Disqus

Disqus was first developed in the summer of 2007 as a Y Combinator startup. It was headed by Daniel Ha and Jason Yan, who were undergraduates at the University of California, Davis.{{Cite news|url=https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/13/disqus-lays-off-11-as-it-plans-a-deeper-focus-on-data/|title=Disqus lays off 11 as it plans a deeper focus on data|work=TechCrunch|access-date=2018-09-12|language=en-US}} Disqus was launched on October 30, 2007.{{Cite web|url=https://paulstamatiou.com/disqus-officially-launches/|title=Disqus Officially Launches|last=Stamatiou|first=Paul|date=2007-10-30|website=paulstamatiou.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100201085126/https://paulstamatiou.com/disqus-officially-launches/|archive-date=2010-02-01|access-date=2019-04-21}} In early 2011, Disqus raised $10 million in funding from North Bridge Venture Partners and Union Square Ventures.{{cite web|url=https://venturebeat.com/2011/05/04/disqus-funding/|title=Commenting startups Disqus celebrates its birthday with $10M more - VentureBeat|website=venturebeat.com|date=4 May 2011|access-date=25 October 2017}} In March 2011, Disqus was used by 75% of websites that included a third-party commenting or discussion system.{{cite web|url=http://www.lijit.com/blog/2011/03/02/lijit-study-shows-publisher-adoption-of-social-media-tools-grows-80/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130705221155/http://www.lijit.com/blog/2011/03/02/lijit-study-shows-publisher-adoption-of-social-media-tools-grows-80/|url-status=dead|archive-date=5 July 2013|title=Lijit Study Shows Publisher Adoption of Social Media Tools Grows 80%|date=5 July 2013|access-date=25 October 2017}}{{Original research inline|date=December 2020}} On December 5, 2017, Zeta Global announced that it had acquired Disqus for an undisclosed amount.{{cite web|url=https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/zeta-global-acquires-disqus-300566451.html?tc=eml_cleartime|title=Zeta Global Acquires Disqus|website=prnewswire.com|access-date=5 December 2017}}{{Cite news|url=https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/05/zeta-global-acquires-commenting-service-disqus/|title=Zeta Global acquires commenting service Disqus|last=Lardinois|first=Frederic|work=TechCrunch|access-date=2017-12-11|language=en}} In a blog post, Disqus stated that it planned to continue operations as normal.{{cite web|url=https://blog.disqus.com/disqus-and-zeta|title=Disqus and Zeta|website=disqus.com|access-date=5 December 2017}}

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Disqus operates on a freemium financial model supported by ads. While it is free for commenters and small websites, it displays ads. Users have the option to pay fees to remove ads and access extra features. In November 2010, Disqus began officially offering three add-on packages for websites. Starting July 2012, Disqus offered just two premium packages. These were the VIP package and a single-sign-on-only package, for $99/month. Starting in March 2013, Premium packages were phased out. On January 4, 2017, Disqus announced new premium packages rolling out in March of 2017.{{cite web|last1=Ha|first1=Daniel|title=Our Plans for 2017|url=https://blog.disqus.com/our-plans-for-2017|website=Disqus.com|publisher=Disqus|access-date=16 March 2017}} A later blog post clarified that over 95% of sites using Disqus, primarily for personal blogs and non-commercial sites, would be unaffected by the new premium model.{{cite web|last1=Paganini|first1=Mario|title=Advertising will remain optional for over 95% of sites on Disqus|url=https://blog.disqus.com/advertising-will-remain-optional-for-over-95-of-sites-on-disqus|website=Disqus.com|publisher=Disqus|access-date=16 March 2017}}

In 2011, both the Disqus site and comment system were translated into over sixty languages. However, following the introduction of the new Disqus in 2012, language support was reduced to seven languages.{{cite web|url=http://blog.disqus.com/post/35273949228/whats-new-for-the-new-disqus|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130630162537/http://blog.disqus.com/post/35273949228/whats-new-for-the-new-disqus|url-status=dead|archive-date=30 June 2013|title=What's New for the New Disqus - Disqus: The Official Blog|date=30 June 2013|website=Blog.disqus.com|access-date=October 25, 2017}} Even though Disqus accepts applications for new languages,{{cite web|url=http://help.disqus.com/customer/portal/articles/466219-what-languages-does-disqus-support-|title=Translating Disqus|website=Help.disqus.com|access-date=October 25, 2017}} only one has been added as of 2013. This saw the number of supported languages rising to eight. As of 2017,{{cite web|title=How We're Making Disqus Available in New Languages|url=https://blog.disqus.com/how-were-making-disqus-available-in-new-languages|website=Disqus Blog|publisher=Disqus|access-date=December 4, 2017}} Disqus was translated into 36 languages including Spanish, French, Japanese, and Chinese, using crowd-sourced translation on Transifex.{{cite web|title=Translating Disqus|url=https://help.disqus.com/customer/portal/articles/466219-what-languages-does-disqus-support-|website=Disqus Knowledge Base|publisher=Disqus|access-date=March 16, 2017}}

