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Blizzard, You Fail

Adm_Hawthorne

Adm_Hawthorne

Admiral
Admiral
ESRB 'Accidentally' Releases Emails

In an ironic turn of events this evening, it appears that the Entertainment Software Ratings Board has revealed the entire list of email addresses belonging to people who appealed to the ESA's rating group over Blizzard's recently proposed and then retracted Real ID implementation. According to our World of Warcraft-focused sister site WoW.com, the ESRB issued a response letter to the nearly 1,000 folks who had emailed with complaints about Blizzard's decision -- unfortunately, it seems that rather than hide everyone's email addresses, someone hit "reply all."
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How many of us really think this was an accident?

You know, I'm really appalled at the lack of privacy considerations a lot of big corporations are displaying now days.

From the RealID on WoW to grocery stores tracking what I buy by giving me discounts if I use their cards, it seems like everyone everywhere wants to know who I am and what I'm doing.

It's not going to be long before I can't fart without 20 companies sending me adverts for air fresheners via email, text, twitter, and facebook in a matter of seconds.

Is anyone else fed up with this?
 
I can believe it's an accident. I see it all the time. That's no excuse, but still. People really are that dumb.

Companies need to take privacy violations more seriously, but they won't until they're hit in the pocketbook a lot harder.
 
Hold on, isn't ESRB the party here that's gone and messed up? Or are we saying this is some conspiracy by the evil corporation known as Blizzard?
 
Also, this is not Blizzard's fault, but ESRB's. They're the ones who fucked up. It just happened to be regarding comments on the Real ID system, but Blizzard had nothing to do with ESRB's response.
 
Huh?

This is not a Blizzard fail, they had absolutely nothing to do with this. This is an ESRB fail, they're the ones who accidentally leaked the names. It specifically says so all over the article. While I can agree with the general sentiment of consumer privacy, this looks unrelated... this happened because someone was stupid with an email client (all the people who's names were released were people who wrote in to the ESRB and had their names in their emails), not from some database meant to record information on people.

EDIT: Doubly beaten :lol:
 
Yeah, but Real ID is opt-in and you don't have to use it if you don't want to. I think it's a dumb idea, too, but then I'd never use it.
 
I think it's a horrible idea, and shouldn't have happened given how much they push for keeping your email address private.

Of course, I think it's a horrible idea to have to give up your first born in order to get an account to create a Disney vacation, too. What the heck do they need all of that information for?
 
Real ID on the forums was a stupid idea, but they retracted almost immediately. It takes balls to take back a big plan you are proud of and have been working on for a long time after a couple days and admit it was wrong.

Real ID is an excellent idea otherwise. I personally love it.
 
I assume Disney wants all that information so they can track you in Walt's secret database, which he'll use for world domination purposes once he's thawed out.
 
WeAreTheBorg said:
Real ID on the forums was a stupid idea, but they retracted almost immediately. It takes balls to take back a big plan you are proud of and have been working on for a long time after a couple days and admit it was wrong.

Real ID is an excellent idea otherwise. I personally love it.
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I would love it if I didn't have to give out the same email addy I use for my account. If we could use an alternate addy, I'd be okay with that.

Robert Maxwell said:
I assume Disney wants all that information so they can track you in Walt's secret database, which he'll use for world domination purposes once he's thawed out.
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Yes... but we mustn't speak of The Plan. It's not time yet. Not yet...
 
This stuff really worries me. Alternate addies seem useless these days. I've always kept two addresses. One I "give out" to public and acquaintances, and I another I just use with people I'm very close with (essentially my parents and best friends). Lately, however, I've been receiving a lot of mail with the latter that I shouldn't be.

It isn't spam, because it's stuff from "reputable" sources--for instance, I just got one from Nissan about the upcoming scheduled maintenance. But I gave them the other email address.
 
You know, it's not really about Blizzard, right?

It's more about privacy issues in general, and putting Blizzard in the title got your attention, which was the point.
 
Doesn't Blizzard's proposed Real ID system only apply to the forums?

Anyone dumb enough to post on the WoW forums should have their identity stolen. Those people make the Halo community look like Mensa.
 
Adm_Hawthorne said:
It's more about privacy issues in general, and putting Blizzard in the title got your attention, which was the point.
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I'm all for privacy online. I'm also all for personal accountability. I have issues with the manner in which Real ID functions (specifically, the 'friend of a friend' 'feature') and so I don't use it. My voice is out there, it's up to Blizzard if they want to listen or not.

Maybe there are legitimate reasons why you don't want your mother knowing that you use ladyofthenight69@hotmail.com, but that's why the 'change e-mail address' function exists. And the 'OMG, now they have half of my account details!!!!!!' bullshit is just that. If it bothers you, get a better password. Further: don't register at TrekBBS, eBay, or enrol at my university, because they all employ publicly accessible usernames. :lol:
 
Companies that are responsible for maintaining the privacy of their users should have a better handle on their user's information so that things like accidentally sending out an email with everyone's email address on it doesn't happen.

Things like this accident should not be happening.
 
The ESRB doesn't have 'users', these are just folks who e-mailed them. As for the screw-up itself, someone missed a checkbox or entered data into the wrong field is all; basic human error. Computers don't make us any less human, they merely magnify the magnitude of the mistakes we can make. And given that most likely nothing will come of it, it's not a big deal outside the irony factor.

Now if you recall back when Citibank (I think?) had a machine in their network that spat out thousands of account and credit card numbers to any PC which managed to dial-in... :lol:
 
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