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Activision Blizzard Secretly Watermarking World of Warcraft Users
New submitter kgkoutzis writes "A few days ago I noticed some weird artifacts covering the screenshots I captured using the WoW game client application. I sharpened the images and found a repeating pattern secretly embedded inside. I posted this information on the OwnedCore forum and after an amazing three-day cooperation marathon, we managed to prove that all our WoW screenshots, since at least 2008, contain a custom watermark. This watermark includes our user IDs, the time the screenshot was captured and the IP address of the server we were on at the time. It can be used to track down activities which are against Blizzard's Terms of Service, like hacking the game or running a private server. The users were never notified by the ToS that this watermarking was going on so, for four years now, we have all been publicly sharing our account and realm information for hackers to decode and exploit. You can find more information on how to access the watermark in the aforementioned forum post which is still quite active."
I know surfing the web using Internet Explorer can be a bit of an adventure, but even so, I think that's probably the first time I've seen it referred to as a "game".
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
Blizzard actually poisons the kernel entropy pool so cleverly that 'random' behaviors by the computer end up leaking identifiable information. Very sneaky of them...
Why? What did it say?
rewriting history since 2109
Hell, sometimes I don't even read the comments before replying.
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
What? No, dude, that's not how Internet debates are supposed to work! Dig in your heels, accuse the GP of backpedaling, and burn that strawman to the motherfucking ground!