Slashdot Mirror
Man Tracked Down and Arrested Via WoW
kabome writes with this excerpt from a story about an alleged drug dealer who was located by law enforcement thanks to World of Warcraft:
"Roberson’s subpoena was nothing more than a politely worded request, considering the limits of his law enforcement jurisdiction and the ambiguity of the online world. 'They don’t have to respond to us, and I was under the assumption that they wouldn’t,' said Roberson. ... Blizzard did more than cooperate. It gave Roberson everything he needed to track down Hightower, including his IP address, his account information and history, his billing address, and even his online screen name and preferred server. From there it was a simple matter to zero in on the suspect's location."
We reserve the right to disclose your personal information as required by law or in special cases when we have reason to believe that disclosing such information is necessary to identify, contact, or bring legal action against you
Emphasis mine. This was a special case.
If someone wants to help the police, they can help the police. There's nothing wrong with that.
Qxe4
Who cares? If the police ask me for help, I'll as likely as not help them. Why should I be surprised if others do as well? You seem to have some weird fear of police and authority in general, which doesn't make much sense given that the authority of the police is based entirely on the authority of society. They do what society wants (unless they go rogue and do things that society doesn't want).
If you want to change the police, you should change society. Not go around calling people names, which actually doesn't accomplish anything.
Qxe4
After all, I just shot down your entire rationalization of "well their privacy policy said they would do it" so you switched arguments.
Are you serious? Wow, you must have not actually read it. Here is the quote: W"e reserve the right to disclose your personal information as required by law or in special cases when we have reason to believe that disclosing such information is necessary to identify, contact, or bring legal action against you"
It doesn't say they have to wait until they are obligated by law, you are reading it wrong if you believe that. It says in special cases they may give your information out so legal action can be brought against you (or so you can be identified or contacted. Under that clause it doesn't even have to be the police making the request).
Qxe4
Blizzard gets a request from law enforcement, Blizzard hands over the info, simple as that.
So you have literally no privacy because the TOS says "in response to a request by law enforcement"?
I'd like to see the legal precedent which supports that line of reasoning.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!