myDDO violates Turbine privacy policy

[chton13]

You've said twice that you only consider those pieces of information to be covered by the privacy policy, and I wish to assure that I have read and understood your position, but do not agree.

Well I won't name names on the forum and while they may not be in this particular thread, you can certainly find alot of people apparently angry enough over this to quit playing solely because of this. As to unreasonable I point to the quote above, everyone is entitled to their opinion but that doesn't mean opinions can't be wrong, If your opinion is 2+2 = 5 or your opinion is that your character's stats or equipment are covered by the section you quote, your opinion is wrong. Doesn't mean you're not entitled to it, just means it doesn't operate on a factual basis. You'd be surprised how many people don't let facts interfere with their opinions.

[Healemup]

What if the information were available in-game? While I don't have first hand knowledge of this, I have heard that other MMOs have much of the information on builds, gear and whatnot available for examination by other players in-game. In fact, someone was even surprised when that information was not available. Would it feel less intrusive if they had done that from the outset? If the original release had shown not only your BIO, but your stats as well, would there have been an uproar?

Personally, I have lots of decent gear for most of my characters and am reasonably happy with their intial stats. I could really care less if someone want to research them. Of course, I always listen to other people's opinions on me and determine if I want to take their advice or not. I am not above learning that I can improve and am not offended when someone thinks differently than me on what is good.

Plus, I can die with any character...

[moorewr]

Why though?

WHy would a Character in a game that is in no way inked to your personal identity on a public scale be considered "Private"?

I disagree with the "in no way" part of the discussion because you play as that character in game.. Your forum alias and your in game alias are pseudonyms in the same way. Again, certainly both are most certainly Turbine's property, but this isn't about property rights.

[Impaqt]

I disagree with the "in no way" part of the discussion because you play as that character in game.. Your forum alias and your in game alias are pseudonyms in the same way. Again, certainly both are most certainly Turbine's property, but this isn't about property rights.

I'm just trying to understand your side as you said you understand mine.

What way do you see the information as Private? You have your character names in your Sig even. If you considered those names Private, why would they be in your signature?

[miceelf88]

LOTRO has an "inspect" function, which lets you look at folks' gear and such ingame. I don't think it's that controversial, over there.

[moorewr]

I'm just trying to understand your side as you said you understand mine.

What way do you see the information as Private? You have your character names in your Sig even. If you considered those names Private, why would they be in your signature?

Multi-part answer:

1) Again, this discussion is not about me at all. In my particular case I choose to share my character names, here and in myDDO - note the word "choose."
2) This voluntary act of sharing does not mean I surrender the privacy granted to me by Turbine's policy.
3) A player can opt to leave their characters names out of their signature, and to play the game anonymously, but they can not prevent significant details about their character from being displayed on myDDO. They have a reasonable expectation that they should be able to block that information, or more to the point, give permission before anything is shared.

[JayDubya]

In general, I think it's perfectly legal for Turbine to do this, and so, strictly following the title, I have to disagree with my good friend MooreWR

However, I do think that deciding to arbitrarily open up the information for everyone without opt-in (or even opt-out) is bad form. It's going to make people needlessly angry. Not me, I don't particularly care. But it is very clear that other people are quite upset.

Why is Turbine provoking such angst, when they don't need to?

[Impaqt]

In general, I think it's perfectly legal for Turbine to do this, and so, strictly following the title, I have to disagree with my good friend MooreWR

However, I do think that deciding to arbitrarily open up the information for everyone without opt-in (or even opt-out) is bad form. It's going to make people needlessly angry. Not me, I don't particularly care. But it is very clear that other people are quite upset.

Why is Turbine provoking such angst, when they don't need to?

I think there are a LOT more people that are very happy and excited to see this than there are paranoid folks that believ etheir character IS them....

[Phidius]

...Why is Turbine provoking such angst, when they don't need to?

I ask myself that many, many times a day... and it's never about the my.ddo.com


I think it's the same reason that Demmin Nass kills them afterwards...

[moorewr]

In general, I think it's perfectly legal for Turbine to do this, and so, strictly following the title, I have to disagree with my good friend MooreWR

However, I do think that deciding to arbitrarily open up the information for everyone without opt-in (or even opt-out) is bad form. It's going to make people needlessly angry. Not me, I don't particularly care. But it is very clear that other people are quite upset.

Why is Turbine provoking such angst, when they don't need to?

They have every legal right to dispose of their property, just as Credit Card companies have the right to disclose your buying habits to who ever they like if they choose to write their policy that way. Under American law, most consumer privacy rights have to do with purchases and demographic information, and revolve around disclosure to the customer of the policy in use.

This isn't about their rights under the law, but about Turbine's breach of their good faith undertaking in their privacy policy to not share user-specific data they collect.

To your second point - what purpose does it serve for them not to provide a true opt-out? Who wants to defend forcing people to live with the exposure, especially as a novelty in a 3 1/2 year old game?

[Quanefel]

In general, I think it's perfectly legal for Turbine to do this, and so, strictly following the title, I have to disagree with my good friend MooreWR

However, I do think that deciding to arbitrarily open up the information for everyone without opt-in (or even opt-out) is bad form. It's going to make people needlessly angry. Not me, I don't particularly care. But it is very clear that other people are quite upset.

Why is Turbine provoking such angst, when they don't need to?

It's Turbine.

[moorewr]

I think there are a LOT more people that are very happy and excited to see this than there are paranoid folks that believ etheir character IS them....

I this thread is NOT about Eriik. In fact it is not about any particular user, but about correct policy.