Your post is always articulate and well researched. I love it :D.
Unfortunately, for better or worse, discord is the default chap app this day. I didn’t know how intrusive it was before I read your post, but I don’t install the program and open it from the browser only, which is at least limit their spying ability.
I’m not sure if there’s any chat program these days that are not snooping on its users’ convo, which sucks a lot because people need a chat app to talk with our friends. I’m sure as time goes on, more and more of our private lifes will be breached by companies and governments for money and “security”.
I miss the simple IRC chat from the "old days." Although I'm probably kidding myself to think those conversations aren't all recorded somewhere too. Still, those blocky fonts really made you feel like a computer hacker, when all this stuff was new.