and Virtual Goods, as applicable, and the Company is under no obligation to compensate you for any such loss.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY

THE SERVICES AND THE SERVICE MATERIALS ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND “AS AVAILABLE” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. IN ADDITION, WHILE THE COMPANY ATTEMPTS TO PROVIDE A GOOD USER EXPERIENCE, WE CANNOT AND DO NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT THAT THE SERVICES WILL ALWAYS BE SECURE OR ERROR-FREE OR THAT THE SERVICES WILL ALWAYS FUNCTION WITHOUT DELAYS, DISRUPTIONS, OR IMPERFECTIONS. THE FOREGOING DISCLAIMERS SHALL APPLY TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL THE COMPANY, BE LIABLE TO YOU OR TO ANY THIRD PERSON FOR ANY CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE OR OTHER INDIRECT DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY LOST PROFITS OR LOST DATA, ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE OR OTHER MATERIALS ON, ACCESSED THROUGH OR DOWNLOADED FROM THE SERVICE, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT, OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, AND WHETHER OR NOT THE COMPANY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF THESE DAMAGES.THE COMPANY SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR MORE THAN THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU HAVE PAID TO US IN ACCORDANCE WITH THESE TERMS IN THE THREE (3) MONTHS IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING THE DATE ON WHICH YOU FIRST ASSERT A CLAIM OR (B) $100. THE LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS IN THESE TERMS DO NOT PURPORT TO LIMIT LIABILITY OR ALTER RIGHTS THAT CANNOT BE EXCLUDED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, WHICH MEANS THAT SOME OF THE ABOVE DISCLAIMERS AND LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. IN THESE JURISDICTIONS, DISCORD’S LIABILITY WILL BE LIMITED TO THE GREATEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

You specifically acknowledge that the Company shall not be liable for user content, including without limitation Your Content, or the defamatory, offensive, or illegal conduct of any third party and that the risk of harm or damage from the foregoing rests entirely with you.

INDEMNIFICATION

You agree to indemnify and hold the Company, harmless from and against any loss, liability, claim, demand, damages, costs and expenses, including reasonable attorney's fees, arising out of or in connection with (i) your use of and access to the Service; (ii) your violation of any term of these Terms; (iii) your violation of any third party right, including without limitation any copyright, property, or privacy right or any third party agreement; or (iv) any of Your Content or information in your Account or any other information you post or share on or through the Service. As used in this section, "you" shall include anyone accessing the Service using your password

VIRTUAL CURRENCIES, VIRTUAL GOODS, AND TERMS OF SALE

We will not charge you a fee to use the basic functionality of the Service, but fees may be charged for certain products and services. For additional terms regarding our Nitro subscription service, please see the “Nitro Subscriptions” section below.

The Service may include an opportunity to obtain virtual currency ("Virtual Currency") or virtual goods ("Virtual Goods") that may require you to pay a fee using legal tender (that is, "real money") to obtain the Virtual Currency or Virtual Goods. Your purchase of Virtual Currency is final and is not refundable, exchangeable, transferable, except in the Company’s or the platform provider’s sole discretion. You may not purchase, sell, or exchange Virtual Currency outside the Service. Doing so is a violation of the Terms and may result in termination of your Account with the Service and/or legal action. The Company retains the right to modify, manage, control and/or eliminate Virtual Currency and/or Virtual Goods at its sole discretion. Prices and availability of Virtual Goods are subject to change without notice. We shall have no liability to you or any third party for the exercise of such rights. You shall have a limited, personal, non-transferable, non-sublicensable permission to use solely within the Service Virtual Goods and Virtual Currency that you have earned, purchased or otherwise obtained in a manner authorized by the Company. You have no other right, title or interest in or to any such Virtual Goods or Virtual Currency appearing or originating in the Service.

Product Descriptions. We try to make the Service thorough, accurate, and helpful to our customers. Nonetheless, there may be times when certain information contained on the Service may be incorrect, incomplete, or inaccurate, or appear inaccurate because of the browser, hardware, software, or other technology that you use. Discord reserves the right, with or without prior notice, to: change descriptions or references to products and/or services; limit the available quantity of any product or service; honor, or refuse to honor, any coupon, coupon code, promotional code or other similar promotions; and/or refuse to provide any visitor to, or use of the Service with any product or service.

Availability and Pricing. Though we try to honor all purchase requests, availability cannot always be guaranteed. When an item is not available and cannot be replenished — for example, if we offer a limited promotion — we will attempt to remove the item from the Service in a timely manner but make no guarantees in this regard. We may occasionally make errors in the stated prices on the Service. If a product’s correct price is higher than the listed price, we will either confirm that we’ll provide the item at the price listed or cancel your order and notify you of such cancellation.

Payments. We accept major credit cards, certain debit cards, PayPal, and/or such other payment methods we may make available to you from time-to-time through our Service, as forms of payment (“Payment Method”). We may also offer you the ability to make orders through a third party app store or other payment service. You agree to comply with their terms and any other requirements they may have. By submitting an order, you authorize Discord, or its designated payment processor, to charge the account you specify for the purchase amount.

We may, in our sole discretion, cancel your payment at any time by providing notice to you through your contact information or by a notice when you attempt to make a payment. We may cancel a payment or prevent you from initiating future payments for any reason, including, without limitation, the following: (i) if you attempt to use the Service in breach of any applicable law or regulation, including the card network rules or regulations; (ii) if you use the Service in breach of these Terms; (iii) if we suspect fraudulent, unlawful or improper activity regarding a payment; (iv) if we detect, in our sole discretion, that your payments have excessive disputes, high reversal rates or present a relatively high risk of losses; or (v) failure to cooperate in an investigation or provide additional information when requested.

Refunds. You can find our refund policy here: https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012668071

Taxes. Stated prices may not include sales and use taxes. If they do not, you are responsible for the payment of such taxes related to your purchase. We have the right to charge you for any taxes that we are required to pay or in fact collect related to your purchase.

International Orders. You will be solely responsible for any license fees, customs duties, and other taxes and fees related to the export of the products from the United States.

Manufacturer EULAs and Other Terms. You may be required to accept an end user license agreement (EULA) or other terms provided by the manufacturer prior to use of the product you ordered. A EULA or other terms may accompany the product you ordered.

NITRO SUBSCRIPTIONS

Recurring Billing. By purchasing a Nitro subscription, you authorize us to charge your Payment Method on a recurring (e.g., monthly or yearly) basis for the applicable Nitro subscription charge, any and all taxes or possible transaction fees, and any other charges incurred in connection with your use of the Nitro subscription service. Your payment to Discord will automatically renew at the end of your applicable subscription period, unless you cancel your subscription before the end of the current subscription period.

Price Changes. Discord may change the price for Nitro subscriptions from time to time, and will communicate any price changes to you in advance and, if applicable, how to accept those changes. Price changes for Nitro subscriptions will take effect at the start of the next subscription period following the date of the price change. As permitted by local law, you accept the new price by continuing to use Nitro after the price change takes effect. If you do not agree with the price changes, you have the right to reject the change by unsubscribing from Nitro prior to the price change going into effect. We don’t want to charge you for something you don’t want, though, so if you cancel within 14 days of any price increases, we’ll provide you a refund.

Cancellation. You may cancel your Nitro subscription at any time, and you will continue to have access to Nitro through the end of the current subscription period. If you cancel your subscription before the end of the current subscription period, we will not refund any subscription fees already paid to us. At our sole discretion, however, we may provide a refund, discount, or other consideration to some or all of our members ("credits"). The provision of credits in one instance does not entitle you to credits in the future for similar instances, nor does it obligate us to provide credits in the future, under any circumstance. To cancel, go to the "User Settings" screen in the Discord desktop or mobile app and follow the instructions for cancellation.

DISPUTE RESOLUTION

THIS SECTION AND THE NEXT SECTION ONLY APPLIES TO YOU IF YOU ARE A UNITED STATES RESIDENT.

PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY - IT MAY SIGNIFICANTLY AFFECT YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS, INCLUDING YOUR RIGHT TO FILE A LAWSUIT IN COURT.

You and Discord agree that these Terms affect interstate commerce and that the Federal Arbitration Act governs the interpretation and enforcement of these arbitration provisions.

Most disputes can be resolved without resorting to arbitration. In the event of a dispute, you agree to provide us notice of the dispute. This notice must provide a brief, written description of the dispute, the relief requested and the contact information of the party giving it. You must send any such notice to Discord by email to disputes@discord.com and by U.S. Mail to Discord Inc., 444 De Haro Street #200, San Francisco, CA 94107.

