SE Please start caring about your players privacy.

[NaoSen]

For years your community has been talking about features that are anti-privacy and allowed bad actors to make use of to create trouble for the other person. Either no explanation or vague ones have been given.

Pre-DT
1. Location Sharing
2. Friends List being one sided, allowing someone removed to still track you.
3. Eternity ring only affecting the person who ends the marriage.
4. Inability to block or kick someone from your house
5. No alt protection.

Post-DT Actions
1. New blacklist system semi-addressing point 4 and 5.

In implementing the new blacklist system you took the easy route out and made your very insecure game client which you know people take advantage of with plugins to do various things introduce a potentially WORSE option depending on who you ask.

Current-DT System
1. Location Sharing
2. Friends List being one sided, allowing someone removed to still track you.
3. Eternity ring only affecting the person who ends the marriage.
4. If third party tools are used person able to track retainers, alts, past character looks, past character locations and more.

Do you not care about player's ability to avoid people causing them trouble? It does not take direct, actionable by GM confrontation to cause a person grief, rumours, lies, out of game harassment, all these things made possible by YOUR game system.

This is a time when you cannot go and say "It's an old system and would be hard to change", the carelessness of the blacklist system's implementation is a NEW feature.

This attitude needs to change.

Besides the change of the blacklist system to undo the current extra damage.

On changing some systems it is often said "It is a old system and would be a lot of work to change" so what ? You are a major company, other major companies have made changes too that did not require a new expansion.

World of warcraft for example had to do major changes to just make you able to have a bigger primary backpack, they stated themselves that it was a major undertaking yet they did it as well as overhauling how transmog/glamour works multiple times. Eve Online had to move their chat handling system to external servers to attempt to reduce client load. Square Enix says, "It would take a lot of work" and doesn't do it. Yet every subscriber is paying 120+ euro per year as well as a store existing and paid expansions.

You say Dawntrail is the start for the next 10 years, I hate to think on how the game client is going to get by just having features poorly added and the client not maintained for so long.

[Wyssahtyn]

nooo... you have to consider the other person's feelings...

[Kaurhz]

Honestly, there is absolutely no excuse for this. Don't care if it's an old system, don't care if legacy code would make it a pain, don't care if it's spaghetti... Player privacy should absolutely be a paramount concern with a game of this size. They should be sparing no expense in this endeavor.

Frankly, something of this magnitude at the very least warrants a statement by now, and I absolutely believe that there should be some serious sanctions on this matter. I think systems being somewhat abusable is an inevitability, but they really need to put their foot down and say "No, this is enough". Their incredibly relaxed perspective on third-party tools is what makes people constantly press the boundary with tools, and this one has honestly just gone far, far beyond a valid or reasonable scope.

[Nero-Voidstails]

I would rather go back to the first way because at least they cannot pin point you. also don't forget this all information are publicly shared in a discord so one person can use it and everyone else that doesn't have it can still track you.

[NaoSen]

I dragged up all the other in game ways people have of privacy invasion because it's not like people stopped caring about the old ways but gave up on SE changing it.

You go and ask anyone about how the friends list works and more often than no its "Square Enix wont change because 'old systems'", having given up on it ever changing. Likewise with things like the glamour system.

It's sad that its the norm for people to expect Square Enix to just ignore changing something no matter how much people dislike it if its "Too much work"

[Jeeqbit]

They did address the most pressing problem. But from their wording, I was under the impression they had moved the blacklist to the server and were just telling the client "this player is blacklisted" rather than flat out sending their account information. I thought this due to the blacklist influencing the lodestone.

To code it this way was a foreseeable oversight that they should have seen. I mean this series of events would immediately be in my mind if I was coding it.

[Clockworks]

They even made the new bar people from houses feature only 14 days, just in case the person gets their feelings hurt and misses you too much so they can come back !

Even better too, to put them back in the barred from your house list, they need to come physically AND you need to target them, which means remove them from blacklist in the first place otherwise you cant see them!

Arent you thankful?

[Arzalis]

They did address the most pressing problem. But from their wording, I was under the impression they had moved the blacklist to the server and were just telling the client "this player is blacklisted" rather than flat out sending their account information. I thought this due to the blacklist influencing the lodestone.

To code it this way was a foreseeable oversight that they should have seen. I mean this series of events would immediately be in my mind if I was coding it.

Some people are gonna be quick to blame third party stuff or whatever, but since SE is sending this information to every client, all you need is software that can read packets to see the account id. It's insanely lazy and flat out irresponsible they implemented it this way.

[Clockworks]

Some people are gonna be quick to blame third party stuff or whatever, but since SE is sending this information to every client, all you need is software that can read packets to see the account id. It's insanely lazy and flat out irresponsible they implemented it this way.

Implemented in a typical SE fashion

[Rueby]

While at it, please let us opt out of having our names plastered on whatever we craft....It's a nice 'yay I made it' but I don't want it personally, I'd like to opt out.
Also apartments showing your online status/location...

I can probably think of many more but I'm too exhausted by it all.

I remember as a sprout I used to add anyone and I loved socializing and making new friends. Then I was told how the friendlist really works....
I remember the first time I was forced to use the blacklist because of a really unpleasant interaction on discord. Game forced me to go stalk the person to blacklist them....

Five years later, I don't add anyone anymore...I feel incredible guilt when I turn down friend requests. I simply don't want to interact with the system, not because I don't want to socialize and make friends, but because the system is incredibly creepy.

I like the new blacklist that it hides players you blacklisted and I wish I had that feature years ago when it got so bad that even seeing these awful people brought back really awful memories (the kind of I don't want to wake up to play the game I love anymore).

I think the lodestone privating thing should've been a thing YEARS ago..It's nice that they give us the option now....

I'm tired, boss. I don't trust SE to not half ass stuff...

This isn't purely plugin issue as the mass panic that devolved into hysteria would like you to believe. Game enables stalkers in so many ways on its own. They're tools ingame (player search, crafting sig., location) of course, but why not let people opt out if they feel uncomfortable.