Privacy issues have been noted as inherent in the use of services like Disqus, which serve their content through third-party JavaScript widgets.{{cite web|url=https://support.mayfirst.org/ticket/5667|title=#5667 (Is DISQUS a solution for spam-free comments?) : Support|website=support.mayfirst.org|access-date=25 October 2017}}[http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/node/6701 "There is no such thing as anonymous online tracking"], Stanford Center for Internet and Society. July 28, 2011. Retrieved Jun, 10, 2012{{cite web|url=http://citizensteven.blogspot.ca/2011/06/disqus-spies-on-you.html|title=Disqus Spies On You!|website=citizensteven.blogspot.ca|access-date=25 October 2017}} As with other embedded web widgets, such as like buttons, the Disqus widget acts as a web bug which tracks a user's activities, even when they are not logged in, across different sites that use the Disqus commenting system. Information tracked by Disqus, which may be disclosed to third parties, includes pseudonymous analytics data, such as a user's IP address, their web browser version and installed add-ons, and their referring pages and exit links.[http://help.disqus.com/customer/portal/articles/466259-privacy-policy "Privacy Policy"] Disqus.com Retrieved June 10, 2012 Although this data is referred to by Disqus as "Non-Personally Identifiable Information", such data, when aggregated, has been shown to be usable for de-anonymizing users.

Disqus has been criticized for publishing its registered users' entire commenting histories, along with a list of connected blogs and services, on the publicly viewable user profile pages.Thomas Baekdal, [http://www.baekdal.com/insights/the-first-rule-of-privacy "The First Rule of Privacy"], February 25, 2010. Retrieved June 10, 2012 The option to keep profile activity private was later added. Disqus was criticized for not giving users control over who follows them. Prior to 2014, any user could follow any other user, but a user being followed could not control or block who was following them, which led to harassment among some users.{{cite web|url=http://help.disqus.com/customer/portal/articles/708520-following-other-users|title=Following other users|website=Help.disqus.com|access-date=25 October 2017}} If Disqus shuts down, hundreds of millions of comments would be wiped away from a wide range of sites, since by the very nature of the service, comment content is not being managed locally by sites implementing the service. However, it is possible for site administrators to export all of their comments as an XML document which can then be ported into other commenting systems.{{cite web|url=http://help.disqus.com/customer/portal/articles/472149|title=Comments Export|work=DISQUS}}

In September 2014, it announced an update to its privacy policy: "Disqus will be using anonymous interest data for content personalization and ad targeting."{{cite web|url=https://help.disqus.com/customer/portal/articles/1670950|title=Update to Disqus Privacy Policy|date=September 29, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150919085205/https://help.disqus.com/customer/portal/articles/1670950|archive-date=2015-09-19}} Third party service [http://www.disqussearch.com/ Disqussearch] can be used to search through all comments by username. This is necessary for viewing old comments of users. On the Disqus site, the user can only load small batches of successively older comments by scrolling down.[http://www.disqussearch.com Disqus comment search]

In 2013, a Swedish group called Researchgruppen obtained and exposed a large number of anonymous Disqus identities through the application programming interface (API).[http://help.disqus.com/customer/portal/articles/1389598-statement-in-response-to-a-report-of-%22cracking-disqus%22 "Statement in Response to a Report of 'Cracking Disqus'"], Disqus, December 10, 2013 The group cooperated with the Bonnier tabloid, Expressen, who subsequently visited some of the commenters in their homes, confronting them with their allegedly racist, misogynic, and derogatory sentiments. Researchgruppen said their database contained millions of comments from Disqus users around the world who are at risk of de-anonymization.{{cite web|last1=Landes|first1=David|title=Swedes uncover Disqus user security breach|url=http://www.thelocal.se/20131212/millions-of-disqus-comments-leaked-to-swedish-group|publisher=The Local|access-date=17 July 2014|date=12 December 2013}}{{cite web|title='I hope they starve' post fells Sweden Democrat|url=http://www.thelocal.se/20131210/sweden-democrat-resigns-after-asylum-seeker-hope-they-starve-post|publisher=The Local|access-date=17 July 2014|date=10 December 2013}}{{cite web|title=Expressen-artiklar får Disqus att uppdatera|url=http://computersweden.idg.se/2.2683/1.538270/expressen-artiklar-far-disqus-att-uppdatera|publisher=Computer Sweden|access-date=17 July 2014|language=sv|date=11 December 2013}} In March 2014, Expressen and Researchgruppen won the investigative reporting award Guldspaden.{{cite web|last1=Byttner|first1=Karl-Johan|title=Expressen-grävaren om Guldspaden-vinsten|url=http://www.resume.se/nyheter/media/2014/03/24/expressen-gravaren-om-guldspaden-vinsten/|publisher=Resumé|access-date=17 July 2014|language=sv|date=24 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141014195524/http://www.resume.se/nyheter/media/2014/03/24/expressen-gravaren-om-guldspaden-vinsten/|archive-date=14 October 2014|url-status=dead}}

