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[ManaByte]

This apparently went in with the last patch, and is what the new "Logs" folder is for:

D. In order to assist Blizzard Entertainment to police users who may use "hacks," or "cheats" to gain an advantage over other players, you acknowledge that Blizzard Entertainment shall have the right to obtain certain information from your computer and its component parts, including your computer's random access memory, video card, central processing unit, and storage devices. This information will only be used for the purpose of identifying "cheaters," and for no other reason.

Verant tried this back in the old EQ days and they were ordered to stop the scans and an apology was issued to players. Now, SOE games only check the files in the game directory.

 

[Mareg]

Its been done since update 1.4.0.

Its not even subtile as it drops a text file on your desktop. Way to go Blizz :lol

 

[Pimpbaa]

Its been done since update 1.4.0.

Its not even subtile as it drops a text file on your desktop. Way to go Blizz :lol

Glad to know I ain't the only one. That is friggin annoying (I don't like having useless icons on my desktop). If you delete it, it just comes back when you launch wow again.

 

[VictimOfGrief]

old.

 

[Ikse]

Its been done since update 1.4.0.

Its not even subtile as it drops a text file on your desktop. Way to go Blizz :lol

I only noticed the new log file on the desktop since the latest patch - 1.6

 

[Gattsu25]

Didn't Bliz try something like this back with Starcraft or Warcraft II?

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/starcraft/news_2463619.html

Don't say we didn't tell you. An Albany, Calif., attorney has filed suit against Blizzard Entertainment and its parent company Cendant Corp. for extracting information from some users playing Starcraft over Battle.net.



As GameSpot News reported earlier this month, rumors on the Web were that Blizzard was extracting information from the Windows Registry and sending information to Blizzard whenever a user connected to Battle.Net. Blizzard later partially confirmed the rumors but said that it only extracted the information when a user could not connect to its servers. If a user didn't connect, the user's e-mail address was sent to the company so its technical and customer support staff could help alleviate difficulties customers were having with playing the multiplayer mode of Starcraft.

 

[ManaByte]

Didn't Bliz try something like this back with Starcraft or Warcraft II?

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/starcraft/news_2463619.html

The WoW thing is a bit more extreme and people are super pissed because the game is scanning processes and that is not stated anywhere in the EULA and they're very pissed over the invasion of privacy.

 

[VictimOfGrief]

Let's all take a deep breath about this.

Say you're running Bit torrent in the background, downloading your favorite "Jenna loves..." pr0n and some other illegal software applications that as a poor college student, you can't pay for.....

Say you play WoW. Say you leave all your programs that you d/l stuff illegally up and running while playing WoW. So.... WoW is running, Blizzard is checking for bots (cheating bots) that players use to gain advantage over others. Say blizzard finds "bttorrent.exe" running in your system processes.

Blizzard goes... "WTF? Oh that's just BT... no biggie" scan continues....

Point being is this. The agreement with Blizzard and you (being the poor college student downloading pr0n, games and apps on BT) is that you use Blizzards software to play their game.

If the FBI, federal government or fuck, even Canadian comes to the Federal Trade Commision and says:

"WTFBBQ ------ Olimario over there is downloading Jenna does Tawain, Photoshop 10, and Half-Life 3 before it's out while playing World of Warcraft!!! ARREST HIM!"


The government at this point can't do anything because the "private" EULA between Blizzard and the player makes it like a Patient / Doctor confidentially agreement thus rendering you safe and not in harms way.

So seriously people... get over it.

 

[Joe]

BUT HOW WILL I HACK MY RADAR AND TELEPORT NOW????

just kidding i dont do those things.

 

[Gattsu25]

So seriously people... get over it.

To continue the tradition of extreme internet analogies that completely miss the point: I'm Wakune the Clown hired by you to provide you entertainment. I tell you I will be looking through and using some of your paper cups and balloons. While you're away, I go through your wife's clothing. While I'm going through her panties, I look up casually and notice she has a pirate CD on top of her dresser...but don't worry...as your client I won't tell the authorities.

