Fighting Back: Privacy issues arising from the ban

[Thecamel]

Jesus dude, can you stop with this BS?

If you're still so upset about blizzard's practices, open a lawsuit against them. I'm sure you can find some money hungry lawyer that may want your business.

I do feel sorry for you though. If losing your wow account and a maximum of $78 is worth you spending thousands of dollars and a few years of your life fighting in the court system, so be it. It makes absolutely no sense, but you go ahead and do your thing.

Once again your fail to see the point made by the OP.. this post had NOTHING to do with his wow account.... A simple valid privacy concern.. Please go troll elsewhere.

 

[icu]

You are forgetting one key factor. Blizzard entertainment is an American based company. You might need to look at international laws regarding this as they my also play a part in this. Also the burden of proof is on you to prove blizzard scanned more of your pc than the tos/elua allow.

Not entirely true, Blizzard Entertainment Europe is based in France. Also Blizzard has a legal obligation in the EU to provide, upon request, the information they have collected in relation to you.

 

[Girainha]

No, they have a subsidiary company registered here, and they have another company to handle the subscription money.
Here in fact it doesn't matter if they have the headquarters in another country, if they operate here, make money and have personal goods in our country, i'll have legal forms to freeze their money, or request for daily fines until they obey.

 

[Thecamel]

1. you authorized em, you signed the agreement.
2. they collect what u r running, a bot. how personal is that. not!

this gets nowhere. i wish u luck but this whole " im gonna save all your accounts, we can fight blizz 1010101oenoneeleventyone1!!!!!1!! "
is a joke.

This again.. isn't about saving wow accounts.

 

[icu]

The Key point is how to prove what they did.
Im really sure i can beat them in my countrys courts, the problem is how to force them to comply with our jurisdiction.
The law here is in my favor, the burden of proof is all on the company side, they have to prove that my claims are false. And any EULA clause that is against our law is considered invalid.
And our Constitution forbit any kind of data interception without an order from a Judge.



In a practical point of view im having some doubts if i should persue this or not.
The thing is, after that i'll become a target, even a single piece of gold from an suspect source will be a reason for another Ban.


Im my case, they banned my main account and let my farm accounts unharmed. That is the strange part of the ban wave.

I've said it elsewhere that I personally feel like my privacy has been violated because Blizzard would have had to been spying on my account in order to ban it. Now if you care about your account more than your privacy, then this course of action isn't for you.

 

[Hill]

The point is, you don't know... no one does at this point. In order to determine if it was then information needs to be requested.

You Are right, the Bans are not in the exact same Second, when my first Account was Banned, i could login with my second account for about 1 min, so it calls me, there is a semi automatic system, they just have to accept a ban, but they overview it first by hand in my opinion.

But... see the problem is how they told, you agreed to Blizzard, that they can spy your Ram and to do so after you accepted, is fully legal.

Watch, there are Tools like Aida, Everest, which scan your complete Hardware, you install it, and it works.... if you could accept it but its still illegal.... many many many many programms wouldn't really work, also no programm could use Direct X or something, cause you allow the Game to use this Engine, but you never allowed the Game to search for it.

It's quite simple out of my view.... it's their right to scan me, cause i agreed.... everyone agreed.

Be a fair looser, many of us won several times, avoiding massive ban hammers, but this one now, hits us all... thats the fact and nothing will ever change something to this.

Yeah, perhaps we got the Rights especially in EU to ask Blizzard for all Datas they have about us.... but they don't want to give it out, so run to court and perhaps they need to tell us what they know about our bot activities, and then ? nothing... the Account definetly stay banned.

I hope you show me, that i'm wrong, but i don't think so sorry :/

 

[jsimmons10]

you were doing something wrong when u should have not been doing it. you got caught, get over it and quit bitching about it.

 

[Thecamel]

Hell if you guys are ok with the fact that blizzard possibly just scanned your entire PC with out you knowing about, they I feel I need to debate with you no longer.

