Requiring the use of authenticator or SMS for any in game function is a violation of privacy rights
WAs there something ya need help with? Because what ya typed is neither, sorry to say. Why? Because it doesn’t show any personal info, like real life name, address, card info, etc. Along with that, Blizzard is requesting use of their own apps/systems that they own.
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Oh boy wait until you realize what kind of probing Warden is doing in the background.
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Ugh, how did you come to that conclusion?
Having an authenticator or not is NOT private or sensitive information. You give your mobile number for SMS protect freely, and both the authenticator app and sms protect system are owned by Blizzard, not some 3rd party developer.
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No, it is not a violation of any privacy rights. You do not own your account or the game. Your contract that you agreed to in order to access that game requires several things that DO involve personal information. Information you agreed to give to Blizzard in order to create a battlenet account to access the game.
- Your legal name, address, country
- Your payment details if paying for something on Blizzard’s website
- Phone number is required for most Bnet accounts and free games on Battlenet these days too.
OPTIONALLY you can also set up a free Authenticator (requires the SMS component now that it is integrated into the Bnet app) on the account which grants access to some optional game features. You can get:
- A pet and some extra backpack slots
- Ability to edit text titles for the group finder
- Some Guild permissions/features are locked, or can be locked, behind an Auth.
Your legal agreement with Blizzard states that you will provide required data, factually, or you will not access Blizzard’s games and services.
If Blizzard fails to uphold their end of the agreement by protecting that Personally Identifiable information within the scope of the agreed on Privacy Statement they are held legally liable. For example if a company is hacked and real personal information is stolen they have to notify customers within a set time frame, etc.
If you don’t agree with that, then your option is to not play Blizzard games.
Note - we have no expectation of Privacy in Blizzard games. Everything we do there belongs to Blizzard and is monitored. It can also be provided to appropriate agencies through the legal process.
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This would be the kind of thing you speak to your lawyer about, not post publicly on the platform owned by the very company you’d need to sue.
(Not that you’d even be able to find a lawyer to take this case in the first place)
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Except that there is no hard requirement. There are rewards for taking the steps to protect your account (the extra bag space, being able to customize group listings) but neither of those are necessary to play the game.
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Just want to add a bit here, as I’m sure someoen will try it; Blizzard owns the accounts play on. We’re the rents and blizzard is the owners. If they wish to close an account without notice or reason, they legally can.
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If you feel so, Jumpy, you’ll want to take it up with whatever legal representation you wish to seek. The Customer Support forums really isn’t the place to provide statements on how you understand privacy laws work and frankly, I think Mirasol covered everything fairly well.
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