I received a form e-mail back from Blizzard that makes no mention of removing my personal details from their records as I requested. Therefore I am taking this communication as refusal to comply. So I'll take the matter up with the Information Commissioner's Office.
This is the e-mail:
Thank you for contacting us with your concerns about Real Names being utilized on forums. We've continued to give a great deal of consideration to the design and future of our forums, along with listening to the voice of our community. To that end, we would like to draw your attention to the following open letter from Mike Morhaime, Blizzard's CEO and Cofounder:
Hello everyone,
I'd like to take some time to speak with all of you regarding our desire to make the Blizzard forums a better place for players to discuss our games. We've been constantly monitoring the feedback you've given us, as well as internally discussing your concerns about the use of real names on our forums. As a result of those discussions, we've decided at this time that real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums.
It's important to note that we still remain committed to improving our forums. Our efforts are driven 100% by the desire to find ways to make our community areas more welcoming for players and encourage more constructive conversations about our games. We will still move forward with new forum features such as conversation threading, the ability to rate posts up or down, improved search functionality, and more. However, when we launch the new StarCraft II forums that include these new features, you will be posting by your StarCraft II Battle.net character name + character code, not your real name. The upgraded World of Warcraft forums with these new features will launch close to the release of Cataclysm, and also will not require your real name.
I want to make sure it's clear that our plans for the forums are completely separate from our plans for the optional in-game Real ID system now live with World of Warcraft and launching soon with StarCraft II. We believe that the powerful communications functionality enabled by Real ID, such as cross-game and cross-realm chat, make Battle.net a great place for players to stay connected to real-life friends and family while playing Blizzard games. And of course, you'll still be able to keep your relationships at the anonymous, character level if you so choose when you communicate with other players in game. Over time, we will continue to evolve Real ID on Battle.net to add new and exciting functionality within our games for players who decide to use the feature.
In closing, I want to point out that our connection with our community has always been and will always be extremely important to us. We strongly believe that Every Voice Matters, and we feel fortunate to have a community that cares so passionately about our games. We will always appreciate the feedback and support of our players, which has been a key to Blizzard's success from the beginning.
Mike Morhaime
CEO & Cofounder
Blizzard Entertainment
For more information on Real ID, check out our Real ID page and FAQ located at http://www.battle.net/realid/
We hope you continue to enjoy your experience in World of Warcraft and all other Blizzard Entertainment products!
Alright, I fully understand your reason for sending the email that you did. I'm not sure I understand why you're wanting to continue pursuing to the IC office when Blizzard has announced that they're caving on the issue, however.
ReplyDeleteI want my personal details removed before they sell them to a thousand different internet marketing companies.
ReplyDelete"No, little Stabs, thank you for your concerns, you are such a nice guy. Here is a cookie, it is all good! We disagree and give a damn about your wishes.
ReplyDeleteYours, Blizzard. :>"
I intend to link to your blog to show people that Blizzard fails as a company. The generic letter about the "forums" fake reason they always put forward is quite insulting.
Furthermore, they simply flat out did not remove your personal data as you demanded. They did not even address this in the slightest, like saying "we changed our policy, do you still want us to delete your account?"
From gamers for gamers... no longer. This is absurd.
I reported to the ESRB a CM post that's since been taken down where they said there was no current way to remove all account data and "no plans for the future" to make that an available option. Their ESRB privacy policy states players should be able to mail privacy@blizzard.com and get accounts purged. If they think there was a s***storm over RealID, a move where they refuse to remove your data as agreed to in the privacy policy is going to cause a much bigger hail.
ReplyDeleteCheck out the blogs at MMORPG.com as well-- Blizzard's attitude behind closed doors has apparently always been along the lines of 'let them bitch, they'll be back.' The 'every voice matters' bullcrap is pure PR condescension. They don't want to purge anyone's account because they fully believe everyone will come back no matter how they treat their playerbase. No thanks. Have moved on.
To be honest this seems like a pretty reasonable reply to me.
ReplyDeleteIn effect they are saying "we have listened to all the player feedback and changed our plans on RealID, does this allay your fears"?
If you now reply with a "I wish my personal information to be removed anyway" post, then you would have an argument if they dont comply.
Lets be honest, the RealID thing is why you sent this message, Blizzard is going to know that, and is quite reasonable to make that assumption. Without sending a reply stating that you wish your info removed anyway, I dont think you really have a legal basis.
Blizzard have acted reasonably here, from a legal PoV.
To be honest this seems like a pretty reasonable reply to me.
ReplyDeleteIn effect they are saying "we have listened to all the player feedback and changed our plans on RealID, does this allay your fears"?
If you now reply with a "I wish my personal information to be removed anyway" post, then you would have an argument if they dont comply.
Lets be honest, the RealID thing is why you sent this message, Blizzard is going to know that, and is quite reasonable to make that assumption. Without sending a reply stating that you wish your info removed anyway, I dont think you really have a legal basis.
Blizzard have acted reasonably here, from a legal PoV.
Hmm, I just wonder what jurisdiction you live in. In Britain, after a lot of high profile privacy leaks, privacy laws are very strict. You're not allowed to hold someone's personal data when they don't want you to unless you have a very good reason (for example credit checking agencies).
ReplyDeleteInformation about me is not an asset to be sold.
Well anyway I'll complain and if Blizzard acted reasonably by the UK Information Commissioner's standards then they've nothing to worry about.
Now, almost a month later, let me ask: Did they finally delete your account/data?
ReplyDeleteThey didn't but I didn't pursue it hard enough. They fobbed me off and I didn't knuckle down and make it hard for them or threaten them with the Information Commissioner.
ReplyDelete