 

[teiresias]

ISP's are being forced to devulge information about their customers, what makes you think the government wouldn't force Blizzard to relenquish information it has about its customers if the government deems it appropriate?

 

[The Faceless Master]

Let's all take a deep breath about this.

Say you're running Bit torrent in the background, downloading your favorite "Jenna loves..." pr0n and some other illegal software applications that as a poor college student, you can't pay for.....

Say you play WoW. Say you leave all your programs that you d/l stuff illegally up and running while playing WoW. So.... WoW is running, Blizzard is checking for bots (cheating bots) that players use to gain advantage over others. Say blizzard finds "bttorrent.exe" running in your system processes.

Blizzard goes... "WTF? Oh that's just BT... no biggie" scan continues....

Point being is this. The agreement with Blizzard and you (being the poor college student downloading pr0n, games and apps on BT) is that you use Blizzards software to play their game.

If the FBI, federal government or fuck, even Canadian comes to the Federal Trade Commision and says:

"WTFBBQ ------ Olimario over there is downloading Jenna does Tawain, Photoshop 10, and Half-Life 3 before it's out while playing World of Warcraft!!! ARREST HIM!"


The government at this point can't do anything because the "private" EULA between Blizzard and the player makes it like a Patient / Doctor confidentially agreement thus rendering you safe and not in harms way.

So seriously people... get over it.

until they get a court order to blizzard for the records...

 

[SyNapSe]

Yeah I hate that damn Logs folder that comes back to my desktop everytime! It was new to me in 1.6 I think.

I can't imagine they did this and didn't add something to the 2 EULA's you have to agree to each patch or new installation.

 

[VictimOfGrief]

until they get a court order to blizzard for the records...

They can't, they are by law, unable to assist in anything because if they are forced to hand over records of what is considered "3rd party" information, Blizzard gets sued and ultimately loses.

 

[slidewinder]

The government at this point can't do anything because the "private" EULA between Blizzard and the player makes it like a Patient / Doctor confidentially agreement thus rendering you safe and not in harms way.

Where'd you get that idea? "Patient / Doctor confidentia[lity]" between Blizzard and WoW players? That's just plain wrong. If they get subpoenaed, somehow, they hand over the records, plain and simple. The only "defense" is not keeping the records longer than they have to, and trying their best to keep the records as uninteresting as possible. You simply have to trust them in that respect.

 

[VictimOfGrief]

Where'd you get that idea? "Patient / Doctor confidentia[lity]" between Blizzard and WoW players? That's just plain wrong. If they get subpoenaed, somehow, they hand over the records, plain and simple. The only "defense" is not keeping the records longer than they have to, and trying their best to keep the records as uninteresting as possible. You simply have to trust them in that respect.

Their EULA is between them and the player. If another party wants information regarding a WoW player, BY LAW, blizzard is ONLY to give over player data which does NOT include what is being scanned.

Point of this being people are getting upset over nothing.

 

[Suikoguy]

They can't, they are by law, unable to assist in anything because if they are forced to hand over records of what is considered "3rd party" information, Blizzard gets sued and ultimately loses.

I think they can, but i'm no expert on the subject.
IMO, it comes down to if this data is stored. If its stored, I (if I was playing) would have big issues. But if its looking for a list of EXE's, thats ok with me.

But blizzard trying to hide it is not helping matters.

 

[meelk]

Punkbuster has been doing this for awhile now, really, who cares? If cheating werent a problem it wouldnt be necessary, but people are assholes.

 

[maharg]

Never mind that EULAs are questionable contracts to begin with based on existing case law, and that privacy agreements have never protected any service provider from legal requests for records on an open case.

Doctor patient confidentiality is specifically protected by law, and confessional confidentiality is protected by the first amendment. There is no such provision for service provider records afaik.

Also, this is basically the old "if you're not doing anything wrong you have nothing to fear from a lack of privacy" argument, which is bullshit. No one ever said the only 3rd parties they had legitimate concerns for their privacy from were legal ones.