The parties agree to use their best efforts to settle any dispute, claim, question, or disagreement directly through consultation with one another, and good faith negotiations shall be a condition to either party initiating a lawsuit or arbitration.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, disputes concerning patents, copyrights, moral rights, trademarks, and trade secrets and claims of piracy or unauthorized use of the Site shall not be subject to arbitration, and the notice and good faith negotiation required by this paragraph shall not apply to these types of disputes.

Binding Arbitration. Except as provided herein, if we cannot resolve a dispute informally, any dispute will be resolved only by binding arbitration to be held in the U.S. state in which you reside. For residents outside the United States, arbitration shall be initiated in San Francisco, California. Discord and you further agree to submit to the personal jurisdiction of any state or federal court in San Francisco, California to compel arbitration, stay proceedings pending arbitration, or to confirm, modify, vacate, or enter judgment on the award entered by the arbitrator.

The arbitration shall be conducted by a single arbitrator, governed by the rules of JAMS that are in effect at the time the arbitration is initiated (referred to as the “JAMS Rules”) and under the rules set forth in these Terms. If there is a conflict between the JAMS Rules and the rules set forth in these Terms, the rules set forth in these Terms will govern. ARBITRATION MEANS THAT YOU WAIVE YOUR RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL. You may, in arbitration, seek any and all remedies otherwise available to you pursuant to your state’s law.

To the extent the filing fee for the arbitration exceeds the cost of filing a lawsuit, Discord will pay the additional cost. Discord shall also bear the cost of any arbitration fees, unless the arbitrator finds your claims, defenses, or other fee-generating activity to be asserted or conducted for an improper purpose or frivolous. You are responsible for all other additional costs that you may incur in the arbitration including, without limitation, attorney’s fees and expert witness costs unless Discord is specifically required to pay such fees under applicable law. The decision of the arbitrator will be in writing and binding and conclusive on Discord and you, and judgment to enforce the decision may be entered by any court of competent jurisdiction. Discord and you agree that dispositive motions, including without limitation motions to dismiss and motions for summary judgment, will be allowed in the arbitration. The arbitrator must follow these Terms of Service and can award the same damages and relief as a court, including injunctive or other equitable relief and attorney’s fees. Discord and you understand that, absent this mandatory arbitration provision, Discord and you would have the right to sue in court and have a jury trial. Discord and you further understand that, in some instances, the costs of arbitration could exceed the costs of litigation and that the right to discovery may be more limited in arbitration than in court.

If Discord’s or your claim is solely for monetary relief of $10,000 or less and does not include a request for any type of equitable remedy, the party bringing the claim may choose whether the arbitration of the claim will be conducted, through a telephonic hearing, or by an in-person hearing under the JAMS Rules, solely based on documents submitted to the arbitrator.

You or Discord may choose to pursue a claim in small claims court where jurisdiction and venue over you and Discord otherwise qualifies for such small claims court and where the claim does not include a request for any type of equitable relief. However, if you decide to pursue a claim in small claims court, you agree to still provide Discord with advance notice by email to disputes@discord.com and by U.S. Mail to Discord Inc., 444 De Haro Street #200, San Francisco, CA 94107.

Opt-Out Right. You have the right to opt out and not be bound by the provisions requiring arbitration by sending written notice of your decision to opt out to Discord by email to arbitration-opt-out@discord.com. The notice must be sent within 90 days of this Terms of Service taking effect, or your account creation on the Service. If you do not opt out via this method, you will be bound to arbitrate disputes in accordance with the terms of these paragraphs. If you opt out of the provisions requiring arbitration, Discord will not be bound by them either. If any clause within this Arbitration Section is found to be illegal or unenforceable, that specific clause will be severed from this section, and the remainder of its provisions will be given full force and effect.

Survival. This Arbitration section shall survive any termination of your account or the Service.

CLASS WAIVER

THIS SECTION AND THE PREVIOUS SECTION ONLY APPLIES TO YOU IF YOU ARE A UNITED STATES RESIDENT.

PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. IT MAY SIGNIFICANTLY AFFECT YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS.

Discord and you agree to resolve any dispute in an individual capacity, and not on behalf of, or as part of, any purported class, consolidated, or representative proceeding.

The arbitrator cannot combine more than one person’s or entity’s claims into a single case, and cannot preside over any consolidated, class or representative proceeding (unless we agree otherwise). And, the arbitrator’s decision or award in one person’s or entity’s case can only impact the person or entity that brought the claim, not other Discord customers, and cannot be used to decide other disputes with other customers.

If any court or arbitrator determines that the class/consolidated/representative action waiver set forth in this section is void or unenforceable for any reason or that arbitration can proceed on a class, consolidated, or representative basis, then the disputes, claims, or controversies will not be subject to arbitration and must be litigated in federal court located in San Francisco, California.

This Class Action Waiver section shall survive any termination of your account or the Services.

INTERNATIONAL USE; EXPORT CONTROLS

Software available in connection with the Service and the transmission of applicable data, if any, is subject to United States export controls. No software may be downloaded from the Service or otherwise exported or re-exported in violation of U.S. export laws. Downloading or using the software is at your sole risk. Recognizing the global nature of the Internet, you agree to comply with all local rules and laws regarding your use of the Service, including as it concerns online conduct and acceptable content.

IOS APPLICATIONS

The following additional terms and conditions apply with respect to any App that the Company provides to you designed for use on an Apple iOS-powered mobile device (an “iOS App”):

You acknowledge that these Terms are between you and Discord only, and not with Apple, Inc. (“Apple”).
Your use of the Company’s iOS App must comply with Apple’s then-current App Store Terms of Service.
The Company, and not Apple, are solely responsible for our iOS App and the Services and Content available thereon. You acknowledge that Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance and support services with respect to our iOS App. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Apple will have no warranty obligation whatsoever with respect to our iOS App.
You agree that the Company, and not Apple, are responsible for addressing any claims by you or any third-party relating to our iOS App or your possession and/or use of our iOS App.
You agree that the Company, and not Apple, shall be responsible, to the extent required by these Terms, for the investigation, defense, settlement and discharge of any third-party intellectual property infringement claim related to our iOS App or your possession and use of our iOS App.
You represent and warrant that (i) you are not located in a country that is subject to a U.S. Government embargo, or that has been designated by the U.S. Government as a “terrorist supporting” country; and (ii) You are not listed on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
You agree to comply with all applicable third-party terms of agreement when using our iOS App (e.g., you must not be in violation of your wireless data service terms of agreement when using the iOS App).
The parties agree that Apple and Apple’s subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries to these Terms as they relate to your license of the Company’s iOS App. Upon your acceptance of these Terms, Apple will have the right (and will be deemed to have accepted the right) to enforce these Terms against you as they relate to your license of the iOS App as a third-party beneficiary thereof.

GENERAL

Governing Law. By visiting or using the Service, you agree that the laws of the United States and the State of California, without regard to principles of conflict of laws and regardless of your location, will govern these Terms and any dispute of any sort that might arise between you and the Company.

Any claim or dispute between you and the Company that arises out of or is related to the Service and is not subject to arbitration shall be decided exclusively by a court of competent jurisdiction located in San Francisco County, California, and you hereby consent to, and waive all defenses of lack of personal jurisdiction and forum non conveniens with respect to venue and jurisdiction in the state and federal courts of San Francisco County, California.

Injunctive and Other Equitable Relief. You acknowledge that the rights granted and obligations made to the Company under these Terms are of a unique and irreplaceable nature, the loss of which may result in immediate and irreparable harm to the Company for which remedies at law are inadequate. The Company shall therefore be entitled to seek injunctive or other equitable relief (without the obligation to post any bond or surety) in the event of any breach or anticipatory breach by you. You irrevocably waive all rights to seek injunctive or other equitable relief.

Entire Agreement. These Terms constitute the entire agreement between you and the Company with respect to your use of the Service and any other subject matter hereof and cannot be changed or modified by you except as expressly posted on the Service by the Company. You also may be subject to additional terms and conditions that may apply when you use affiliate or third party services, third party content or third party software.

Waiver. The failure of the Company to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision, and no waiver by either party of any breach or default hereunder shall be deemed to be a waiver of any preceding or subsequent breach or default.

Severability. If any provision of these Terms is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of these Terms shall remain in full force and effect.

Course of Conduct/Trade Practice. Neither the course of conduct between the parties nor trade practice will act to modify these Terms.

Assignment. These Terms may not be assigned by you without the Company's prior written consent, but are freely assignable by the Company. Subject to the foregoing restriction, these Terms will be binding on, inure to, and enforceable against the parties and their respective successors and assigns.

