Discord wants to void your right to sue them in court — but you can opt out of the practice
Discord wants to void your right to sue them in court — but you can opt out of the practice
A quick brief on the service’s new arbitration clause
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I don't see how this matters to the common user. Why am I going to disagree with Discord enough to sue them. What services do they provide other than a way to communicate for gamers?
Are companies involved? Yes. But I'm not a company and I don't really care if they have a hard time dealing with it. They replaced Teamspeak and I will use it as a platform to communicate. If that changes I might change my stance, but I don't see any other need for it.
You shouldn't give up your rights in exchange for nothing. In some places that's not even legal.
Maybe it won't be. I don't see the situation coming up often. In fact I think this might make them more prone to being sued.
The long story short is that you are being made to (by default) give up rights that you should have, particularly around class action lawsuits. It's strictly bad for you and strictly good for the company. They probably shouldn't be allowed to do this. Since they are, the only thing we can do to protest it is to opt-out.
Maybe you'll never sue discord. But maybe someday there will be a lawsuit brought against discord by someone else. A few ideas for topics might include a security vulnerability that leaks personal information, the use of discord content for AI training data (e.g. copyright issues), or the safety of minors online. If you don't opt-out, you can't be a part of such lawsuits if they ever become relevant. This overall weakens these lawsuits and empowers companies like discord to do more shady things with less fear of repercussions.
And, since the vast majority of people will never opt-out (since you're opted in by default) these kinds of lawsuits are weakened from the start. That's why every company in the US is doing this forced arbitration thing. At this point, they would be crazy not to since it's such a good thing for them and the average person doesn't care enough about it.
And it just makes no sense.
The courts are supposed to be a higher authority than personal agreements, so how can a personal agreement override the courts?
Courts are not a higher authority than contract law, they just interpret it.
I hear you. I'm not discounting that these could happen. But how likely is it for my usage? Or most people's usage? My kid is on discord and it's monitored and we use it for gaming. That is what I am led to believe most use it for.
I guess my point is I don't see a scenario for suing Discord itself. They are just the vessel I use to communicate with. I use it constantly. I just don't care. There has never been a time I give out enough information to worry about it.
If there are other scenarios, sure. But it sounds like more of a liability clause for companies that join Discord than individuals.
This is basically the same as saying "I'm not concerned about government back doors or encryption being banned since I'm not doing anything wrong, so it doesn't affect me".
No it's not. The government is a completely different entity than a company. It's structure is different and it's motivation is different. How it implements everything is completely different. If a company says "you can only take us to arbitration" and all I am using it for is to communicate anonymously to other gamers it is not the same as someone knowing everything and going through all my shit.
It's like a company saying you can't sue if you use a can opener with a pop top cap. It doesn't apply to me. I also don't see how it applies to their user base.
But I know no one has given me any scenario that actual users have encountered when Discord was being sued and it turned the tide. I'll just you guys disagree with me.
A scenario is pretty simple: They don't hire enough security personnel to safeguard your data. They get hacked. There is very little damages you could get in arbitration for losing that data, so nothing happens. You cannot form a class to actually make something happen.
What data? The fake email I made up with a made up name to play a game they don't know much about? I don't understand how this applies.
You said your kid uses discord? So you're completely fine with all of their messages being fair share for anyone to view, and you having no say in the matter?
Where is that happening? The claim is that you have to go to arbitration rather than court. Nothing says that their information is anywhere other than discord.
And if your question is that my kid is giving out information, he's not. I look at all his messages and he is fully aware from coaching with my friends and family to not give any sensitive information out to anyone under any circumstances.
He uses to game. Just as I do.
"I don't see how this right is, personally, of use to me in this moment, so why should I care about it?"
The same failed logic that brought us stuff such as "I have nothing to hide, why should I care about privacy?" and "If you've done nothing wrong, You have nothing to fear"