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Activision Blizzard Secretly Watermarking World of Warcraft Users?

So people don't have to click the link

"A few days ago I noticed some weird artifacts covering the screenshots I captured using the WoW game client application. I sharpened the images and found a repeating pattern secretly embedded inside. I posted this information on the OwnedCore forum and after an amazing three-day cooperation marathon, we managed to prove that all our WoW screenshots, since at least 2008, contain a custom watermark. This watermark includes our user IDs, the time the screenshot was captured and the IP address of the server we were on at the time. It can be used to track down activities which are against Blizzard's Terms of Service, like hacking the game or running a private server. The users were never notified by the ToS that this watermarking was going on so, for four years now, we have all been publicly sharing our account and realm information for hackers to decode and exploit. You can find more information on how to access the watermark in the aforementioned forum post which is still quite active."
Click to expand...

But that is interesting. I wonder if there is an active decoder out there.
 
If your looking for a way to disable it,click here its a post on ownedcore. Some guy developed a way to disable it so that now you can play safely :)

Hope I helped,
Unscrupulous
 
this is absolutely mind-blowing... Even though they are technically allowed to do this, whether their TOS says so or not... its morally screwed up....
 
Tinfoil hats come in all shapes and sizes. Use PNG instead of Jpg - and the issue isnt there. So this is a Jpg compression artifact issue imo.
 
/Tinfoil hat or not, as botters it's something to be aware of as a possible way to identify you when posting pics/video of exploiting or botting.
 
Ofc - botters should be careful - but no need to start prepping, just use common sense. Thats what I am saying.

Blizzard is a big company, but insinuating that they have spies/programs that read the image codes and uses it to what? Grant a 72 hour ban is pretty far fetched imo. Blizzard doesnt even fix open exploits, don`t bann people for creating 10 lvl 25 guilds in 48 hours, selling hundreds of Deathchargers, 24/7 straight botting in BG`s or what not. Unless you openly screws someone up the back side - blizz dont care. And I am guessing they will care less and less for each year that passes by.
 
couldn't find a link and a search on ownedcore resulted in literaly 1000 hits ><
 
Hmm, I've found such "watermark" on an old screen from September 2008. Whatever that means...
 
i dont think it means shit, i mean really, i could take any screen shot and be like "Look blizzard this is my main account and i use the bot every day" even though the account information is on it, it doesn't mean that its necessarily my account. everybody lies. the only thing i can think that MIGHT be useful for them is for internal debugging, maybe a person found a glitch, and the watermark contains that information to find it. other then that, there's not much use.
 
If you want to still use jpg as screenshots you can always set it to max quality and the watermarks aren't there either.
/console SET screenshotQuality "10"
 
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