Hey, what’s up?
Today I wanted to share my thoughts about the Dr Disrespect’s situation.
That being said, I am not going to talk about the legalities or moralities of what he has done. Many people are already talking about it and everybody has their own opinions. And that’s perfectly fine.
In my case, my expertise is about tech and technology, so I wanted to talk about online privacy and how you can protect yourself on the internet from a tech perspective.
WHAT HAPPENED?
From my understanding, Dr Disrespect chatted knowingly and inappropriately with a minor individual using the Twitch platform in 2017. Got banned on Twitch in 2020. And now in 2024, everybody is going to crazy because it is leaking out. Currently, he’s loosing pretty much all his partnerships because nobody wants to work with him.
Again, I am not going to comment on that because there are already many videos about that.
What I wanted to talk is how people can prevent this from happening to them from a tech perspective.
When you use platforms from Big Tech corporations like Twitch and Discord, your messages aren’t private.
You might have the feeling that you are talking one on one with another person, but it’s often not the case.
Depending on the platform and its technologies, they most likely have access to ALL the messages and data that are going through on the platform in plain text.
BE DISTRUSTFUL OF ONLINE PLATFORMS
In this case, Dr Disrespect was using Twitch Whisper chat feature to talk with some other people. Whatever this was right or not isn’t the point.
What also happened is that Twitch and its employees leaked information that were supposed to be private and confidential.
Because of things like that, we can’t fully trust Big Tech corporations. Ultimately, they can always turn this knowledge and online data against us in the future.
Dr Disrespect chatted with someone in 2017, and it’s only YEARS later, in 2024, that a shady Twitch employee decides that use that knowledge for personal gain.
Now, Dr Disrespect is quite famous and has a lot to lose, but this situation could potentially happen to anybody.
SOLUTION: END-TO-END ENCRYPTION
The solution if you want privacy online and have 100% secure message is to use services and apps that use end-to-end encryption.
Basically, end-to-end encryption allows us to communicate securely, but the difference is that only the users can have access to the messages. Nobody else. It’s only the person sending and receiving the messages that can see it. No third party.
For example, if Twitch Whispers were end-to-end encrypted, Twitch wouldn’t be able to have access to those messages. And if Twitch doesn’t have access to those message, then obviously, Dr Disrespect would not have been banned in 2020, and it wouldn’t have leaked lately in 2024.
WHERE TO FIND IT?
Many Big Tech corporations don’t offer that service. Many do, but many don’t. If it is offered, it could be disabled by default and might have to enable it manually.
Usually, these companies want full disclosure and control of what’s happening over their platform. For security reasons, that might make sense, because they can monitor everything and catch potential terrorists, pedophiles, frauds, scams, or anything similarly inappropriate.
Now, is it justified for Dr Disrespect? I don’t know, I’m not here to judge.
All I’m saying is that if you truly care about privacy online, don’t use systems like Twitch Whispers and Discord for private conversations because NOTHING is encrypted.
If you do, IT CAN AND WILL BE USED AGAINST YOU. You might not see it today, but maybe down the line in a few years, something will leak, and you won’t be able to do anything about it.
If you really want privacy online and secure messages, choose services that offer end-to-end encryption. Your data will much more be secure and won’t leak from corporations and shady employees.
There are services and applications out there like Signal, WhatsApp, Telegram and Facebook Messenger that have 1:1 encrypted chats by default.
If they aren’t end-to-end encrypted by default, you might need to look and enable it. If they don’t offer, if you can’t find it or if you’re unsure, then don’t use it for that specific purpose.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the Dr Disrespect’s incident, regardless if it’s wrong or not, is something that could have been avoided with the use of end-to-end encrypted messages. If you want to protect your online privacy and don’t want your information to get leaked, then don’t use platforms that record and monitor everything that you do. Instead, choose alternatives that offer end-to-end encryption.
End-to-end encryption is a technology where only the users involved have access to the information. No third party.
Depending on your needs, it might require you to change your habits like changing messaging application for a more secure one.
Or maybe companies like Twitch could change their privacy policies to implement end-to-end encryption for its supposedly ‘private’ messages.
Regardless of your situation, make sure that you take your online privacy seriously because you never know when it could be turned against you.
So that’s pretty much it, I hope this was helpful to you. If this blog was valuable to you, you could consider following me on social media and if you have any thoughts or comments, you can leave them below.
I hope this helps, peace!
Leave a Reply