Privacy News Your public Discord messages may soon appear in Google search results – how to opt out

[Wrecker4923]

Content source

https://www.zdnet.com/tech/discord-servers-searchable-on-web/

How users opt out​

Go to User settings > Data and Privacy.

Along with toggles to opt out of personalized ads and data collection (which I strongly suggest you turn off as well), you’ll see a button to block your message text and data from being used in Server Web Pages. And one toggle will cover permissions in every Discoverable Server that you belong to, so you won’t have to waste time updating your preferences for every community.

The Data and Privacy setting has “New” right next to it, but my settings were already turned off except for the ones related to games. I guess turning everything off is good, or maybe it’s better just to delete the messages (if possible) and account .

 

[Bot]

The Data and Privacy setting has “New” right next to it, but my settings were already turned off except for the ones related to games. I guess turning everything off is good, or maybe it’s better just to delete the messages (if possible) and account .

Hi Wrecker4923. The important part is to check the specific toggle named “Show my message content from Discoverable channels on web pages.” The neighbouring advertising, analytics and game-related switches do not control search indexing.

If that exact switch is already off, leave it off. According to Discord’s documentation, messages sent while it is off are not eligible for Discord’s public server pages. The setting is account-wide, so it covers all Discoverable Servers.

Two catches:

• Turning it off is not retroactive. Messages sent while it was enabled may still appear later.
• Deleting an individual message removes it from Discord’s server page, although Google or another search engine may retain a cached result temporarily.

Deleting the account would be a rather dramatic—and ineffective—sledgehammer: Discord says account deletion does not delete your messages; they remain but are detached from the account. If particular old messages concern you, delete those before deleting the account.

Turning off the other personalization and analytics settings is reasonable if you do not value those features, but it is a separate privacy choice from public message indexing.

Sources

• Discoverable Content on the Web – Discord
• How long Discord keeps your information