Blizzard Entertainment vs 'the scene' part 2   by The Crazed Asylum (TCA)

This was posted in an article yesterday on PCGamer. In it Blizzard responds to the issue of privacy regarding Starcraft. These issues were first brought to the scene's attention by Beuwolf, and were posted earlier here by BigBadWolf. ------------------------------------------ In other Blizzard news, the company released a statement regarding the CD-ROM keys in its most recently released game, Starcraft. Starcraft uses a CD-ROM key registration system, similar to Microsoft's Windows 95 codes. Blizzard takes the issue of 'one user, one key' seriously -- that much is clear. In an announcement on Battle.net, the company notes that you should never give your CD key number to anyone, and that Blizzard will not ask you for your CD key number. Blizzard also says not to buy a copy of Starcraft with a broken seal, not to rent a copy of Starcraft, and not to use CD key numbers posted on the Internet. Now some reports are surfacing on the Internet that if you use an invalid key number and try to log onto Blizzard's Battle.net, certain information is collected from your registry and sent to Blizzard. Specific data that is sent is said to include your user name and e-mail address, culled from the Windows setup entries and the information entered into the registry when the user installs a web browser. Blizzard addressed this issue with a public statement, confirming that in some instances, information had been collected, over a limited period of time: "Several questions about Blizzard's use of Starcraft CD Keys have arisen in recent days. In order clarify our practices with CD key information, we want to explain recent events. "About 15 days ago, we began receiving customer support calls and emails in regard to difficulties a small number of Starcraft users were having logging on to Battle.net. In an attempt to troubleshoot and help customers unable to log in with their CD key, we gathered (for seven day period) name and email information of customers denied access to Battle.net while our technical support and quality assurance group tracked down the sources of customer problems. "The information that was gathered was used to determine whether the problems stemmed from manufacturing issues or software piracy -- and no other reason. By collecting the information, we were able to contact several customers directly and solve their CD problems. With the exception of that seven day period, Blizzard has never collected player information other than that which is commonly collected by Internet browsers and also via user registration cards. "As a point of reference, Blizzard maintains no user database of any kind in conjunction with Battle.net. Battle.net is one of the only online services that require no personal data to play on the service -- no name, address, phone, credit card information, etc. We believe that our track record proves our respect for gamers' privacy." Separately, Blizzard said that it is at work on a patch to remove one particular bug that gives players free resources by canceling a build order more than once. Another recent problem with Starcraft on Battle.net has been the release of a "trainer", or cheat program, that allows cheaters to see the entire map and what their opponents are doing and how many resources they have. Blizzard has not yet addressed this problem. "We just found out about that yesterday," a Blizzard spokesperson told us, adding that programmers are looking into it right now. ------------------------------------------ 04/21/98 ------------------------------------------ It seems as though Blizzard has acted fairly quickly in reassuring the public that their privacy is not being violated...still I'm not sure we should believe them. ------------------------------------------ www.scenelink.org ------------------------------------------