But Windows misrepresents that the application is not running, when it is running in the background with access to the mic. Is this not a poor default? The justification here is that Discord behaves differently from "the vast majority of applications". First, I'm not sure if that's true. Second, another justification brought up is that Discord doesn't show the user that their mic is still hot, Windows seems just as culpable for not "protecting by default".
For example, on my Android phone, whenever the mic/camera is in use, even if the app is in the background, the OS displays a green dot in the corner of the screen and when I poke it, it tells me what is using the mic/camera. This is a good default.
I don't think Windows is culpable instead of Discord, but I do think that more protection should be built into Windows, and based on this decision, Windows could get dinged for this as much as Discord.
The issue highlighted in the article is no other VoiP/chat program will continue to record audio in the background. Which you can absolutely do, just don't make it the default behaviour. Valid point in my view.
For example, on my Android phone, whenever the mic/camera is in use, even if the app is in the background, the OS displays a green dot in the corner of the screen and when I poke it, it tells me what is using the mic/camera. This is a good default.
I don't think Windows is culpable instead of Discord, but I do think that more protection should be built into Windows, and based on this decision, Windows could get dinged for this as much as Discord.