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ARC Raiders accidentally logged private Discord DMs and authentication tokens locally

ARC Raiders’ Discord integration reportedly wrote private DMs and a bearer token to local plaintext logs before a March 2026 hotfix. Here’s what happened and what affected players should do.
Length5 min Posted Quest giverVGSources Team
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Yes, the incident was real—but it was narrower than headlines suggesting that ARC Raiders “spied on everyone.” In early March 2026, the game’s Discord integration reportedly wrote private Discord messages, event data, and a Discord bearer token to plaintext log files on some players’ PCs. Embark and Discord issued fixes, including an ARC Raiders hotfix and Discord Social SDK security updates on March 5, 2026.

What happened?

Computer engineer Timothy D. Meadows reported finding private Discord conversations and an authentication token in ARC Raiders’ local log output. Multiple reports described the problem as involving the game’s Discord Social SDK integration and debugging features that logged more information than intended.

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The important distinction is between four different events:

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  1. Discord data was made available to the game through its integration.
  2. The game or SDK wrote some of that data to a local plaintext log.
  3. A log could potentially have been copied or uploaded through a crash-report or support process.
  4. Embark employees intentionally reading or centrally retaining everyone’s messages.

The available evidence supports the first two. It identifies a possible transmission path through submitted logs, but does not prove that every affected file was uploaded to Embark or that Embark deliberately monitored private conversations.

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What information was exposed?

Reportedly affected data included:

  • Private Discord DM conversations.
  • Discord-related events and other Social SDK output.
  • A Discord bearer authentication token.

The token was potentially more serious than the message logging itself. A bearer token is an authentication credential: software possessing it may be able to act with the permissions associated with it without entering the account password normally. The exact permissions, validity period, and capabilities of every token involved have not been publicly established, so claims that all accounts could be completely taken over would be excessive.

Where was the data stored?

The reported immediate location was a plaintext log file on the player’s own computer. That means the material could have been accessible to another user of the machine, malware, an untrusted program, someone who received a copied log, or a crash and support workflow if the file was attached.

The reported data flow is best understood as:

Discord account → Social SDK → ARC Raiders client → local log file → possible crash/support upload

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The final arrow is a possible route, not proof that every log was automatically sent to Embark. Discord’s quoted explanation emphasized that viewing the information required access to the device or its files. TechSpot’s report also noted the importance of distinguishing local storage from confirmed server-side collection.

Who was potentially affected?

The apparent risk was concentrated among players who:

  • Played ARC Raiders on PC.
  • Linked or integrated Discord with the game.
  • Used a build containing the affected Social SDK behavior.
  • Generated Discord-related activity while the game was running.

Merely owning ARC Raiders does not establish that a player’s Discord data was logged. Players who never linked Discord should not be described as equally affected. The available reporting does not provide a verified number of affected users, and it does not establish that console versions were exposed in the same way.

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Was Embark spying on players?

There is no verified evidence in the available reporting that Embark intentionally used ARC Raiders to surveil private conversations. Embark and Discord characterized the incident as an accidental debugging or SDK-logging failure.

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That explanation does not make the impact harmless. A local plaintext file can still expose private conversations and authentication credentials, particularly on shared computers, malware-infected systems, workplace PCs, internet cafés, or machines whose game folders are backed up or synchronized.

What did Embark and Discord fix?

  • March 5, 2026: Discord’s Social SDK release notes listed security changes that filtered bearer tokens from logs and restricted release-build logging primarily to errors and warnings in relevant SDK versions.
  • March 5–6, 2026: Embark released an ARC Raiders hotfix and disabled the problematic behavior, according to incident reporting.

See the official Discord Social SDK release notes for the developer-side changes. Discord’s Social SDK is intended to support features such as friends, invites, presence, and in-game communication; that legitimate integration purpose does not make logging unrelated private DMs an expected player-facing feature.

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As of August 18, 2026, the reviewed sources show no evidence that the original bug remains active in the current release. The safest wording is that the original issue was hotfixed in March 2026. Players should still fully update ARC Raiders and should not use an old or archived executable.

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What affected players should do now

  1. Update ARC Raiders completely. Install the current build through your platform and avoid old executables or backups.
  2. Change your Discord password if you used the Discord integration before the hotfix. This is a sensible precaution against previously exposed credentials, although Discord has not publicly documented a universal invalidation rule for every token type involved.
  3. Enable two-factor authentication on Discord if it is not already enabled.
  4. Review active sessions, devices, authorized applications, and recent account activity. Revoke unfamiliar access and sign out of sessions where Discord provides that option.
  5. Do not share old ARC Raiders logs. They may contain DMs, usernames, account metadata, or authentication material.
  6. Delete old game, crash, and copied support logs after preserving a redacted copy if you need to report a suspected compromise. Do not assume that a hotfix automatically removes every backup, quarantine copy, screenshot, or uploaded file.
  7. Contact Discord through its official recovery and security channels if your account shows unauthorized activity. Do not use third-party “token reset” tools or websites.

If you submitted a crash or support report before the fix, that creates a possible additional exposure path, but it does not prove that your report contained the sensitive log data or that it was reviewed by an employee.

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What remains unknown?

The available evidence does not establish:

  • How many users were affected.
  • The exact affected game versions and dates for every player.
  • Whether an attacker actually used an exposed token.
  • Whether any Embark employee viewed private messages.
  • Whether every relevant crash report was uploaded.
  • Whether every historical copy of every log was deleted.
  • Whether console players experienced the same behavior.
  • The complete permission scope and lifetime of each exposed bearer token.

Those limits matter. “Recorded” is a fair description of private data being written to a local log. “Stolen” implies that a third party obtained it, which has not been publicly confirmed for this incident. Likewise, the evidence does not support claims that Embark uploaded everyone’s DMs or deliberately spied on all ARC Raiders players.

The Bottom Line

Bottom line: ARC Raiders’ Discord integration reportedly wrote private Discord messages and authentication data to local plaintext logs before a March 2026 hotfix. The incident was serious, but it is not proof that Embark intentionally monitored players or automatically uploaded everyone’s DMs. Update the game, secure your Discord account, review active access, and remove old sensitive logs.

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