Rekkio Posted October 31, 2018 Share Posted October 31, 2018 Block Tracking on Discord Quick Information Time required: ~10 minutes. Requirement: Google Chrome, Chromium or Opera. Difficulty: ⚫⚪⚪⚪⚪ Tracking on Discord You do not realize it but Discord tracks every mouse click and keypress you do. You could think that they just track when you're typing and you somehow have the option to 'opt out' in your account settings. That's wrong, they track everything you do and the requests are still sent even when you opt out. Discord just tells you to trust that they won't do anything with it, when the requests should not be sent to begin with. If you open the Reactions box, do a right-click or interact in anyway with the page your browser sends this info back to Discord. Here is a collection of tricks to enforce your tracking opt-out decision instead of just trusting Discord not to do anything with it. The HTTP Request Blocker add-on In order to pull out our tracking opt-out enforcement we will use a Chrome add-on called HTTP Request Blocker. This add-on works on any Chromium derivative which includes Chromium itself and Opera since its version 12. Download the HTTP Request Blocker add-on on the Chrome Webstore or download the CRX file directly instead. Note that you if you want to download the CRX file instead you have to save the link instead using the right-click: Spoiler Right-click the link and select Save link as to download the CRX file: If you downloaded it on the Chrome Webstore it will already be installed, if you downloaded the CRX file install it manually: Spoiler Drag the CRX file and Drop it on your browser's Extensions list: When the add-on is installed you'll get a new button on your your toolbar: You're now ready to show Discord some love! Block URLs using HTTP Request Blocker To block URLs using HTTP Request Blocker, you can use two methods: absolute and pattern matches. Absolute means that you provide the URL without wildcards (e.g.: *) while pattern means the URL cans have many variations. The Discord tracking is done via the Discord API which includes the API version in th URL, so we will use pattern matches. To help you understand what that means, I will show you below two examples of both absolute and pattern matches. Absolute: *://discordapp.com/api/v6/command Pattern: *://discordapp.com/api/v*/command Pattern means that you can use wildcards to replace elements that are not static and can be different without listing everything. The first wildcard is used to include both HTTP and HTTPS and is required by the HTTP Request Blocker add-on. Add a new URL entry by clicking on the add-on icon and clicking on add new: Spoiler Click on the add-on icon then click on the add new hyperlink: Clicking multiple times on the add new hyperlink will spawn multiple entries. To remove an entry you can use the red cross icon as shown in the spoiler above. When you add URL entries to your list or make changes save it by clicking on the blue Save button. This is how you will be able to add the URL entries I will show you further in this guide. Block the Typing signal Unlike Skype and other popular Instant Messaging services Discord doesn't allow users to hide their when they're typing. Typing signals allow people to wait for someone else to finish his message before posting yours, but they're invasive. You should have a say in whether you want to tell people you're typing or not. Typing URL: *://discordapp.com/api/v*/channels/*/typing Block the Interface Tracking Discord tracks literally everything you do, even simple things like clicking on any Interface element. Not only when you open them but also when you close them and when they lose your focus. Tracking URL: *://discordapp.com/api/v*/track Block read receipts There's no read receipt feature on Discord yet, but their API actually is ready for it. It's just a matter of time until Discord starts showing read receipts to their users. When you receive a message focus on the Discord tab, the browser sends ACK requests. These requests confirm that you've read the message so Discord stops showing them as new. Read receipt URL: *://discordapp.com/api/v*/channels/*/messages/*/ack Side-effect: This applies everywhere to all channels and PM threads. If you block them Discord will think you didn't read the messages and continue showing them as new to you. You can also make the blocking more granular by specifying which channels should have receipts blocked: Read receipt URL: *://discordapp.com/api/v*/channels/XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX/messages/*/ack The channel ID is the one in your URL bar when you're in a channel or in a PM thread: Block Fingerprinting Discord has a tracking URL that generates a fingerprint of the computer you're on. That means they get details about your computer that are none of their business. This for example includes your locale and screen size which should not be needed. For the screen size they already have CSS media queries (that's more technical ). Fingerprinting URL: *://discordapp.com/api/v*/science Block promotion watch receipts When you open your user settings page, Discord displays promotional content on it. They're also tracking whether you've seen them by sending ACK requests back to Discord. This URL will block the promotion watch receipts to make Discord think you didn't watch them. Watch receipt URL: *://discordapp.com/api/v*/promotions/ack Block Discord experiments When you connect to Discord, the browser requests a file that contains experiments and whether you're enrolled. This file defines whether Discord wants to enroll you on them and you have no option to opt-out if you are. This URL prevents the browser from running Discord experiments even when you're enrolled. Experiments URL: *://discordapp.com/api/v*/experiments The End That was it, the six URLs you can block to further improve your Privacy on Discord. By the way, you might have noticed the Allavsoft add-on is not official but that's intended Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skunk1966 Posted October 31, 2018 Share Posted October 31, 2018 -can this blocking be done in FF and forks like Pale Moon? If so what's the procedure? If not can this be done by firewall block or hosts block? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Togijak Posted October 31, 2018 Share Posted October 31, 2018 3 hours ago, Skunk1966 said: -can this blocking be done in FF and forks like Pale Moon? you could try https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/request-blocker-we/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rekkio Posted October 31, 2018 Author Share Posted October 31, 2018 @Togijak I looked for this on the Firefox store but could not find it It's really hard to find a mere Request Blocker on Firefox.. However I don't have the newer version of Firefox required to run this add-on. It should still work with the URLs of the guide since it uses match_patterns Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Togijak Posted October 31, 2018 Share Posted October 31, 2018 @Rekkio I don't need it after leaving Discord, was just interesting in your information and saw the question from @Skunk1966 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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