a spy site is scraping Discord, archiving users’ messages/activity across servers including what voice channels they join, and then selling access to that data for as little as $5.
The site is called Spy Pet. "Have you ever wondered where your friend hangs out on Discord? [...] Look no further!" its site reads. It says it's scraping more than 14,000 Discord servers, more than 4 billion messages
https://www.404media.co/a-spy-site-is-scraping-discord-and-selling-users-messages/
The plot thickens
that spy site which is scraping Discord en masse and selling users' activity and messages is linked to the harassment site Kiwi Farms. User there is using the site to target specific servers. Gives more context on how the tool is used
evidence that Discord has known about this site for months, since at least February
https://www.404media.co/spy-site-selling-discord-messages-linked-to-kiwi-farms/
in case you didn't know what Kiwi farm was
How Kiwi Farms, the worst place on the web, was shut down...basically it was people power
Kiwi Farms is an internet message board known for being an epicenter of vicious, anti-trans harassment campaigns
The online forum that was renowned for harboring hate found a new home with VanwaTech, which supports other dungheaps like the Daily Stormer and 8kun.....after cloudflare pulled the plug
https://gizmodo.com/kiwi-farm-cloudfare-vanwatech-8kun-1849505214
Let's not give cloudflare praise for dropping kiwifarms
Wouldn't shock me if we find out manchild Joshua Conner Moon is behind Spy-Pet
The manchild Joshua is the creator of kiwi farms and runs/ran it out his moms house
the handle "unknown" on various social media sites is also linked to Spy-Pet
@ecksmc Makes me wonder...
is there anywhere on the 'nets that is NOT scraped sooner or later these days.. I also wonder if the gathered scrapes sometimes wander into the GPT learning??
@JazzCrafter AI services buy access
Reddit for example is in partnership with Google's AI services/searches Google purchase access via the new API - posted about that a while back
https://counter.social/@ecksmc/112080755857091460
Some sites allow free API access that allows for scrapping - X also charges for API access - scrapping isn't new by any means it's just with the AI boom lately a lot of sites/services have started charging for API access & it's become newsworthy
@ecksmc sooooo... as always, apparently... it is all about the money. surprise, surprise..
@JazzCrafter discord is different though they do have strict policies in place to stop scrapping
In that article Tue owner of the spy site calls discord the Holly grail in data scrapping
And reddit have been in partnership for years with Google on data sharing its just been expanded
But yeah it's mostly about money - data brokers also scrap sites for data to sell to advertising agencies
@ecksmc Wait is this done thru a bot installed to the servers? Cause I got a few safe space servers I need to secure if so.
It could be that way (TOS-friendly) or self/user botting (TOS-hostile).
If I had to guess it's user puppeteering
@KAutumnrain @PaganMother Bots that are scrapping
Searching individual users will reveal the servers that Spy Pet can track them across, a raw and exportable table of their messages, and connected accounts, such as GitHub. Ominously, Spy Pet lists more than 86,000 other servers in which it has "no bots," but "we know it exists."
Statistics on servers, users, and messages purportedly logged by Spy Pet.
@KAutumnrain @PaganMother Private messages are not mentioned by Spy Pet and are presumably still secure.
An example of Spy Pet's service from its website. Shown are a user's nicknames, connected accounts, banner image, server memberships, and messages across those servers tracked by Spy Pet.
@ecksmc @KAutumnrain this is a huge breech of trust with discord itself, is there anyway to get spy pet shut down for this? I know far too many safe space groups that are going to lose their mind over this if they see this.
Discord have opened an investigation into it
It goes against their policy and discord do frown upon any scrapping
Considering spy pet is also offering its scrapped datasets to law enforcement I would assume they can't be shut down for what they are doing unless discord finds its actually breaking a law
I'm just assuming spy pet have their backs covered as far as law goes though because they offer their services to law enforcement
@ecksmc @KAutumnrain I truly hope Discord decides to file a lawsuit because this is a huge violation of the TOS.
😂😂 this cracked me up 😂😂
At the bottom of the site, a button indicates people can “request removal.” After clicking that, a clip from Spiderman 2 (2004), in which J. Jonah Jameson laughs at Peter Parker, automatically plays.
“You’re serious?” Jameson says.
Cheeky fuckers 😂