The controversial Discord harvesting website Spy.pet was able to collect and sell public data from thousands of Discord users since November 2023. It was put to rest in early April 2024 and was permanently disabled. This came after widespread scrutiny of its operations and action by Discord’s Security Team.
Spy’s Glory Days and Decline. pet
Spy.pet, a chatbot that gained notoriety for its enormous database reportedly housing messages from approximately 620 million people on over 14,000 Discord servers. It provided potential clients such as law enforcement agencies, people looking to track their contacts or even companies building AI models access to this large volume of scraped data.
How Spy.pet Operated
The site is operated by joining open Discord servers, or servers whose invite links are publicly available. Once inside, Spy.pet’s operators may read and extract the same information accessible to any other member of the server. Though this meant that critically sensitive information was theoretically unhackable, the sheer scale of data collection raised significant privacy issues.
Discord’s Response
Upon discovery of Spy.pet’s activities, Discord took swift action. A spokesperson for the platform told the Register:
“Scraping our services and self-botting are violations of our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. In addition to banning the affiliated accounts, we are considering appropriate legal action. We identified certain accounts that we believe are affiliated with the Spy.pet website, which we have subsequently banned.”
The Demise of Spy.pet
The crackdown on Spy.pet was rapid and effective:
- The number of Discord servers accessible to Spy.pet began to drop dramatically.
- By last Thursday, pet’s access to servers had reportedly fallen to zero.
- On Friday, their website itself ceased to function.
Uncertain Future
While the immediate threat posed by Spy.pet appears to have been neutralized, questions remain about the future of such data harvesting operations. A Telegram profile allegedly belonging to the Spy.pet administrator claimed that the website was suspended but hinted at plans to restore service through a backup domain.
Spy.pet Alternatives?
Many people are asking on Reddit or any other online forums, but currently, there are no known alternatives. At least, publicly available ones.
Implications and Lessons
This incident highlights several important points:
- Privacy Vulnerabilities: Even public data, when aggregated at scale, can pose significant privacy risks.
- Platform Responsibility: Discord’s swift action demonstrates the importance of platforms actively protecting their users’ data.
- User Awareness: The incident reminds users to be cautious about the information they share in public online spaces.
