Blizzard adding almost invisible watermarks on screenshots

[checking facts]

they can track your account and the IP adress of your realm, meaning they can help blizzard catching hackers, cheaters and private servers (with the IP thing).

sounds like a good idea to me

[Kisho]

Let's be honest: this is probably in the Terms of Use that everyone agrees to, but never reads. :P

I doubt any important info is being given out, so whatever. Complete non-issue.

[Thage]

To be fair, Fenix, the Real ID thing was a serious security risk. This, not so much, because it offers no real-world information or even your account info other than account name, some server info, and realm ID.

[Galluccio]

Hello! I just stumbled upon a topic on slashdot.org site about Blizzard adding an almost invisible watermark on the screenshots that users take. You can find the story here http://games.slashdot.org/story/12/0...warcraft-users

The original discussion takes place here http://www.ownedcore.com/forums/worl...reenshots.html

Thoughts?

Please explain to me why I need to have ANY concerns about this whatsoever. I don't exploit and I'm not doing anything against the TOS. Without knowing anything else, I think I have no concerns.

[Deleted]

Please explain to me why I need to have ANY concerns about this whatsoever. I don't exploit and I'm not doing anything against the TOS. Without knowing anything else, I think I have no concerns.

hes asking for your opinion, nothing more.. learn to read k

[Howard Moon]

If this helps Blizz combat bots and cheaters then I'm all for some unobtrusive watermarks.

[Eled.]

they can track your account and the IP adress of your realm, meaning they can help blizzard catching hackers, cheaters and private servers (with the IP thing).

sounds like a good idea to me

I'm quite sure it's way more productive to have well-thought in-game verification tools than to crawl the web and look for wow screenshots (and of course, make humans analyze it, I can't think of an algorithm able to detect cheating based on a 2D shot ). Same for private servers, that'd cost a lot and have probably no ROI.

[videotape]

Please explain to me why I need to have ANY concerns about this whatsoever. I don't exploit and I'm not doing anything against the TOS. Without knowing anything else, I think I have no concerns.

The one imaginable concern from my perspective is that, in general, making account names public might in some way allow phishing attackers to become more efficient at what they do.

I don't think it is a serious problem. It is however still a potentially interesting topic for discussion.

[Xeraxis]

Some people make sexual material with the screenshots they take ingame, it's very invasive for people's privacy.

Doesn't really matter since it's using images from the game Blizzard owns it. Those people had no privacy to begin with in the matter.

[Marahdeka]

Please explain to me why I need to have ANY concerns about this whatsoever. I don't exploit and I'm not doing anything against the TOS. Without knowing anything else, I think I have no concerns.

I didn't suggest you need to have concerns. i just brought a topic to discuss.

[istrain]

For all the BS you actually have to go through to even see this watermark, it's really a non-issue.

[Holtzmann]

Is it wrong that my first thought when I read all that was "oh, that's really quite clever!"? I wonder if they actually got to catch any cheaters with those watermarks. Very interesting stuff.

[teebo]

just saw this on g. Its not like they dont already have all of your info already. What more could they gain?

[checking facts]

Some people make sexual material with the screenshots they take ingame, it's very invasive for people's privacy.

people usually use WoW model viewer to make porn, not in-game screenshots. you have way more freedom with the model viewer.

[Raintola]

Yeah, I wasn't about to go to two websites I've never been to to read articles, but now that I've seen a few more replies to this thread I see what the "issue" is.

Yet another "OMG BLIZZARD IS SHARING ALL MAH INFOZ AND IMA GET RAPED OR SHOT IRL" argument. It's Real ID on the forums all over again.

Your right to privacy ends when your IP connects, people. This isn't an abortion clinic. This isn't the Department of Motor Vehicles. This isn't your on the side girlfriend's house. If you don't want your information exploited, here's a hint. Don't use the internet. Period.

BUT I IZ IMPORTANTE PERSON DUDE GUY IRL AND STUFF.

But yeah, when they can almost literally pick your nose from orbit these days, privacy over the internet is a pretty trivial problem.

[videotape]

I am pretty sure the primary use of these watermarks is to assist support staff when given screenshots. Color me sheeple.

[sebun]

The one imaginable concern from my perspective is that, in general, making account names public might in some way allow phishing attackers to become more efficient at what they do.

I don't think it is a serious problem. It is however still a potentially interesting topic for discussion.

WoW account names, not Battle.net account names. WoW account names are not used for anything so the info for anyone outside Blizzard is pretty useless.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

people usually use WoW model viewer to make porn, not in-game screenshots. you have way more freedom with the model viewer.

Hackers can be caught using IP, account, character name, etc.

Private Servers can be caught using IP.

Exploiters caught like Hackers.

[PaladinBash]

Maybe Blizzard is using this to track me when I screenshot suitably epic trolling to laugh about years later. The worst thing that could happen is that I stop doing that because of ban threats. Oh no...what a shame...

[Yig]

Your account cannot be stolen simply by knowing your account name and the realm your character is on. If you post on the official WOW forums, it's the same fucking thing.