Documentation of Compliance. Upon the Company's request, you will furnish the Company with any documentation, substantiation or releases necessary to verify your compliance with these Terms.

Interpretation. You agree that these Terms will not be construed against the Company by virtue of having drafted them.

Defenses Based on Electronic Form of These Terms. You hereby waive any and all defenses you may have based on the electronic form of these Terms and the lack of signing by the parties hereto to execute these Terms.

Survival. You agree that the provisions of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination will survive any termination of these Terms.

Contact. If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact privacy@discord.com.

Discord is made possible through the work of other open source software.

-"Terms of Service | Discord"

Discord Privacy Policy

Last updated and effective: June 23, 2020

WELCOME TO DISCORD!

Discord, Inc. provides a social online and mobile chat platform via the Discord website (the “Site”), the Discord application (the “App”) and related Internet services (collectively, the “Service(s)”). The Service is operated by Discord, Inc. (the “Company”, “we” or “us”) for users of the Service (“you”). This Privacy Policy sets forth our policy with respect to information that is collected from visitors to the Site and users of the App and/or the Services. Under applicable law, Discord, Inc. is the “data controller” of personal data collected through the Services.

INFORMATION WE COLLECT

When you interact with us through the Services, we may collect information from you, as further described below:

Information You Provide: We collect information from you when you voluntarily provide such information, such as when you register for access to the Services or use certain Services. Information we collect may include but not be limited to username, email address, and any messages, images, transient VOIP data (to enable communication delivery only) or other content you send via the chat feature.

OTHER INFORMATION:

Data We Collect Automatically: When you interact with us through the Services, we receive and store certain information such as an IP address, device ID, and your activities within the Services. We may store such information or such information may be included in databases owned and maintained by affiliates, agents or service providers. The Services may use such information and pool it with other information to track, for example, the total number of visitors to our Site, the number of messages users have sent, as well as the sites which refer visitors to Discord.
Aggregated Information: In an ongoing effort to better understand and serve the users of the Services, we may conduct research on our customer demographics, interests and behavior based on the information collected. This research may be compiled and analyzed on an aggregate basis, and we may share this aggregate data with our affiliates, agents and business partners. We may also disclose aggregated user statistics in order to describe our services to current and prospective business partners, and to other third parties for other lawful purposes.
Info through other Services: You may give us permission to collect your information in other services. For example, you may connect a social networking service ("SNS") such as Facebook or Twitter to your Discord account. When you do this, it allows us to obtain information from those accounts (for example, your friends or contacts).
Cookies: We employ cookies and similar technologies to keep track of your local computer’s settings such as which account you have logged into and notification settings. Cookies are pieces of data that sites and services can set on your browser or device that can be read on future visits. We may expand our use of cookies to save additional data as new features are added to the Service. In addition, we use technologies such as web beacons and single-pixel gifs to record log data such as open rates for emails sent by the system.
We may use third party web site analytic tools such as Google Analytics on our website that employ cookies to collect certain information concerning your use of our Services. However, you can disable cookies by changing your browser settings. Further information about the procedure to follow in order to disable cookies can be found on your Internet browser provider's website via your help screen.
Advertisements: You may see our Service advertised in other applications or websites. After clicking on one of these advertisements and installing our Service, you will become a user of the Service. Advertising platforms, which include Twitter and Facebook (and whose SDKs are integrated within our Service), may collect information for optimizing advertising campaigns outside of the Service.

If you do not wish to receive personalized advertising that is delivered by third parties outside of the Discord Service, you may be able to exercise that choice through opt-out programs that are administered by third parties, including the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI), the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA). Our Services currently do not respond to “Do Not Track” (DNT) signals and operate as described in this Privacy Policy whether or not a DNT signal is received, as there is no consistent industry standard for compliance.

WHERE INFORMATION IS PROCESSED

The Company is based in the United States. No matter where you are located, you consent to the processing and transferring of your information in and to the U.S. and other countries. The laws of the U.S. and other countries governing data collection and use may not be as comprehensive or protective as the laws of the country where you live.

OUR USE OF YOUR INFORMATION

We use the information you provide in a manner that is consistent with this Privacy Policy. If you provide information for a certain reason, we may use the information in connection with the reason for which it was provided. For instance, if you contact us by email, we will use the information you provide to answer your question or resolve your problem. Also, if you provide information in order to obtain access to the Services, we will use your information to provide you with access to such services and to monitor your use of such services. The Company and its subsidiaries and affiliates (the “Related Companies”) may also use your information collected through the Services to help us improve the content and functionality of the Services, to better understand our users and to improve the Services. The Company and its affiliates may use this information to contact you in the future to tell you about services we believe will be of interest to you. If we do so, each marketing communication we send you will contain instructions permitting you to "opt-out" of receiving future marketing communications. In addition, if at any time you wish not to receive any future marketing communications or you wish to have your name deleted from our mailing lists, please contact us as indicated below.

OUR LEGAL BASES FOR HANDLING OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA

The laws in some jurisdictions require companies to tell you about the legal ground they rely on to use or disclose your personal data. To the extent those laws apply, our legal grounds are as follows:

To honor our contractual commitments to you: Much of our processing of personal data is to meet our contractual obligations to our users, or to take steps at users’ request in anticipation of entering into a contract with them. For example, we handle personal data on this basis to create your account and provide our Services.
- Legitimate interests: In many cases, we handle personal data on the ground that it furthers our legitimate interests in ways that are not overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the affected individuals: This includes:
- Providing a safe and enjoyable user experience;
  - Customer service;
  - Marketing, e.g. sending emails or other communications to let you know about new features;
  - Protecting our users, personnel, and property;
  - Analyzing and improving our business, e.g. collecting information about how you use our Services to optimize the design and placement of certain features;
  - Processing job applications;
  - Managing legal issues.
  - Legal compliance: We need to use and disclose personal data in certain ways to comply with our legal obligations.
  - To protect the vital interests of the individual or others: For example, we may collect or share personal data to help resolve an urgent medical situation.
- Consent: Where required by law, and in some other cases, we handle personal data on the basis of your implied or express consent.

OUR DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION

The Company is not in the business of selling your information. We consider this information to be a vital part of our relationship with you. There are, however, certain circumstances in which we may share your information with certain third parties, as set forth below:

Business Transfers: As we develop our business, we might sell or buy businesses or assets. In the event of a corporate sale, merger, reorganization, bankruptcy, dissolution or similar event, your information may be part of the transferred assets.
Consent: We may transfer your information with your consent.
Related Companies: We may also share your information with our Related Companies for purposes consistent with this Privacy Policy.
Developers: Developers using our SDK or API will have access to their end users’ information, including message content, message metadata, and voice metadata. Developers must use such information only to provide the SDK/API functionality within their applications and/or services.
Agents, Consultants and Related Third Parties: Like many businesses, we sometimes hire other companies or individuals to perform certain business-related functions. Examples of such functions include mailing information, maintaining databases and processing payments.
Legal Requirements: We may disclose your information if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to (i) comply with a legal obligation, (ii) protect and defend the rights or property of the Company or Related Companies, (iii) protect the personal safety of users of the Services or the public, or (iv) protect against legal liability.
Aggregated or Non-identifiable Data: We may also share aggregated or non-personally identifiable information with our partners or others for business purposes.

UNSOLICITED INFORMATION

You may provide us with ideas for new products or modifications to existing products, and other unsolicited submissions (collectively, “Unsolicited Information”). All Unsolicited Information shall be deemed to be non-confidential and we shall be free to reproduce, use, disclose, and distribute such Unsolicited Information to others without limitation or attribution.

CHILDREN

Our Services are for users age 13 and over and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13. If you are a parent or guardian of a child under the age of 13 and believe he or she has disclosed personal information to us please contact us at dis.gd/request and select "Parent of a user" as your report type option. Note: In some countries, the age of digital consent is older than 13. If you are in those countries, you must be at least that age to use the Services. For example, for residents of the EEA, where processing of personal information is based on consent, Discord will not knowingly engage in that processing for users under the age of consent established by applicable data protection law. If we learn that we are engaged in that processing with such users, we will halt such processing and will take reasonable measures to promptly remove applicable information from our records.

LINKS TO OTHER WEB SITES

This Privacy Policy applies only to the Services. The Services may contain links to other web sites not operated or controlled by us (the “Third Party Sites”). The policies and procedures we described here do not apply to the Third Party Sites. The links from the Services do not imply that we endorse or have reviewed the Third Party Sites. We suggest contacting those sites directly for information on their privacy policies.