If they detected the use off another piece of software on my pc via means with in the blizzard program(s) then fine- I have no issue..

however if they have been snooping around other parts of my pc to discover this- they have broken the law (in Australia at least), I don't give to shits about my wow account- But I certainly do care about my personal data.

 

[tomh2011]

You Are right, the Bans are not in the exact same Second, when my first Account was Banned, i could login with my second account for about 1 min, so it calls me, there is a semi automatic system, they just have to accept a ban, but they overview it first by hand in my opinion.

But... see the problem is how they told, you agreed to Blizzard, that they can spy your Ram and to do so after you accepted, is fully legal.

Watch, there are Tools like Aida, Everest, which scan your complete Hardware, you install it, and it works.... if you could accept it but its still illegal.... many many many many programms wouldn't really work, also no programm could use Direct X or something, cause you allow the Game to use this Engine, but you never allowed the Game to search for it.

It's quite simple out of my view.... it's their right to scan me, cause i agreed.... everyone agreed.

Be a fair looser, many of us won several times, avoiding massive ban hammers, but this one now, hits us all... thats the fact and nothing will ever change something to this.

Yeah, perhaps we got the Rights especially in EU to ask Blizzard for all Datas they have about us.... but they don't want to give it out, so run to court and perhaps they need to tell us what they know about our bot activities, and then ? nothing... the Account definetly stay banned.

I hope you show me, that i'm wrong, but i don't think so sorry :/

I posted on page 3.. I wrote a message (via ticket) to blizz & got a response from them acknowledging that I could get the info (& find out how they detected me). EU laws DO override TOS clearly

 

[gamerhead]

If you feel that your privacy has been violated, get a lawyer. Even if it just a consultation. Thanks get back to us with hard proof that a crime was committed.

 

[Girainha]

My point is what we will accomplish ?
Im trying to see what we could do that will really hurt them.


In a pragmatic point of view, i think it will be more easy to them to accept the court order, reinstate my account and don't reveal a single piece of how they did this.

 

[roifok]

If they scanned something, they would do that with maximum precautions and without letting any proof behind.

For now they have multiple teams of lawyers and not the first price lawyer. Blizzard do what they want and even if someone start to make a complaint against them, all the account will be unbanned before they answer anything.

Blizzard always had the power until the recent win of Bossland. I think they were a little bit angry and they wanted to teach us a good lesson.

Not entirely true, Blizzard Entertainment Europe is based in France. Also Blizzard has a legal obligation in the EU to provide, upon request, the information they have collected in relation to you.

You know why in France ? Because until the time you send the first letter to them and the time you are front of them in a court, your account will be unbanned and new xpac will be released

More seriously, you are right they got the obligation to provide informations they got on you BUT you first have to send a letter to Blizzard asking thses informations. They got 2 MONTHS to answer, OR NOT ! If they don't answer or you're not satisfied of the answer they provide, you can contact the CNIL (National Commission on Informatics and Liberties) to make a complaint and there start the process.

They are really well protected and they know what they do.

 

[Girainha]

I think the blizzard plan is since they lost the law suit against bossland is try to bankruptcy the company punishing its costumers.
They think after 6 months we will be afraid of using HB again and no new customers will ever trust it again.

 

[Thecamel]

Do you mind doing a template letter up for Australia please ?

 

[icu]

You Are right, the Bans are not in the exact same Second, when my first Account was Banned, i could login with my second account for about 1 min, so it calls me, there is a semi automatic system, they just have to accept a ban, but they overview it first by hand in my opinion.

But... see the problem is how they told, you agreed to Blizzard, that they can spy your Ram and to do so after you accepted, is fully legal.

Watch, there are Tools like Aida, Everest, which scan your complete Hardware, you install it, and it works.... if you could accept it but its still illegal.... many many many many programms wouldn't really work, also no programm could use Direct X or something, cause you allow the Game to use this Engine, but you never allowed the Game to search for it.

