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Blizzard Adds Timestamps To WoW Armory

Kharny writes "In a move that could cause serious privacy problems for players of World of Warcraft, Blizzard has added timestamps and an RSS feed to the game's online armory site. This new feature will mean that anyone can follow 'real-time' developments in a World of Warcraft character, which display the exact time and date, so that others can see that person's playing habits. Many players have already complained about the fact that there is no opt-out setting, and this opens very big possibilities for online stalking."

5 of 318 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Job absentism by Tim+C · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There's a huge difference between staying at home ill, sat at my desk within easy reach of my bed if I need it (or even in bed if I game on a laptop), staying in the warm, and not having to struggle through a 90 minute commute, and going in to the office, being unproductive as I infect my co-workers with whatever nasty little germ I have.

    Just because you're not too ill to sit at one desk, doesn't mean you're well enough to sit at another.

  2. Re:Already possible by A+beautiful+mind · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There are a lot of things that are "already possible", that are made "easier". It is known as the difficulty of a problem. I don't want to build a terrorism strawman so here is another analogy: It is already possible to perform voting fraud without electronic voting machines. All you need to do is gather your closest 100,000 conspirators and rig the counting process. Introducing a centralized software that you conveniently and mostly undetectably can modify just makes it easier.

    The fact is, making some things easier make things more probable and skews "cost - benefit" comparisons towards actually doing the thing. The example you use would require a WoW account and would be limited to a few people tops. The new changes can easily allow monitoring of tens of thousands of accounts from a single ip, with a few lines of Perl.

    --
    It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
    Be yourself no matter what they say
  3. Re:Cyber Stalking - Really an issue? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    then... err. do your job? care for your kids?

  4. Re:It seems by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I used to bot three toons at once. A couple made it to 80, and a dozen or so to 60. Mmoglider getting shut down is why I quit the game.

    Good riddance.

  5. Re:Cyber Stalking - Really an issue? by thesandtiger · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As someone who has seen a number of nasty divorces go down, let me explain something to you:

    Has 1 drink with dinner => massive alcoholic in divorce speak
    Spanked a child for running into the street => beats the children
    Hugs a child => probably molesting the children
    Has had lunch with co-worker of the opposite sex => has had a torrid affair
    Has had lunch with co-worker of the same sex => almost certainly having a homosexual affair

    So...

    Spent 3 hours over a weekend late at night raiding => neglects children, wasn't ever there for us, probably having an affair with someone online

    I agree, people probably shouldn't be playing or logging in from work unless their workplace allows it during breaks, but the point is that anyone who has an agenda and an axe to grind and would use this tool to support it will certainly also be more than happy to spin things in the worst possible way. Divorce lawyers are fucking NASTY creatures, and people going through a hostile divorce can be psychotic.

    --
    Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.