Question about FFLogs

[Lastelli]

No because you don't own data about your chatacter. It's all SE property.

You are not your in-game chara therefore privacy laws don't apply.

[Pepsi_Plunge]

I think the system would be better if they remove the names of players who didn't actively signed up on the page. Then you could still analyses your data, but you and others could only read the names of the fflog-members and everyone else would just be render anonymous.

Of course, you can log in and block it but it actually should be the other way around. If you are - for example - a Dragoon and didn't signed up, then in all the parses you participated in should just be a "Random Dragoon" or something like that and nobody should find anything by looking up your name. Personally while I'm actually very found of FFlogs and the data it provides for those who are wanting to improve, I just find it a bit irritating that everyone can look up the data of someone who might not even know that parses of them or the page itself even exists. I was quit surprised myself too when I first heard about that page and saw the logs.

[HakaseNyan]

You can easily add “flogs-hidden” (without the quotes) to your Lodestone profile to opt out without having to create an account on the website. However, you may end up blacklisted by PF groups and statics for doing so.

I've no horse in this parsing race, but services, in which you don't voluntarily participate in, should be opt-in. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense having to opt-out of something you don't use. This opt-out situation has lead to a level of harassment with a neat little veil draped over it, and that makes it all the more obvious something is wrong with it.

[Nixxe]

Isn't that webside kind of illegal or something like violating in-game privicy policy?

The privacy policy has nothing to do with this. That tells you how SE uses information they collect from you, but SE isn't the one supplying FFLogs with information nor is the information they're being supplied with the sort that is covered by the privacy policy.

My guess is people only upload their best runs, why would they uplod bad ones? So parses other's upload might be a more realistic representation than what a person uploads themself ^^

The primary value of parses is being able to analyze your performance and improve on your mistakes, not ranking. People who are even remotely serious about things like Savage are generally just going to upload everything. The people who are super worried about anyone being able to see that they're not very good are generally not the sort of people who would ever willingly make use of a parse in the first place.

Everyone has bad runs occasionally. Profiles without bad runs are as suspicious as businesses with only 5 star ratings... everyone knows stuff like that just doesn't happen ^^

Yeah, no, there are actually good players with really consistent performance. Their "bad" runs will still be well above average.

[Shougun]

Well, here's the thing about battle log privacy: it's not private. It's factually not private. It may feel like it should be to some and others may treat it like it is but it's actually not private.

I look at it this way- you're in a public space doing whatever, and someone who logs and then uploads you name tagged would then be the person in that public space who has not only taken a picture with you in it but then also purposefully face recognized you and put you in a database that other people can look up. So now you're in a detailed public database of where and what you've done that you might not have even known about and one you clearly didn't consent to.

Yes you're in a public space (in the example above, technically here we are in "SE's space, like inside a corporation's building/theater"), and it will indeed look bad if you start screaming at that random person recording you on camera "DONT FILM ME Q_Q /rage /tableflip /roll on ground /knock over trash can". Yet at the same time I can imagine people, at least a number of people, could see that and go to the camera man that's following you in the public space and be like "dude... knock it off, you not only don't need to record this random person, not only upload their image, but you don't need to also tag them into a database- all clearly without their consent.. it's a bit creepy".

Of course it's the age of data, and the programs make this exceptionally easy, so I'm not trying to say everyone uploading their parses with collateral damage of other names is creepy- to them it's more like they've been recording themselves at a concert with a static group of strangers (purpose was not to record the strangers). Though technically some people may be recording not for their self-purpsoses, and in that example of the video you don't normally go database tag the strangers lol. It's Just that the feeling I have is "I understand I was in a public space but I did not consent to you recording me and then uploading me to a search-able database, I would like you not to do that". To me when I get into a group picture (intentionally) I've consented to the uploading of that image with my name but I guess another example you could make is you're in a group setting and someone has been following you around and taking pictures of you, a different scenario ("Shougun drinking from a water fountain, Shougun going to the bathroom, Shougun ordering fatty food" - awkward). Again I don't want to argue its illegal, but it's just creepy to me and it does feel like a non-illegal invasion of my privacy (or at least a privacy I'd like to have, so therefore "imo" it's an invasion- you don't need a public database on my doings and whereabouts lol).

