SE Please start caring about your players privacy.

[VanillaWafer]

I recommend people watch this:

Blackmage Compendium - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGRfLbny4VM

[Kaurhz]

I recommend people watch this:

Blackmage Compendium - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGRfLbny4VM

So much word salad in this video. But I will say... Sorry if some of this is off base to the video but parts of it were genuinely unengaging.

It's not that people are blowing the impact out of proportion, or being melodramatic about it, granted I think people have a right to be, because it's the very invasive nature of it, and then you have the whole issue with for a lot of folk it eliminates that "I want to play an alt to unwind" aspect, e.g., some people may play their main, and then use an alt in some of a social context, e.g., going to social outlets, and having that distinction removed entirely against your own wises is incredibly invasive.

On the point of "Well they aren't going to know IP Address, geographic location, your computer" etc.,.. This completely misses the point IMO, and it doesn't really excuse what the tool can do, which he seems to acknowledge. Also, whilst it can do no real direct harm to you as a person, it is absolutely something that can bleed over into real life. The characters may be fictional, but the players behind those characters are not fictional, and IMO, people shouldn't need to go into a game, a time which they inarguably use to relax, only to then have that undermined by some sub-par system that is abused through a third-party tool.

Also, it can be far above and beyond every other game in existence for player protection, but the fact is, that it is still a poor excuse for a system, and it's absolutely got poor measures behind it. In many ways what they have developed can actually be seen as a regression, because of what it facilitates by mapping characters, retainers and locations, and this is not just information obtained from a single individual via stalking. If it were properly developed then this would be a different situation, but it isn't so...

I do think players have a right to be afraid.

[shygirly]

I recommend people watch this:

Blackmage Compendium - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGRfLbny4VM

people who try to downplay this are seriously bad actors in disguise. the creator literally made this mod because he got pissed at being undercut on the MB and wanted to find out who it was. it was always developed with malicious intentions, and will continue to be developed with malicious intentions. how bizarre can people be.

[Chasingstars]

Just a thought, but can't those rmt bot farm hosts also use this program in tandem? Like if I blacklist a rmt bot who is in limsa, is my data also being compromised for doing so? As there is clearly folks with grudges, and there is a subset of folks who would then sell that very same data to malicious actors.

[Kaurhz]

Just a thought, but can't those rmt bot farm hosts also use this program in tandem? Like if I blacklist a rmt bot who is in limsa, is my data also being compromised for doing so? As there is clearly folks with grudges, and there is a subset of folks who would then sell that very same data to malicious actors.

Data would already be compromised so to speak, as all account IDs are communicated from server->client, regardless of whether you actually have someone on your blacklist or not, to my understanding.

In theory they could, but the data isn't really worth selling anyway, it's just really a paradise for stalkers and people that want to be upset about other people being able to sell on the market and undercut them.

[Chasingstars]

Data would already be compromised so to speak, as all account IDs are communicated from server->client, regardless of whether you actually have someone on your blacklist or not, to my understanding.

In theory they could, but the data isn't really worth selling anyway, it's just really a paradise for stalkers and people that want to be upset about other people being able to sell on the market and undercut them.

Right understood. But that is what I mean with malicious actors. Like lets say I am one and have some hypothetical grudge against you indirectly because of your retainer and you undercutting me. I want the account ID, I go to an illicit place and learn your account ID and what that is connected to. I decide to do more than just stalk, maybe DDOS whenever you are playing on your main or one of your alts in order to hamper your experience while playing.

Again, that is a hypothetical and if I was unhinged. As I am just looking at this from a white-hat approach.

[Kaurhz]

Right understood. But that is what I mean with malicious actors. Like lets say I am one and have some hypothetical grudge against you indirectly because of your retainer and you undercutting me. I want the account ID, I go to an illicit place and learn your account ID and what that is connected to. I decide to do more than just stalk, maybe DDOS whenever you are playing on your main or one of your alts in order to hamper your experience while playing.

Again, that is a hypothetical and if I was unhinged.

In theory yeah, and I daresay some people would try and go that far, but honestly if it got to the point where people could.. Connect an account ID to an IP address and/or a specific location, then that would constitute as a personal identifier to my knowledge, especially if that information can then be used to create a log around player, and then do further profiling. But at that point you are looking at something that, to my knowledge, would be a GDPR violation.

[Chasingstars]

In theory yeah, and I daresay some people would try and go that far, but honestly if it got to the point where people could.. Connect an account ID to an IP address and/or a specific location, then that would constitute as a personal identifier to my knowledge, especially if that information can then be used to create a log around player, and then do further profiling. But at that point you are looking at something that, to my knowledge, would be a GDPR violation.

Perfectly understood and I agree. I just personally view this whole little 3rd party program as at least a stepping stone toward some form of GDPR violation later.

Especially because of the supposed creation of it over something as petty as marketboard undercutting. Then again, the Etherium cryptocurrency and also NFTs by extension were born because someone got upset over something as minor as Warlock losing the damage component to the Life Syphon ability in world of warcraft.