Hi, I have the “Share Game Data” setting on my Battle.net account disabled, which describes itself as “Allow Battle.net to share game data with external developers to enable game related services such as leaderboards, statistic trackers, and more.” However, I’ve noticed some of my data appearing on third-party websites such as warcraftlogs without my permission or knowledge. Shouldn’t something be done about this? It feels like a privacy violation.
1 Like
If it’s character data, then it’s not a “privacy” issue. That said, you can contact those sites to ask them to take down your character data too. It’s possible they got a copy of it prior to you selecting not to share it.
3 Likes
I have had the setting disabled for several years now. I only started up in WoW again less than a month ago. And some of the data I’m seeing is as recent as yesterday.
Definitely odd. Again, you would need to contact them about taking character info down.
You might want to double check that your setting is still accurate in your account options too.
https://account.battle.net/privacy
As noted in the setting you are referring to:
This setting does not allow the sharing of your name, email address, physical address, telephone number, or other similar information without your specific consent.
That info would be considered private and as such is never shared.
3 Likes
The third-party sites have access to the API. If your character is available on the armory, the third-party sites have access to it.
As mentioned, the third-party sites have a process to remove your character information from their sites.
If you are looking for a change in what data third-party sites have access to, post your feedback using the option on the in-game Support menu, or in the appropriate forum. I think UI and Macros is the correct forum.
1 Like
Is this not the appropriate forum? And if third-party sites are not abiding by user privacy settings, then their API keys should be suspended until they do. The site primarily exists for the purpose of leaderboards and statistic tracking, which is exactly what the privacy option mentioned in the OP is NOT supposed to allow.
They are abiding by the rules. What settings players have in-game don’t govern what shows outside of the game. If it did, the Armory would probably be almost empty.
Where does it say that? Blizzard themselves have the information available on the Armory.
2 Likes
No, the CS forum isn’t a feedback forum, nor the blues here have any sway in this kind of matter.
Just to point it out, toon information, like the armory, isn’t exactly prtive information. More so when other sites are used by players for a range of reasons.
2 Likes
Bllizzard does Leaderboards.
1 Like
I’m not just talking about level and gear info that you could get off the armory (not that it even matters much, considering the armory is a first-party website), I’m talking about much more detailed info about player performance, spells cast, damage done, buffs used, what time players engaged which bosses and how long it took, and then ranking players based on all of that info.
If disabling the “Share Game Data” privacy setting doesn’t block third-parties from all that sort of stuff, then what is the point of it? What does this setting actually DO?
You aren’t the only player in a dungeon or raid or battleground, etc. Their addon for the third-party site would have access to what you do in the instance. The third-party site wouldn’t have to get it from the API.
If you want a change to this, you need to give feedback in the UI and Macro forum, or using the in-game option.
1 Like
I’m getting the feeling you’re more talking about an add-on then the website - that kind of info isn’t there on the API from Blizzard. That’d be add-ons where folks download to upload how well they did their keys and such. That’s more outside of Blizzard and more at-will kind of thing.
1 Like
I experienced the same thing when I got told I had “subpar performance” by a new guild application on warcraftlogs, but was 100% sure I disabled sharing data. Unfortunately, this doesn’t block someone else from recording raidlogs or otherwise as the other posters have said.
It has been awhile ago but if you register to warcraftlogs you can disable it entirely however from that part.
I guess the question that needs to be asked here - are you trying to keep your alts private for privacy’s sake? Or are you just not wanting any logs/play history up for people to use to gauge your capabilities as they so love to lean on in the Classic iterations?
Either reasoning, you can hide these things on the separate websites. I know for folks who like to check on alts, there is the PvP checker site, but for Warcraftlogs there is a setting that will allow you to hide your alts and your raiding information as well.
You will just need to create an account on the website in question. From there, you just need to add your character(s) and then adjust the settings for what you want to hide or not report.
1 Like
As nobody has bothered to spell it out yet… Blizz’s Share Game Data options have no effect on what information is gathered via the in-game Combat Log, which is where this particular information is coming from. Other players are taking that combat log data and uploading it to WCL, none of it is coming directly from Blizz.
1 Like
Then they should limit the kind of data that addons can collect about other players. If people want to download the addon and opt-in to sharing all of that, then fine, but it shouldn’t be used on players who aren’t even aware they’re being tracked (especially when they specifically enabled privacy options to prevent that sort of thing). Users shouldn’t be required to sign up for a third-party website in order to get them to stop collecting their data, it’s the sort of thing that should be stopped at the source.
1 Like
This would require playing with a totaly blank screen even without addons. I’m not sure how popular that game would be.
Although I do understand your frustration and it goes way beyond games.
Not necessarily. Restrict information about other players to just their name, guild, level, class, health, resources, buffs, debuffs, and target. Spellcasting info is only provided for hostile players (for the sake of interrupts), and gear info is only provided upon using the Inspect command. Aside from that, you can still have full info about yourself and NPCs (basically the “What happened to me?” log). If you want people to share more, require them to opt-in either through an in-game privacy option or through using an addon that provides that info (sort of like Questie sharing quest progress).
This would allow the majority of non-data-mining addons to continue to function as intended, allow people who want to analyze their own logs to continue to do so, but also prevent others from having their data uploaded to third-party services without knowledge or permission. Without the real meat of the logs (abilities, damage, timestamps, etc) it would hamper the ability of these third-party sites to do anything without the user’s permission.
1 Like
You were part of someone else’s combat log. There’s nothing you can do about that.
1 Like
Maybe you could just try doing better