Discord tests end-to-end encryption

The teams of the instant messaging are currently testing adding additional protection for their users’ data.

Discord is now a must in the world of instant messaging and is taking advantage of its popularity to enrich itself with new features.

Discord tackles one of its weak points: call privacy

The tool, originally designed for gamers, allows you to chat with your community through the use of rooms. These can then group together different channels, relating to a particular subject, like the discussion forums of yesteryear.

Discord can also be used as a broadcasting platform to stream your game as well as to make group audio and video calls. The service recently improved its conference rooms, with a limit increased to 50 participants, and finally added a family center to allow parents to partly monitor their children’s activity on the platform.

Discord is tackling data protection today. Unlike a WhatsApp or a Signal, Discord does not currently offer end-to-end encryption of audio and video exchanges, and the data exchanged can in theory be read on the publisher’s servers. A real lack that is about to be filled.

End-to-end encryption that won’t arrive for several months

In a blog post, Discord announces that it is working on the integration of an encryption protocol, called Messaging Layer Security, for both audio and video calls offered by mobile or desktop software. These security systems are, according to Discord, the best performers when it comes to performance and provide a layer of protection without degrading conversation quality or adding latency to calls.

End-to-end encryption will prevent third-party services and Discord itself from accessing call information. The service will thus rise to the level of its competitors in terms of confidentiality and respect for privacy.

Encryption will not be deployed across the entire application. The Discord teams immediately warn that conference rooms will not be affected by this protection, their different technical architecture for video and audio calls not currently allowing the application of the security protocol.

The first experiments have therefore begun, but when will we be able to take advantage of them? For the moment, Discord does not give any indication and only speaks of several months before the launch, depending on the feedback of the first testers.

Source : Discord