In a bit of a hyperbole but "close enough, to be a vague analogy" to me it's like tracking people and slapping a social score on them without them opting in (China's social system, Community's meow meow beans, Black Mirror's Nosedive), obviously those log sites have a far less dystopian effect or even a tenth of an important effect lol yet it just makes me think "no thanks, knock it off".

In other news I went to check the website, having made account just to turn it private (which apparently they undid or I did and forgot, not a big deal lol), and I wanted to see if there were any logs of them. Not a single log :3. So if people were petrified of the site I'd be less so. Though I personally still find the existence of a non-consenting personally identifying (ish, not my real name lol) database as undesirable. Of course I can see the objective benefit it gives personal and groups helpful and powerful tools to improve and learn. Although part of the reason I'm probably not in a log at the moment is that I don't savage/ultimate either, just not my cup of tea anymore (used to do that stuff in WoW/FFXI and even Twintania). I just feel like keeping a static schedule or dealing with the plethora of silly drama PF issues is too much of a hassle (to me) and takes away the fun- DF for life for me lol. Also since I don't savage the social ramifications for me have been pretty much zero (if someone silently made a judgment I wouldn't have known), no one has needed to see my logs (that don't even exist apparently lol, I know the system deletes them with age so that's probably what happened).

Not that I'm even ashamed of the damage I think I put out because I do try to be in the upper bracket of "helpfulness to the team", or top (preferable ), of each group (not perfect, or care to use potions lol, but I'm certainly not an ice mage). So at the end, as I said, I just find it invasive and undesirable to have non-consenting identified logs of things I may or may not need to care about later. Like having a twitter (obviously consenting) history and then someone going 8 years back to find something to get you with.. that stuff just makes me "nope" (I've also purged most of my facebook and personal twitter ).

[Blokeymon]

As a PS4 player I absolutely love FFLogs picking up my parses from other people's runs.

I get to see how well (or not) I'm doing, and where I can improve. It also gives me a sense of satisfaction when I see my numbers creep up.

If it wasn't for this site, I'd be the worst kind of healer - one who doesn't DPS.

So if you don't like your numbers being known, surely the question you have to ask is... why?

[EaMett]

I feel like the only people that have an issue with fflogs for the most part are those that parse low. So either people who are new to the game or people who don’t care about optimizing a minimum and pulling their weight. (You don’t need to accomplish a lot, just get around 50 percent to show you’re an average player/raider and no one will care anymore short of wanting to join a skilled static)

There are also no privacy concerns because your in game information is public. Privacy concerns your RL. I’d have to check the TOS but willing to bet your in game information doesn’t even belong to you in the first place.

[Makeda]

A tool that is merely reading the contents of a log file the game has saved to your harddrive and displaying that log graphically on your screen using its own executable wholly separate from other apps.

A website that lets you upload a text file on your hard drive is also... letting you upload a file on your hard drive to show to others or to just yourself.

The reason you don’t see action over these is... there is nothing that can be acted upon going on. This is very different from mods that do things like alter game graphics - those are actually changing game files... and so SE can choose to go after them aggressively.

Likewise, if you read something in your log that you have an opinion over it and then angrily bring that opinion to bare against someone IN GAME then SE can and will go after you...

But for some reason many fail to understand how this is wholly different from merely reading your own log files...

[aiqa]

A tool that is merely reading the contents of a log file the game has saved to your harddrive

Where does FF write a battle log to your harddrive?

[Ladon]

We have been though this.

Privacy laws don’t extend to your character and you have no right to privacy of your character data as you do not own it.