DATA RETENTION

We generally retain personal data for so long as it may be relevant to the purposes identified herein. To dispose of personal data, we may anonymize it, delete it or take other appropriate steps. Data may persist in copies made for backup and business continuity purposes for additional time.

SECURITY

We take reasonable steps to protect the information provided via the Services from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. However, no Internet or email transmission is ever fully secure or error free. In particular, email sent to or from the Services may not be secure. Therefore, you should take special care in deciding what information you send to us via email. Please keep this in mind when disclosing any information via the Internet.

YOUR DATA RIGHTS AND CHOICES

We believe that users should be treated equally no matter where they are, and so we are making the following options to control your data available to all users, regardless of their location.

You can update certain information by accessing your profile via “Settings.” You can also unsubscribe from certain emails by clicking the “unsubscribe” link they contain. You can opt out from certain cookie-related processing by following the instructions above in “Other Information.”

Individuals in California, the European Economic Area, Canada, Costa Rica and some other jurisdictions outside the United States have certain legal rights to obtain confirmation of whether we hold personal data about them, to access personal data we hold about them (including, in some cases, in portable form), and to obtain its correction, update, amendment or deletion in appropriate circumstances. They may also object to our uses or disclosures of personal data, to request a restriction on its processing, or withdraw any consent, though such actions typically will not have retroactive effect. They also will not affect our ability to continue processing data in lawful ways.

How can I access the personal data you have about me?

If you would like to submit a data access request, you can do so from the “Settings” page of the Services, where there is a button to download your data. We will then start the process and provide you a link to access the personal data that Discord has on you within 30 days.

How do I correct, update, amend, or delete the personal data you have about me?

In addition to the functionality available through the “Settings” of the Services, in which you can correct, update, amend, or delete certain personal data, you can also request other modifications from us directly. Please write us at privacy@discord.com with the words “Personal Data Request” in the subject or body of your message, along with an explanation of what data subject right you are seeking to exercise. For your protection, we may take steps to verify identity before responding to your request.

How do I object or restrict the manner in which Discord processes my personal data?

You have a right to ask us to stop using or limit our use of your personal data in certain circumstances—for example, if we have no lawful basis to keep using your data, or if you think your personal data is inaccurate.

Discord offers you the ability to restrict the processing of your data for specific uses, which you can find in the “Settings” page of the services. Individuals in the European Economic Area have the right to opt out of all of our processing of their personal data for direct marketing purposes. To exercise this right, please see the “Settings” page for your Account. You may also click the “unsubscribe” link in any of our marketing emails.

The rights and options described above are subject to limitations and exceptions under applicable law. In addition to those rights, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant supervisory authority. However, we encourage you to contact us first, and we will do our very best to resolve your concern.

EU-U.S. PRIVACY SHIELD AND SWISS-U.S. PRIVACY SHIELD

Discord complies with the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework and the Swiss – U.S. Privacy Shield Framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of personal information transferred from the European Union and Switzerland to the United States, respectively. Discord has certified to the Department of Commerce that it adheres to the Privacy Shield Principles. If there is any conflict between the terms in this privacy policy and the Privacy Shield Principles, the Privacy Shield Principles shall govern. To learn more about the Privacy Shield program, and to view our certification, please visit https://www.privacyshield.gov/.

Discord is potentially liable for onward transfers to third parties of personal data of EU or Swiss individuals received pursuant to Privacy Shield. Discord is subject to oversight by the U.S. FTC. JAMS is the US-based alternative dispute resolution provider responsible for reviewing and resolving complaints about Discord’s Privacy Shield compliance. We ask that you first submit any complaints to us at privacy@discord.com. If you aren't satisfied with our response, you can then contact JAMS at https://www.jamsadr.com/eu-us-privacy-shield. In the event your concern still isn't addressed by JAMS, you may be entitled to a binding arbitration under Privacy Shield and its principles.

WHO IS DISCORD’S EEA REPRESENTATIVE?

We’ve appointed VeraSafe as Discord’s representative in the EEA for data protection matters, pursuant to Article 27 of the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Economic Area. You can contact VeraSafe, in addition to privacy@discord.com, only on matters related to the processing of personal data. To make such an inquiry, please contact VeraSafe using this contact form: https://www.verasafe.com/privacy-services/contact-article-27-representative or via telephone at +420 228 881 031.

Alternatively, you can contact VeraSafe at: VeraSafe Ireland Ltd Unit 3D North Point House North Point Business Park New Mallow Road Cork T23AT2P Ireland

YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS

Consumers residing in California are afforded certain additional rights with respect to their personal information under the California Consumer Privacy Act or (“CCPA”) and the “Shine the Light” Law. If you are a California resident, this section applies to you.

California Consumer Privacy Act

Our Collection and Use of Personal Information: We collect the following categories of personal information: identifiers (such as your username, the email address you use to sign up, and your phone number, if you’ve chosen to provide it); commercial information (a record of what you’ve bought from Discord, if anything); financial data (payment information, if you’ve bought anything from Discord); internet or other network information (how you interact with the application); location information (because your IP address may indicate your general location); inference data about you; and other information that identifies or can be reasonably associated with you. For examples of the precise data points we collect and the sources of such collection, please see the “INFORMATION WE COLLECT” section above. We collect personal information for the business and commercial purposes described in “OUR USE OF YOUR INFORMATION” above.

Disclosure of Personal Information: We may share your personal information with third parties as described in the “OUR DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION” section above. We disclose the categories of personal information mentioned above for business or commercial purposes.

No Sale of Personal Information: The CCPA sets forth certain obligations for businesses that sell personal information. We do not sell the personal information of our users.

Exercising Your Consumer Rights: If you are a California resident, you have the right to request (1) more information about the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected and disclosed for a business purpose in the last 12 months, (2) deletion of your personal information, and (3) to opt out of sales of your personal information, if applicable. Details on how to make these requests are in the “YOUR DATA RIGHTS AND CHOICES” section above. We will not discriminate against you if you exercise your rights under the CCPA.

Requests Received: We received the following number of data requests between June 20, 2019 and June 20, 2020:

Number of North American requests to know Received: 105,531 Completed: 101,391 Incomplete (due to account deletion prior to completion or invalid email address): 4,140 Average time to resolution: 5 days

Number of worldwide requests to delete Received: 55,143 Completed: 52,508 Incomplete (due to incorrect email confirmation or non-existent email address): 2,635 Average time to resolution: 3 days

Number of requests to opt-out Because Discord does not sell the personal information of our users to third parties, this is not applicable.

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We reserve the right to update or modify this Privacy Policy at any time and from time to time without prior notice. Please review this policy periodically, and especially before you provide any information. This Privacy Policy was last updated on the date indicated above. Your continued use of the Services after any changes or revisions to this Privacy Policy shall indicate your agreement with the terms of such revised Privacy Policy.

CONTACTING US

Please also feel free to contact us if you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or the information practices of the Services. You may contact us as follows: privacy@discord.com.

-"Privacy Policy | Discord"

MacStories Discord Bookmarking

Announcement Message Link - https://discord.com/channels/836622115435184162/836622115880828958/907629980194861096

"Why Is Telegram So Special?"

Telegram is a great app for many different reasons. Not only is it completely open source, but it is free, with no ads, and it is secure.

Security is something very important to us in this day and age. Have you ever been using messenger on Facebook or maybe just regular text messaging from your phone, and something strange happened? Maybe you or someone that you were talking to happened to mention something out of the ordinary. Next thing you know, you see an advertisement for whatever you mentioned! This has happened to me a number of times. One specific incident was when I was Talking to a friend who had some led lights for sale. I simply sent them a text message that said something like ‘hey can I buy one of those LED lights you have?’ Literally less than two minutes later I get a text message from ‘wish.com’ with an advertisement saying ‘click here for LED lights.’ Coincidence? Maybe, but unlikely because this was not the first time something like this occurred.

It’s even more evident on apps that have ads in them. Most ads, no matter what business, you see on the internet belong to Google or Facebook. After all, if they don’t charge you for their service, where do you think that they make their money from? There is a saying that goes ‘if you are not paying for a service, then you are the product.’ That means that all the business owners that want to advertise their website, their product, or service, Google and Facebook's actual customer. Because they are the ones who end up paying Google and Facebook money, and then Google and Facebook guarantee them, that for the money they paid, they will get more traffic or sales on their website.

Google Adsense

They do this by ‘listening’ in on your conversations, your emails, your instant messages, text messages, and even when your phone is on the table and you are talking to your friends in person. They have advanced algorithms and artificial intelligence that listening for key words like ‘where can I get, or I want to buy, or I need to get’ and when they hear that they know that the next word you say will be an item that one of the websites that pays them is selling. Don’t believe me? Try it yourself.