It's quite simple out of my view.... it's their right to scan me, cause i agreed.... everyone agreed.

Be a fair looser, many of us won several times, avoiding massive ban hammers, but this one now, hits us all... thats the fact and nothing will ever change something to this.

Yeah, perhaps we got the Rights especially in EU to ask Blizzard for all Datas they have about us.... but they don't want to give it out, so run to court and perhaps they need to tell us what they know about our bot activities, and then ? nothing... the Account definetly stay banned.

I hope you show me, that i'm wrong, but i don't think so sorry :/

It might be your simple view that Blizzard have the right to scan you but they may not have the legal right because it has to do with personally identifiable information and how that information is processed. This therefore invalidates your argument about antivirus and games because this software (shouldn't) be phoning home with information that identifies you and is automatically processed.

If Blizzard has broken the law here they have done it on EVERYONE'S ACCOUNTS because they would have had to SCAN EVERYONE. Think about that... millions of people who have had their privacy rights violated.

I'm sorry but saying you hope I'm wrong but then implying that you're not going to stand up for your rights is lame.

 

[icu]

If you feel that your privacy has been violated, get a lawyer. Even if it just a consultation. Thanks get back to us with hard proof that a crime was committed.

Lawyers are NOT necessary for information requests that you are legally entitled to.

Depending on what information is sent, and how serious it is, then yes maybe a consultation with a lawyer is appropriate... however there are alternatives like complaining to your country's authority for enforcement of data protection laws.

For example the UK has the Information Commissioner's Office which is an independent authority set up to uphold information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals.

Many countries within the EU will have similar organisations.

 

[Girainha]

It might be your simple view that Blizzard have the right to scan you but they may not have the legal right because it has to do with personally identifiable information and how that information is processed. This therefore invalidates your argument about antivirus and games because this software (shouldn't) be phoning home with information that identifies you and is automatically processed.

If Blizzard has broken the law here they have done it on EVERYONE'S ACCOUNTS because they would have had to SCAN EVERYONE. Think about that... millions of people who have had their privacy rights violated.

I'm sorry but saying you hope I'm wrong but then implying that you're not going to stand up for your rights is lame.

I know you are right, they probably broke the law of several countries to achiev this.
They are sure that we will not be able to prove it.

The thing is i think its possible to win a civil cause against them, but we will need a really substantial proof to indict them in a criminal case.

 

[icu]

If they scanned something, they would do that with maximum precautions and without letting any proof behind.

For now they have multiple teams of lawyers and not the first price lawyer. Blizzard do what they want and even if someone start to make a complaint against them, all the account will be unbanned before they answer anything.

Blizzard always had the power until the recent win of Bossland. I think they were a little bit angry and they wanted to teach us a good lesson.



You know why in France ? Because until the time you send the first letter to them and the time you are front of them in a court, your account will be unbanned and new xpac will be released

More seriously, you are right they got the obligation to provide informations they got on you BUT you first have to send a letter to Blizzard asking thses informations. They got 2 MONTHS to answer, OR NOT ! If they don't answer or you're not satisfied of the answer they provide, you can contact the CNIL (National Commission on Informatics and Liberties) to make a complaint and there start the process.

They are really well protected and they know what they do.

It depends on where you live and your country's laws... even though Blizz EU is based in France in my country they have 40 days to respond which isn't quite 2 months.

 

[icu]

I know you are right, they probably broke the law of several countries to achiev this.
They are sure that we will not be able to prove it.

The thing is i think its possible to win a civil cause against them, but we will need a really substantial proof to indict them in a criminal case.

Exactly and the first step would be requesting information that would form the basis of that proof.

 

[face21]

You sign a thing before you play saying they can scan your pc, they also reserve the right to do what they want with your account its not your account, they make it very clear, they don't even need a reason. They got it wrapped up in a neat little bow. All we can do is try to make sure we don't get caught again.