On October 6, 2017, Disqus announced that a snapshot of its database from 2012, containing 17.5 million users' email addresses, login names and sign-up dates from between 2007–2012, had been exposed.{{cite web|title=Security Alert: User Info Breach|url=https://blog.disqus.com/security-alert-user-info-breach|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171006233027/https://blog.disqus.com/security-alert-user-info-breach|url-status=dead|archive-date=6 October 2017|date=6 October 2017}} The data dump also included, for about a third of the affected accounts, passwords that had been salted and hashed with SHA-1.{{cite web|url=https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2017/10/10/learning-from-the-disqus-data-breach/|title=Learning from the Disqus data breach|date=10 October 2017|website=Nakedsecurity.sophos.com|access-date=25 October 2017}}{{cite web|url=http://www.ibtimes.com/disqus-breach-175-million-emails-exposed-login-hack-2599013|title=Disqus Breach: 17.5 Million Emails Exposed By Login Hack|date=9 October 2017|website=Ibtimes.com|access-date=25 October 2017}}{{cite web|url=https://www.engadget.com/2017/10/06/disqus-reveals-it-suffered-a-security-breach-in-2012/|title=Disqus reveals it suffered a security breach in 2012|website=Engadget.com|access-date=25 October 2017}}

Previously, if a user attempted to delete their comment, Disqus "anonymized" their comment by changing the author to a Guest user, without removing the content of the body itself.{{cite web|url=https://help.disqus.com/customer/portal/questions/8012498-why-when-i-delete-a-comment-from-sites-does-it-then-come-back-as-a-guest-comment-|title=Why when I delete a comment from sites does it then come back as a guest comment?|publisher=Disqus knowledge base|access-date=2015-08-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222093615/https://help.disqus.com/customer/portal/questions/8012498-why-when-i-delete-a-comment-from-sites-does-it-then-come-back-as-a-guest-comment-|archive-date=2015-12-22|url-status=dead}} The only recourse at that time was to flag the comment, contact the site moderator to delete the anonymized Guest comment, or to remember to edit out the body of the comment before deleting a comment.

In April 2015, Disqus revised its Delete button to completely delete a comment from the website.{{cite web|url=https://disqus.com/home/channel/discussdisqus/discussion/channel-discussdisqus/you_can_now_delete_your_own_comments/|title=Disqus - You can now delete your own comments|work=Disqus}}{{cite web|url=https://help.disqus.com/customer/en/portal/articles/466229-remove-and-edit-your-comments|title=Remove and edit your comments|publisher=Disqus knowledge base}}

Disqus automatically adds affiliate referral codes to links on the containing webpage and converts plain text into links, in order to add affiliate referral codes (this can be turned off).{{Cite web | url=https://disqus.com/home/discussion/channel-discussdisqus/disqus_reveal_affiliate_links_on_by_default_bad_for_seo/ |title = Disqus - Disqus Reveal affiliate links on by default, bad for SEO}} Disqus also injects untrusted and potentially dangerous third party advertising code into containing webpages.{{Cite web | url=https://www.troyhunt.com/disqus-mixed-content-problem-and-fixing-it-with-a-csp/ |title = Troy Hunt: Disqus' mixed content problem and fixing it with a CSP|date = November 14, 2016}}

In 2021, Norwegian Data Protection Agency announced its intent to fine Disqus 2.5 million euro for failures to comply with requirements of European General Data Protection Regulation. Allegedly, Disqus was collecting users' private data and sharing it with advertisers without obtaining consent from websites using Disqus and users visiting those sites.{{Cite web|title=Disqus facing $3M fine in Norway for tracking users without consent|url=https://techcrunch.com/2021/05/05/disqus-facing-3m-fine-in-norway-for-tracking-users-without-consent/|access-date=2021-05-06|website=TechCrunch|date=May 5, 2021 |language=en-US}}

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