Go ahead and open up your text messages and send a message to a friend of yours. You can even tell them your plan so that they are not confused. Then start talking about something that you have never talked about before. A good example would be to mention something like ‘skydiving.’ Start sending messages to your friend that say things like, ‘I want to go skydiving. Where can I go Skydiving? We should go skydiving together. I want to buy some skydiving gear. What gear should I take Skydiving with me?' Then it will work best if you search for skydiving in Google too. After you do this pay close attention to the advertisements you start to see.

If you're thinking, so what? That's not a big deal! Think again. Chances are that you have heard the name Edward Snowden before. He was a young man that worked for the CIA and the NSA.

While working there he came across a computer program that the government was using on a daily basis that scared him very much. He learned that an official governemnt program called PRISM was collecting and recording every single message that you have ever sent to anyone! It was recording every single voice phone call you ever made, and every single email you have ever typed or forwarded. Even if you deleted something the government still had it and could access and read it with a click of a single button. All without having to have any 'probable cause,' 'suspicion,' or a single warrant from a judge. He made a brave decision to collect and steal thousands of documents that were irrefutable proof that PRISM was operational and of its capabilities. He gave up his high paying job and his comfortable life so that the world would know this was going on!

What does this have to do with Telegram?

Although after the world found out about the PRISM program, changes were made, but they didn't get rid of the capabilities. So your messages and phone calls and your GPS data is still very accessible by these major corporations like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and by your government. Companies like Atnt, Spectrum, t-mobile, cricket, etc, all work hand in hand with the governemnt and make all of your information accecible to them. Even if you are one of those people that says 'I have nothing to hide' what about your passwords? Your bank information? If it is all saved somewhere that doesn't mean it can't fall into the wrong hands. What if you have an incredible idea for an app? Or a new business? Don't you want to be able to discuss these plans with someone and know that your conversations are secure?

This is why telegram is SO important! They are a small company and one of the only ones that cares more about its service than money. In a world where most of our communications are being monitored they offer a way to text, call, send files and more absolutely securely!

Normally, if you are sitting at home and you send a message to someone, it can be seen by; your cell phone carrier, your internet service provider, Apple and/or Google and/or Facebook, the recipients internet service provider, and their mobile carrier. Then it is shared with the government or governments if other countries are involved. Your info is also sold to company's like Amazon and Wish.

The only way to stop this is to use a service like Telegram provides. They have two types of encryption. Everything is automatically server-client encrypted. They use a SHA-256 bit encryption same as crypto currencys such as bitcoin because that type of encryption is impossible to break. To be more specific, the amount of time that the strongest computers in the world would take to break this encryption is simply: forever. We don't have the necessary computing power to break this encryption and wont any time soon. That's how advanced the security is for every meme that you send through Telegram. That's only the security for the regular group and instant messages you send. Telegram also has a 'secret message' option that uses an even more advanced end to end encryption or E2EE. This is absolutely impossible for even the Telegram team to see! Instead of routing through their servers it is a direct encryption from one person to another! Their voice calls and even video calls are all end to end encrypted! To start a 'secret chat' with someone all you have to do is simply long press on their name and click on 'secret chat' It's that simple!

Secret Chat with @CannabisCultivation

Technology is evolving at an insanely rapid pace, and we are growing more and more dependant on technology and digital communications. There are cameras everywhere, some places even have facial recognition software. As our convenience grows our privacy shrinks. This makes Telegram an extremely vital and important service that we should all support and take advantage of.

Imagine a dystopian future like the one in the 'Terminator' movie.

Terminator movie poster

Skynet, the artificial intelligence controls all electronics and the human race is sent back to the stone age. The only hope we have left is the resistance led by John Connor who takes a stand and fights against the machines. If they had Telegram, John would be able to communicate with other resistance members and set up a coordinated attack, one that Skynet would never know about because not even Skynet would be able to crack Telegrams end to end encryption.

But in a more realistic situation, over the past couple years, there have been protests for different reasons all over the world. Here in the United States of America, we have seen mass numbers of people, protesting all across the country, coast to coast. These mostly started as peaceful protests mainly against the unwarranted brutality of the police state and the execution of unarmed, black individuals. However the peace was broken when protesters were shot at with less lethal weapons like tear gas and bean bags. It's safe to say that the police used one of the toys in their arsenal called a 'Stinger.'

Stinger

A stinger is a device that was built for the military but is now used by the police and FBI. It acts as a cell phone tower, forcing all the cellular devices in a certain area to connect to it.

How a Stinger Works

The officers can single in on a specific device via the IMEI number and intercept all phone calls it makes, texts it sends, and can even pinpoint the exact location of the connected device in real time. Although this may seem like a dystopian weapon to those unfamiliar with it, this is a very real, and completely clandestine device in use today, throughout the United States and other countries worldwide. While this may seem like an unfair advantage and a complete invasion of privacy, congress still allows the police to use it against citizens of America. Protesters may be trying to plan a get together or March of some kind, but the police would be able to know all about it and shut it down before it ever even starts. Weather or not you personally support the police or support the protesters, I think we can all agree it is an unfair advantage. Luckily one thing that the stinger will never be able to do is read your Telegram messages or hear your Telegram voice and video calls! It does have the power to lock your device out of any network so you won't have the internet and wont be able to use Telegram, but your messages will always be safe regardless.

-"Why Is Telegram So Special?"

Patel Clouds Theme in the Chat Background Tool

How I’ve used Telegram as the ultimate cross-platform Universal Clipboard, file sharing service, and more.

Believe it or not, I, too originally sought the Russian-owned, cross-platform-as-hell messaging service for “privacy” - or perhaps solitude would be more apt. It was in 2017, amidst the shock that the Tump Presidency was actually going to happen [^1], that I happened to hear about his pick for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, whom had just 18 months prior led myself and some twenty thousand other poor souls in a most capitalist prayer to the Christian God for prosperity at her pyramid scheme’s ultimate “superbowl” gathering in Cincinatti. I had decided to “infiltrate” AMWAY under the ridiculous assumption that I might be able to contribute some new insight in writing critically about what I might witness. (In truth, I found my experiences that summer so utterly traumatic, existentially, that I never was able to do so.) I don’t know what consequences of her ascension to the Lord of American Schooling I expected to happen, but I was pretty hysterical about it - that is, more unhumorously alarmed about some grander world happening as I’d ever been by a long shot. For the first and only time in memory, I felt compelled to take some sort of malicious, obscured action - to organize somehow for a purpose other than to be publicly critical of this person, and to use my knowledge about digital media to the fullest possible extent to scrutinize her administration’s every movement and to be prepared, even, to take some sort of real action if she… well, I don’t know. I didn’t know anything, really, about anti-government organization, generally, but I was not acting rationally in the slightest.[^2]

White Sapphire

I’m bringing this up for a few reasons, and the fact that the very first digital decision of my personal hysteria was to set up a private Telegram channel is telling, though I can’t recall just how much or how little I actually knew about it at the time. I launched myself back to the channel’s very beginning (easier to do with regular URLs than in any other service I’ve ever encountered,) but was only able to bring myself to dig just long enough to grab the utterly absurd photograph above… Though I certainly did not consider myself actively interested in automation at the time,[^3] Telegram’s infamous bot ecosystem proved so prevalent (and accessible,) that I was able to configure at least three bots on that channel within days of first establishing it: a repeater hooked to DeVos’ Twitter account, an RSS-powered bot watching the main feed of a website set up by Senator Elizabeth Warren called DeVos Watch, and another republishing everything from the Department of Education’s press releases feed.

https://twitter.com/ammnontet/status/1449594872139186181

Was any of it genuinely useful in helping me maintain Action Readiness in hypothetical defense of American education? Most certainly not. It was, however, genuinely comforting to have such diligent, automated minions keeping watch - to have a centralized, private, reliable, and purely-chronological feed of information in a super-handy location, regardless of whether or not it was usable. As I began to unconsciously integrate Telegram into my day-to-day online life on both of my PCs and my iPhone, the usefulness of my private channel for other applications became rapidly apparent. On iOS, not even dedicated file managers like DEVONthink are capable (or willing might be a more accurate term) of handling the diversity of data Telegram will happily pass on for you, especially through the Share Sheet.

https://twitter.com/NeoYokel/status/1442554265956986882

Drafting

I have used this “flow” so extensively for so long that it has come to define the whole of the abstract method in my muscle memory. Observe me browsing the web on my phone in an exhausted or particularly distractible state and you’d probably catch at least one or two completely irrational, inexplicable instances of sharing to my “Saved Messages” Telegram channel, which would be problematic for just about any other link-saving service. Add too many links to Safari’s Read Later list and you’ll end up crashing the browser on your Mac. I don’t even feel comfortable sending links willy nilly to the brilliant bookmark managing/curatorial service Raindrop, these days, after finding out that my Reading List feed has actual daily followers, but there are zero consequences to sending ultimately-worthless or duplicate links to my personal Telegram channel, which has no content limit and is instantly and competently searchable.

