Discord has changed their Terms of Service!
Unfortunately, this change comes with a revocation of your legal rights. Discord has revoked your right to sue (you must go through an arbitrator) and to congregate as a class action lawsuit. In layman's terms, if Discord ever pulls an equifax and leaks everyone's data, consumers have no recourse. But if you ever violate their "moral rights" by using their site in a way they don't like, Discord absolutely reserves the right to drag you into a normal court. This is specially hilarious considering how OpenFeint, Discord's owner previous project, ended in a privacy lawsuit scandal.
Luckily, there is an opt-out for the clause, in which you must email arbitration-opt-out@discord.com, but you must do it within 30 days or you can no longer opt-out.
YOU CANNOT DELETE OR DEACTIVATE YOUR ACCOUNT TO OPT-OUT OF THE ARBITRATION CLAUSE
You can see the added clauses for yourself here: https://gist.github.com/Rapptz/c93697c9d59ec2f0d8071b7d0e907632
I will attempt to answer some common questions.
Is this enforceable?
In the United States, yes. This was decided by the Supreme Court in 2011. See https://gc.gy/7538114
In Europe, no. There are many clauses, a relevant one is Article 77 of the GDPR ("Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority").
Why does this matter?
Without the ability to congregate for a class action lawsuit, if Discord ever leaks your data or does something catastrophically bad to a large portion of the population you have no way to representatively sue together without each of you individually suing via the arbitrator.
Please see the following article: https://gc.gy/7538130
Essentially:
1. Your right to file a complaint in the court of law is removed.
2. The arbitration system tends to heavily favour the company rather than the consumer.
3. Since your right to pool similar complaints together is taken away, the amount of damage you can do to a company that has wronged you significantly is limited to those who are willing to arbitrate.
Why should I care? Other companies do it too!
By learning about this I hope that you will be more conscious about these arbitration clauses and how anti-consumer they are. You can't change the past, but you surely can't predict the future either.
Unfortunately, this change comes with a revocation of your legal rights. Discord has revoked your right to sue (you must go through an arbitrator) and to congregate as a class action lawsuit. In layman's terms, if Discord ever pulls an equifax and leaks everyone's data, consumers have no recourse. But if you ever violate their "moral rights" by using their site in a way they don't like, Discord absolutely reserves the right to drag you into a normal court. This is specially hilarious considering how OpenFeint, Discord's owner previous project, ended in a privacy lawsuit scandal.
Luckily, there is an opt-out for the clause, in which you must email arbitration-opt-out@discord.com, but you must do it within 30 days or you can no longer opt-out.
YOU CANNOT DELETE OR DEACTIVATE YOUR ACCOUNT TO OPT-OUT OF THE ARBITRATION CLAUSE
You can see the added clauses for yourself here: https://gist.github.com/Rapptz/c93697c9d59ec2f0d8071b7d0e907632
I will attempt to answer some common questions.
Is this enforceable?
In the United States, yes. This was decided by the Supreme Court in 2011. See https://gc.gy/7538114
In Europe, no. There are many clauses, a relevant one is Article 77 of the GDPR ("Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority").
Why does this matter?
Without the ability to congregate for a class action lawsuit, if Discord ever leaks your data or does something catastrophically bad to a large portion of the population you have no way to representatively sue together without each of you individually suing via the arbitrator.
Please see the following article: https://gc.gy/7538130
Essentially:
1. Your right to file a complaint in the court of law is removed.
2. The arbitration system tends to heavily favour the company rather than the consumer.
3. Since your right to pool similar complaints together is taken away, the amount of damage you can do to a company that has wronged you significantly is limited to those who are willing to arbitrate.
Why should I care? Other companies do it too!
By learning about this I hope that you will be more conscious about these arbitration clauses and how anti-consumer they are. You can't change the past, but you surely can't predict the future either.
Email to: arbitration-opt-out@discord.com
Dear Discord,
By this email, I am opting out of the agreement to arbitrate as authorized by the new changes to the Discord Terms of Service Agreement.
I DO NOT AGREE TO THE AGREEMENT TO ARBITRATE FOR THE ACCOUNT(S) LISTED/DESCRIBED BELOW:
[USERNAME]#XXXX
with email: XXXXXXXX@gmail.com
and SMS: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Please let me know immediately if there is additional information needed to implement my opt-out request. Finally, I would like to ask for written confirmation that you have received and processed this notice.
Sincerely,
[FULL NAME HERE]
Dear Discord,
By this email, I am opting out of the agreement to arbitrate as authorized by the new changes to the Discord Terms of Service Agreement.
I DO NOT AGREE TO THE AGREEMENT TO ARBITRATE FOR THE ACCOUNT(S) LISTED/DESCRIBED BELOW:
[USERNAME]#XXXX
with email: XXXXXXXX@gmail.com
and SMS: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Please let me know immediately if there is additional information needed to implement my opt-out request. Finally, I would like to ask for written confirmation that you have received and processed this notice.
Sincerely,
[FULL NAME HERE]
