Again, it’s not custom fields. It’s listing a group as lead to find more. Disabled all addons, completely logged out and logged back in. Really hoping it a bug.
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I don’t have an authenticator and I tried listing my own key. The key level autofills, but it just fails to list and nothing happens. Hopefully it’s a bug, but this is Blizzard we’re talking about. They do things purely to spite their players.
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Bump on this thread.
Not interested in blizzard sending things to my phone or tracking my phone to play the game. Hopefully they will remove this soon. In the meantime, I am stuck not being able to list my key with details to run in lfg.
Not likely. You can’t even put an Authenticator on an account now without also setting up SMS Protect. If you already had one set up, you can still use it without SMS Protect, but if you remove it and have to put it back you can’t do it without the SMS Protect set up too.
P.S. Blizz can’t track you through SMS text messaging. It is not an app on your phone. It is them having your phone number to send you a text message to verify your account when security challenges are issued. It is the same as giving your phone number to anyone else. Being able to call or text you does not mean someone can track you.
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No but it does mean they have information about me, they don’t really need. They haven’t needed it for the last 17 years. Yet somehow it is an issue.
As was said before, if this is about “account security”, then it should be required for all accounts uniformly. The data we are protecting is user/billing data not LFG custom text.
They have turned some of us into second class citizens under the illusion of “removing WTS from GF” (which hasn’t worked at all btw).
The GF requires custom text to basically be usable (when creating groups).
IF I create a “world bosses” group, there isn’t even a drop down to tell folks which one. It would literally be a dropdown with what like 6 entries? But nope, can’t be bothered to address that.
Good luck getting folks to join your raid group, when you can’t specify which boss you are on, how far you are going, what class/spec/abilities you still need.
It is a joke. GF is unusable for creating groups without custom text. If you don’t believe me, then join me in advocating we remove custom text for all players. So we all get the same user-experience.
As I said back in the PTR when it was first announced, this was a terrible idea. If you want to remove custom text from a tool that relies so heavily on it, they should’ve aligned it with a massive overhaul of LFG tool. They added a few new dropdowns in M+, which helps a little, but absolutely not enough.
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Mate, you’re on the internet. The whole world has information on you that they don’t really need.
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It absolutely should be… hopefully that is their next step.
I find it funny and kind of bizarre when people get upset about giving Blizzard their call phone number when they already have peoples address and in most cases Credit Card and/or PayPal info. 
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If you pay via token, they don’t or even via b.net balance card. Also, cancelling a credit card is much easier than replacing a phone number (and then notifying everyone you know).
Best way to protect your data is to be judicious in who you give it to.
They’ve had my data for 11+ years and zero issues. I just don’t get all this paranoia.
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Spam calls are relatively new development.
It isn’t really paranoia as much as being cautious. I don’t give out my phone or my real e-mail willy nilly.
Also - why is any of this tethered to custom (i.e. made up) text inside of a video game again? You are just punishing players who play your game and don’t have 2FA.
Again, if we want to do it for security’s sake, fine - make it a requirement. Until that happens though, stop punishing players that don’t inside of the game.
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I singed up for SMS Protect back when it launched over 10 years ago now. The only texts I ever received were the initial text to set it up and a second text when I switched phone numbers.
In 10 years I’ve never received a single text or call from Blizz.
There’s my 5 cents. (We don’t have pennies in Canada anymore…so we can’t give 2cents 
)
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You must be new to having a cell phone if you believe that.
It’s paranoia unless there’s a valid reason not to give a certain your info. Years ago I had to replace my Credit Card because of a data breach of the PlayStation Network only problem I’ve ever had.
An anti-advertising tactic… not that it has worked that well.
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Relative to the game’s 17 year history. It is in the last 5 years really that this has become as big an issue as it is.
Cool?
This. That is not what 2FA is supposed to be for.
There is no denying “WTS” spam groups were an issue. 2FA was not the way to go about it. That is solving a completely different problem.
The GF kind of sucks anyways even w/ the ability to create custom text. What they should have done is addressed this properly with an overhaul of the LFG tool.
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The M+ one is sort of usable.
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The arena one is very meh … you can’t specify comp or rating you are targeting (just a min rating and “goal”). It kind of works because you only need to invite 1 or 2 people.
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The world boss one is completely unusable, you cannot specify which world boss.
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The raid one is unusable, you can’t specify any of the things you would want to other than letting people know which raid.
So fine, if you want to discuss protecting your account … cool. We can discuss that elsewhere. This is about how the GF itself was rendered basically unusable as a result (creating groups).
My point is overall that account security and custom group text are two completely separate issues that should have had separate solutions. Instead we’ve ended up with the worst of both outcomes. Some accounts are still not secured, user experiences are being ruined by a basically broken GF for some players and WTS groups still exist.
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Well all I can say then is you have a choice to make set up SMS, don’t set up SMS and live with the issues that causes or stop playing. From what I’ve seen there is virtually zero chance of this being reverted.
No, no they are not!! I am old, like we had rotary dial phones old. We had tons of spam calls, scam calls, etc. They have been doing this forever. We also had phone books that were public so everyone knew your name, address, and phone number to call you. You think spam is new??
I have had it set up for over 10 years too. Not one single unwanted spam call or text.
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This should have nothing to do with listing groups sorry. There is some serious security flaws within blizzards game if a player needs to protect their account for just listing a group with details. Something smells fishy here. Red flag in my opinion. That means potentially whispers can put your computer and account at risk. Conspiracy, maybe so maybe not.
Listing a key with details or even forming a world quest should not put your account at risk nor anyone else’s.
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There is nothing fishy. Third party RMT sellers use stolen accounts and mass produced accounts to spam advertisements. Those accounts usually don’t have an Authenticator and SMS protect on them.
To reduce spam in group finder Blizzard added the security requirements that help indicate a valid account.
You can’t even put a new Authenticator on an account anymore without setting up SMS Protect. It is now mandatory.
There is no risk to your account.
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… What? How?
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Did you ever have to deal with party lines?
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I am not quite old enough for party lines. Thankfully!
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