Send to Telegram Drafts Action

Over the years, I’ve discovered a bunch of other uses for the Saved Messages channel. As demonstrated in the screenshots embedded above, the Send to Telegram Action for my writing app, Drafts, utilizes Telegram for iOS’ Universal Links support (in the format tg://…) to instantly send the whole text of the current document in Drafts to a Telegram channel of one’s choice. I suspect this was intended to streamline posting for admins of public channels, but I’ve used it to quickly “back up” work as well as to transfer edits directly to my (Windows-running) PC. By adding &to=+[my phone number] to the end of the action’s URL, I was able to remove the single, unnecessary step of choosing the destination chat. Because text messages are automatically split at 5000 characters, though, I usually depend on the Share as Markdown File Action (the output of which I also send to Saved Messages through the Share Sheet) for the latter function. Anecdotally I’ve also used this method literally just to inspect unknown content passed to the Share Sheet because it’s often faster than Quick Look to share to my Saved Messages channel and then immediately open it in the app. (Hilarious, I suppose. Mostly sad, these days.)

I found my inspiration for this Post in replying to a thread on the Automators.fm Discourse forum regarding a Windows equivlalent to the same Mac/iOS/iPadOS app Drafts mentioned above. I suppose my reply was a bit off-topic, in retrospect, but still worth including:

I have been using Telegram, of all things for years. Notably, if you hit Ctrl + 0 from anywhere in the Windows client, you and your cursor are taken to the compose field beneath your personal "Saved Messages" channel, which is searchable, has an extremely high per-message character limit (after which it just automatically splits,) and is ridiculously reliable in saving "drafts" live as you're typing. As in... I have actively tried to lose characters by killing the application and then logging in on my phone and have yet to accomplish losing a single one (among other advantages: zero formatting added to plain text by default - not even line breaks - no total file limit and 2GB per file limit uploads, absurdly cross-platform, literally more reliable than SMS in poor network conditions.) You can immediately reenter a sent message with ↑ to edit, copy it, escape with just Esc and then paste to start a new revision.

The feature within Telegram that makes this whole usecase worthwhile was introduced in June, 2016, and is entitled - appropriately - “Drafts.” Unlike the Drafts function in Twitter’s various native clients, for instance, Telegram’s really is impossible to fool, though it’s not perfect. Markdown formatting support is inconsistent across Telegram clients - the iOS app being the most woeful - and the few keyboard shortcuts the app supports on iPad are not supported whatsoever on iPhone.

Universal Clipboard

Users familiar with the MacOS + iOS + iPadOS ecosystem should be well-acquainted with “Universal Clipboard,” which instantly synchronizes clipboard content across Apple devices. More recently, Android + Windows users have supposedly had access to an equivalent functionality. To my knowledge, though, truly cross-platform clipboard sync has yet to be realized.[^4] As someone who’s used iOS and Windows regularly - along with Linux, occasionally - for more than a decade, now, I’d put my full weight behind Telegram as the best available solution from (far too much) personal experience.

Security Considerations in Telegram for iOS

When first entering a new system, real or virtual, regardless of OS, my very first step upon completion of its setup process has for years been to install Telegram, largely because all of my passwords for any/all given services are huge - 30+ characters, at least - and complex enough that typing them out is both tricky and absurdly time-consuming. Authorizing a new Telegram client, however, is as simple as entering a one-time numeric passcode or scanning a QR code. Managing logged-in sessions (see: the far right screenshot embedded above) is quick, reliable, and includes a handy button to kill all but the current session. Thanks to these considerations, I feel quite comfortable sending myself passwords in Telegram, including .csv exports of whole password vaults, when it’s appropriate, even when working on systems I do not own. For this function, I can’t think of any other service/software capable of replacing Telegram.

For day-to-day hyperlink sharing across my platforms, a variety of alternatives continue to come and go. The “Send to [device]” features represented throughout the palette of available web browsers - Firefox, Opera, Edge Chromium, Chrome, etc. - aren’t exactly reliable, in my experience. Most recently, I discovered a service specific to Hewlett Packard machines called “QuickDrop,” which - along with its accompanying iOS app - does indeed allow me to send files, links, and text between my iPhone and Big Boy HP tower, though even my brief testing was filled with inexplicable prompts to reauthenticate and intermittent hangups, neither of which lend easily to regular use. I still maintain high hopes for Snapdrop, which allows devices to share files and text over a local network from within any web browser, but it, too, is prone to frustrating hangups.

Drake Telegram Joke

File Transfer & Cloud Backup

Amidst the saga of my failed move to Portland spanning 2017-2019, I ended up losing all of my physical file storage - my old desktop and its hard drive, as well as 3 external drives containing a bunch of raw video I probably wouldn’t have gotten around to using, anyway, site backups for Extratone, and who knows what else. This loss taught me many grand, metaphysical life lessons (I hope,) but more practically, it affirmed a (admittedly gluttonous) truth about digital assets: if one truly wishes to make a file permanent, they must back it up in as many different places as possible.[^5] Perhaps the single most durable of these in my own computing life to date has been Telegram, which still has no per-account file upload limit and a per-file size limit of two gigabytes. The amount of pre-2019 work I’ve recovered solely thanks to Telegram is too great to enumerate here, but a rough draft of my 2018 Thankful for Bandcamp Mix comes immediately to mind.

How exactly the service is able to maintain this virtually unrestricted storage, infrastructurally, borders on don’t want to know status. My own net server impact as a user is fairly difficult to estimate, but I’d bet real paper currency it’s between 50 and 100 GB, the vast majority of which I uploaded several years ago. Within any mainstream cloud file storage service - Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, iCloud, etc. - the cost of storing that amount over time would have added up to a not-insignificant chunk of change. I don’t want to advocate for Telegram as a cloud storage replacement for loaded cheapskates, but for working-class users on a $0 budget, it can be counted upon to keep large files in a relatively shareable, ultra cross-platform, and super-accessible manner. Students, especially, should take note.

Local Visibility and Voice Notes Publishing in Telegram for iOS

Community

At this point in my life, I must acknowledge to both readers and myself that I am completely inept at community organization. Especially when it comes to grand suggestions about how I suppose online communities might be ideally-run or just better served by particular software environments and configurations, I have literally received zero positive feedback, and not because I haven’t spent significant time positing publicly within the space. I spent the first half of my twenties trying to Peter Pan an independent online music magazine into existence, written by fresh-minded youths on the fringe at 140% throttle and managed to accomplish startlingly little for my all my invested time and gumption. The relevant component of that tale was a significant and all-out commitment from the beginning to run the whole project entirely within Discord.

The one absent activity throughout my years of Telegram use - save for intermittent correspondence during one relationship - has been messaging other users. I managed to find and participate in a few group chats - “Telegram iOS Talk” and It's FOSS' official channel, notably - in my preparation/research for this post. I’ve discovered plenty of new clever bits, like the button to jump to one’s nearest mention in a chat. I’ve also done my best to actually apply some much-needed administrative attention to my years-old attempt at creating the definitive location-based local group chat for the Mid-Missouri area where I live. Truthfully… It hasn’t exactly gone as I’d hoped, but the failures have been all my own. I have yet to find a satisfactory balance in terms of moderation bots, so I’ve (as of this writing) resorted to manually removing the (significant) spam bot traffic by hand. Also, I must admit that I’ve never had to do so more than once or twice on Extratone’s public Discord, despite how much more circulation its public, open invite links have received.

In the past few weeks, I’ve had the privilege of watching MacStories relaunch their premium membership program, Club MacStories, on their incredible bespoke CMS. Part of this launch included their first exclusive community space, on Discord, which has been deeply rewarding for me, personally, but has also highlighted some serious limitations of that service which I not-so-long-ago advocated so heavily for. Namely, hyperlinks to specific messages within Discord are a hopelessly problematic endeavor. Even for a public server like Extratone’s, navigating to a message link like this example will require any and all users to log in to Discord on the web, which - on mobile devices, especially - seems to struggle to navigate to the precise position of the subject message after you’ve successfully done so. Slack’s public message links are smart enough at least to prompt users to open them Slack for iOS, but Telegram’s system for message links in public channels and groups makes both services look daft.

