Technically not strangers because they’re on my friends list, but it’s still not much of a comfort. I logged into the desktop app for the first time in possibly a few years because I was interested in the new Diablo II stuff.
And then one of my friends tells me my battletag is showing my real name to them while they were in WoW. Which I was very confused by, because on my end all I saw was my user name. No indication at all that my real name was being sent to people I don’t know in a face-to-face context.
Come to find out in the time I was gone a Real ID feature got added and was turned on automatically. Are you serious right now? What is wrong with you people. Seriously seriously what is wrong with you all that you turned that on by default.
Depending on your country, this might even violate local laws, regarding data privacy.
Its on default for everyone, it only shows your name to people you choose to connect with real ID which is given as an option when adding people to your bnet. The only people that will see your Real name are the ones you choose to connect with Real ID, everyone else will see your username
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The RealID feature was added in 2010 - more than 15 years ago. It has not changed since. Sharing of your real name requires person by person approval from you - even if you have it enabled. You have to enable sharing of RealID with each person who can see it. Usually this is done when you make the friend request - you can opt to send a friend request by Btag nickname or RealID. Blizzard recommends not sharing your RealID with anyone who is not a real life family or friend.
Here is the support article on it.
'Get Help - Blizzard Support
You will also want to go to your Privacy and Communication settings and turn off “Friends of Friends Suggestions” and Real ID.
You can do that here on the website under your Battlenet Account management.
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