Telegram message IDs are purely chronological from their channel/group chat’s creation - the first message in a channel or group chat is 1 and the 15th is 15. Together with the simplicity of channel/group chat IDs, which are just their alphanumeric @ names, this format makes URL schemes for Telegram message links super malleable and easy to understand. The sixth message posted in the @extratone channel, for instance, can be found at https://t.me/extratone/6, which even those without Telegram installed can view natively within their web browser. Within Telegram clients, said links are ultra-responsive, regardless of whether or not one had previously “joined” the channel or group containing the message.

Orange Noir Telegram Theme by Valespace

In MacStories’ case, there’s another essential point of reference. When I pinged the staff in their Discord regarding their experiences running their now-abandoned Telegram channel, John Voorhees replied:

I don't really have anything to say about Telegram one way or the other. We ran it for a short time 5 years ago as an experiment and it didn't stick.

I wasn’t yet a subscriber in those days, but little details like behind-the-scenes voice messages are definitely missed. Federico’s initial audio introduction describes a potential for the channel I wish more readers had enjoyed. They’re much more intimate, even, than the publication’s new exluclusive Town Hall events on Discord, which doesn’t make much sense, I know.

Live Streams and Video Chats

Streaming

Admittedly, another attention-grabbing feature that contributed to my finally getting around to this Post was the introduction of "Live Streams" for channels and groups (really just a slight augmentation of their "Voice Chats 2.0" features) at the very end of this past August. Discord, of course, was way ahead of Telegram in implementing Voice Chats and Screen Sharing back in October of 2017, and it's long since become one of the services' core features. However, recording live content of any kind is not natively supported, though there is a handy utility bot named Craig who can accomplish this for you. For the sake of transparency, I should admit that not a single one of my live streams on Discord has actually included any viewership, but I have participated in a handful of others’ and viewed a couple dozen.

https://twitter.com/NeoYokel/status/1448837428534521858

For the past few months or so, participating in any sort of voice or video chat in Discord desktop has led to a spectacular relaunch loop that can only be solved by reinstalling the application, entirely.[^7] It’s not that Discord for iOS’ now full support for such streaming - both in terms of participation and simple viewership - isn’t impressive, but honestly, Telegram for iOS’ superiority should be immediately obvious to anyone who’s tried them both, recently. Not just in pure capacity’s sense, but in moderation tools, shared link customization, and, obviously, native recording support. I’ve embedded two recordings of different test streams of mine, below. The first (embedded in YouTube form,) was streamed from both my Surface Laptop 2 and iPhone 12 Pro Max.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhXZZBl0fn8

The second is a very brief recording (in native form directly from The Psalms’ GitHub Repo) of a stream I did just from the share screen function of my phone, in the wrong orientation.[^8]

Below is a screenshot of the recorded file’s metadata (as provided by Telegram for Windows.)

Telegram Live Stream Meta

As you might note, there’s definitely something to be desired from the quality of Telegram’s stream recordings, especially in its included audio. I find it a bit strange that it’s recorded in 48 kHz just to be compressed down to 46kbps. When you’ve stopped a recording, you’ll receive both the video file and just the extracted audio in an .ogg file. Unfortunately, the latter is no less compressed than it is combined in the video file. (Both are sent to one's Saved Messages channel immediately upon stopping a recording, from where they can be forwarded virtually anywhere.) Aside from a boost in audio quality, though, Discord’s default 720p base resolution is matched by Telegram. Via server boosts, this figure can be upgraded significantly, though the end result is quite costly. According to a not necessarily trustworthy site, accounting for Discord’s recent reduction in boost requirements, here’s the pricing laydown to boost a server (per month:)

…a total of $34.93 for Level 2 and $69.86 for Level 3. That’s $24.45 for Level 2 and $48.90 for Level 3 for Nitro subscribers.

Among quite a few other abilities, here are the extracted audio/video requirements per server level only:

128kbps audio/720p video upped to 60fps
256kbps audio/1080p 60fps video
384kpbs audio/no video boost

So, if I had the spare change to maintain a level 2 boost for Extratone’s Discord server, myself, I could do so for $34.93 per month, which would allow me to stream (not necessarily record) in 1080p/60fps video and 256kbps audio to up to 50 viewers (as of this writing.) Theoretically, at no cost, I can stream with virtually identical features (though I prefer Telgram's) to my Telegram channel to infinitely many users in 1280p/30fps with absurdly low-quality audio and share/manipulate recordings natively/instantly from within any Telegram client. If I were All Powerful, I would make all the members of my "Family Tech Support" iMessage group install Telegram on their devices so we could use it, instead. I would also make them collectively attend occasional live streams, where they could ask questions verbally of my demonstrations sharing my own screen, or even share their own screens to demonstrate an issue or provide context for a question. The reality, though, is that I do not expect any sort of anticipation for my personal live help events on any platform, which innately suggests Telegram over Discord, I'd argue, for when I do stream such content, given its total lack of investment.[^9]

Location Sharing in Telegram for iOS

Location Sharing

One of Telegram's most unique (and potentially powerful, I believe) community features is Live Location Sharing on its mobile apps. Borned by Siberian native developer Roman Pushkin, LibreTaxi is the single truly exciting open ridesharing alternative I've ever encountered.[^10] As an item for CBC radio from 2015 (among other assorted coverage compiled here as of July, 2017) explains, it utilizes Telegram's live location sharing functions to act as a decentralized Uber/Lyft alternative in the form of a bot, which connects users needing a ride with users providing them, free of any fees or service charges. Discourse surrounding LibreTaxi has been silent for years, but this channel tracking all LibreTaxi orders in realtime is proof that it really is helping folks get around.

As for the persistence of Live* location-sharing, I can vouch for its reliability on the Android side, at least, as per my aforementioned experience with a partner who used Telegram and shared their location with me for both safety and convenience. As someone with the most immense possible privilege regarding safety and dating, I would also like to suggest sharing one's live location with a private Telegram group chat with friends as an alternative to service's like Tinder's Noonlight.

Chat Export in Telegram Desktop

Permanence

I've long evangelized (and extensively used) Alexey Golub's Discord Chat Exporter to make beautiful, stylized archives of Discord channels and/or entire servers for safekeeping. Telegram's native Chat Export Tool came just a year after Alexey pushed version 1.0 of the tool to GitHub, in August of 2018. In features, they're very similar utilities: both can export in either stylized HTML or data-only JSON formats between infinitely-configurable time/date constraints. Again, I wouldn’t know how much external backup of community activity actually weighs in the day-to-day operations of large online communities. I know I personally find it comforting to have a swift, polished method of exporting text, especially, living in this era of blatant disregard for users of suddenly-abandoned online services.

TG Colors

Transparency Opacity

One of my primary justifications for the time spent in composing this Post has to do with the immediately-available discourse surrounding Telegram on the web, which is wholly incomplete, at best. The main obstruction, from my perspective, is the subject of encryption. Even within publications as legitimate and frankly out-of-scope as Forbes, one can find an article like my chosen example, from February of this year, entitled "No, Don’t Quit WhatsApp To Use Telegram Instead—Here’s Why." It was written to address a mass "exodus" of users from WhatsApp after a grandiose misunderstanding(?) of its Privacy Policy caused a noisy controversy (catalyzed by Idiot Melon, himself.) I've been unable to find the added/altered text, itself, in my brief reading, but it's not as if the happening wasn't thoroughly covered elsewhere. It's not that I doubt the expertise of "Cybersecurity Expert Zak Doffman" when he notes "Telegram’s cloud-based architecture is a serious risk when compared to the end-to-end default encryption deployed by Signal and WhatsApp, which also uses Signal’s protocol," nor that I do not believe the following details are as true as truth gets:

All group messages on Telegram are only encrypted between your device and Telegram’s cloud, your message history is stored on Telegram’s cloud, and if you (unwisely) transfer your WhatsApp chat history to Telegram, then this is also stored on its cloud. Make you sure understand that Telegram has the decryption keys to any of your data that you store on its cloud...

To this argument and the many variations of it present in Telegram for iOS' App Store reviews, obscure German PeerTube servers, and even within public chats on Telegram, itself, my formal response for the record is: Okay! Affirmative! Received and understood! I must acknowledge - given my own introduction to the service, narrated above - that Telegram's brand is vaguely associated with privacy and security. I can see that the second of nine duckies in the Ducky Grid on the root of telegram.org sits above the subhead "Private" and a caption with the following claim: "Telegram messages are heavily encrypted and can self-destruct." (The seventh ducky's subhead is "Secure.") Continuing on in Doffman's Forbes article, we find an overview of several vulnerabilities found throughout Telegram's native clients by Dhiraj Mishra - surely they with the most ghastly typographical preferences in all of cybersecurity - on their blog, Input Zero.[^6] The specific example hyperlinked concerns a bug in the MacOS client that resulted in "the application leak[ing] the sandbox path where [a sent audio or video message] is stored in '.mp4' file." (The whole of the ghastly-typewritten summary is embedded below in screenshot form.)

Telegram Privacy - InputZero

Just to be clear, I am being sincere when I acknowledge that these are genuinely problematic issues that no doubt affected real Telegram users who depend upon its Secret Chat function. Even something so benign as the file path to local media storage on my device is not something I'd want piggybacking my otherwise-anonymous, NDA- and/or law-breaking messages to a journalist, for instance, but frankly, I don't know of any journalists who maintain public Telegram contacts, anyway. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen a Telegram username publicly associated with a journalist. Indeed, the overwhelming majority of anonymous modern messenger service tip lines advertised by news organizations and news people which I've come across have all linked to Signal. In this particular case, then, Mr. Elon’s advice is sound.

The question I would like to surface: what if I have no use for encryption or privacy across my purposes for Telegram? All the channels I have ever engaged with have been public, and those private ones I’ve come across have either been shady crypto spam channels or shady porn channels. I realize this doesn’t exactly reflect positively on Telegram’s community, but - as I argued regarding Discord, long ago - why let the community or even the app’s branding, itself, confine how you use it as a utility?

A Hearty Foundation

My thinking while drafting this argument kept returning to a single, simple realization: in age, Telegram is just two years ahead of Discord, yet the various software distributed by the two organizations for their respective services represent quite disparate opinions in design terms. Discord's desktop "application" is an Electron app - Telegram's is virtually pure C++. Telegram's iOS app is mostly written in Objective-C (I'm to assume the 30.8% Swift code number on the repo as of this writing is mostly comprised of its widgets/other recent iOS-specific integrations,) while Discord's is mostly ???. That is, because Discord's software is proprietary and the source is closed, all I can tell you is that it was written in React Native as of December, 2018. What I can tell you is that the current build of Discord for iOS on the App Store weighs in at 153.2 MB - significantly less than Telegram's 185.1 MB. As I've noted plenty of times this year, I am not a software developer and therefore I can't promise you an app's initial payload size is actually all that relevant, but I was surprised to see Telegram wasn't slimmer than Discord, given how the two apps behave and my previous experiences with the platform, this year.

Storage Management - Telegram for iOS

Returning to the topic of their age… In its eight operating years, Telegram has embarked upon - and actually completed! - a gargantuan amount of projects. Telegraph, the CMS, its Web, Android, and Linux clients, embeddedable comments widgets, its online theme creation tool, and on and on. Across their various types, Telegram’s software is universally simple, frugal, robust, and easy-to-use. Frankly, by contrast, Discord has done nothing? Though you’ll find openly-available solutions to accomplish much of what you can on Telegram in terms of moderation and other utilitarian concerns, like the aforementioned Craig bot, they are all the work of third-parties. While Discord the company is much more transparently profiled on the web than “Telegram FZ LLC,” the latter’s actual work is very well documented across GitHub.

Telegram Desktop in Windows 11

If you’ve stuck with me this far, perhaps it’s not too much to ask that we retreat a bit and ask ourselves what we’d truly like prioritized in community chat software for 2021. I really do show my age in my bias, here, as someone just old enough to have had extensive experience using IRC,[^11] I think there’s a less-than-adequately discussed division happening which its successors might benefit dwelling on. IRC was extremely frugal and it was easy to find a freeware or FOSS IRC client for one’s given platform which was well-optimized to sit in the background of their desktop operating system, completely untouched and barely acknowledged visually for days… weeks… months at a time. It was easy to find oneself a member of a dozen or so IRC channels for specific interests, projects, or organizations averaging a dozen or so actual updates/pots per day, each. It was distinctly low pressure - many of my channel memberships functioned more like a wire service or, much more contemporarily, like an RSS aggregator, than a local party line.

Telegram for iOS Sharing and Notifications

As I see it, the ultimate shift dividing those solutions from these is the big fucking obvious one: IRC was conceived in a world where computers were mostly static objects associated by their intended use and physical dimensions with the referential, unmoving waypoints around which we orbited (the kitchen counter, the desk in your study at home, parallel series of workstations within the public library, etc.) The entirely contrasted needs of community engagement on a handset should have - in my opinion - done much more to break apart these communal contexts than they have. As prolifically and extensively as I have used Discord for iOS since before its official release, even, it is hopelessly compromised by its loyalty to the PC gamer’s paradigm. My 12 Pro Max is not just capable of keeping 100 Discord channels up-to-date in the background as I move about the world - it is all too fucking eager, and for not a one rational explanation. Going on down this vector eventually leads to an adjacent argument I’ll name but otherwise save for later: it is literally over a decade past the time when we should have ceased celebrating the fact that mobile computers had matched and outdone desktop computers! We have to snap the fuck out of our obsession with lugging desktop computing alongside our persons and refocus entirely (once again) on exploring what “mobile computing” can/should mean, going forward. Please Gourd, help us do so ASAP.

Unlike my heroes in most (if not all) of these tedious comparisons, I would not say Telegram is the single software manifestation of total clarity in direction within the subject, or anything, but in the area where it fails along with the rest of them, it has comprehensively iterated, invested in trial and error, and eventually produced tools that remedy the disparate gluttony. How swiftly and easily one can find one's installation full of media files, for instance, after any time spent exploring within its mobile apps.

It very well could have been mostly chance that contributed to Telegram's current lead in terms of thoughtful design decisions and development investment toward mobile-first optimization. Perhaps it was their comparative longstanding Hype Famine, especially in the United States, these past few years. Maybe Discord hasn't built anything because they simply can't hear each other over the buzzwords overflowing their name in mainstream Discourse so abruptly thanks to The Big Virus.

Telegram's story certainly stands out, though the voice of its creator, Pavel Durov, actually telling this story at length can now only be found on WIRED UK's MixCloud account, in episode 256 of their WIRED Podcast. Telegram was experiencing the peak of its presence in mainstream Western news media, who just would not let go of the fact that some leader of some terrorist organization recommended Telegram to someone for something at some point in time.[^12] Listening back, it's the nomadic "decentralized" beginnings of the organization - which I had forgotten entirely - which sounded a big, resonant Parallel Alarm in my brain: for very different reasons, Bandcamp also operating without an office (from a public library, charmingly,) at that time.

"Can there only be one winner in the messaging wars?" David Rowan, to which Pavel - in the deliberate, uncomfortable-sounding tone he uses throughout the interview - responds by first noting a real truth for actual users: we tend to end up with a billion, each grouped generally by types of relationships.

[1] I still have not accepted this, by the way. I’m still back there. [2] If I were to be 100% sincere, I might ask you to consider that this (hilariously brief) intent was a method of coping with the great existential truths I was facing for the first time. [3] I definitey was, though. For whatever reason, I do not remember associating the term “automation” with such activities, but I just found the “receipt” for my “purchase” of IFTTT for iOS… From July, 2013. [4] I am currently working on a less-than-instant solution using iCloud and CopyQ’s clipboard sync function. [5] I would’ve said “one can never have too many backups,” but the result of such thinking is ridiculously wasteful and not something I actually want to encourage. [6] I'm almost positive I've heard of/been linked to this blog before, which is perhaps only notable in that I managed to keep my typographic opinions to myself. [7] Not that the process of doing so could be any easier on Windows. [8] It’s also worth nothing that word of screen sharing framerate issues was circulating at the time of this recording. [9] Simulcast services like Happs - which still exists, astonishingly - offer an intriguing utility for those intending to stream regularly and wishing to do so across multiple platforms. It does not, at the moment, support either Telegram or Discord. [10] Speaking as someone with actual extensive ridesharing experience, notably. [11] Yes, there are some fellow Open Source Folks who’ve frankly struggled to let IRC go. It was an amazing protocol and will always be intertwined with the very first layed bricks of what we’d call the Social Web, but my friends… I sincerely think we should all try our hands at ham radio, instead. I think that would legitimately be a better use of our time than trying to implement two-factor authentication for IRC in this year of our spiteful Lourde 2021. [12] Disparaging Telegram for this is akin to shitting on Google because it is or was almost certainly the Taliban's favorite search engine, no?

extratone / bilge

Telegram Glam #228