A New Gaming FeatureSpyware October 20, 2005 http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004076.php
Rejoice gaming fans, for the latest new ³feature² of Blizzard Entertainment¹s smash hit multi-player online videogame World of Warcraft is here! No, it¹s not a new Sword of Destruction or Staff of Powerit¹s spyware! Yes, unbeknownst to many gamers, World of Warcraft now has an unwanted special featurea hidden program called ³Warden² that snoops gamers¹ computers looking for any "unauthorized third-party program" that ³enables or facilitates cheating of any type.² According to Greg Hoglund, co-author of "Exploiting Software, How to Break Code," this hidden program opens every process on a gamer¹s computer, from email programs to privacy managers, and sniffs email addresses, website URLs open at the time of the scan, and the names of all running programswhether or not those programs, emails, or websites could conceivably have anything to do with hacking. Blizzard calls this an ³anti-cheating system.² We call it a massive invasion of privacy. Blizzard has scrambled to come up with three responses to the widespread criticism: Response 1: Warden doesn¹t collect personal information, so what¹s the problem? Well, problem one is that gamers have no choice but to accept Blizzard¹s word on that. More importantly, if Hoglund is right, Blizzard has a pretty skewed idea of privacywe can look at your personal info, but if we don¹t collect it there¹s no invasion? Hardly. We also wonder how Blizzard¹s executives would feel if we searched their homes, wallets, and bank accounts and read their letters and emails but didn¹t write down anything we found. Response 2: Everyone¹s doing it. Blizzard points out that many companies use hack-scanning programs. We all learned the problem with that reasoning from Mom (³If all of your friends jumped off a bridge²). Response 3: Read the EULA. Blizzard advises gamers of its intent to invade in its terms of service. ³People should read contracts,² says Blizzard rep John Lagrave. True enoughpeople should read contracts. But here¹s the really depressing part of this storycompanies like Blizzard know few people read the terms of service and end-user license agreements that pop-up when they install new software or create new accounts, and fewer still have the time, patience, and knowledge to parse the legalese. Without some constraints on what a company can hide within these massive legal tomes, more and more companies will learn that they can invade our electronic privacy for any reason they wishas long as they disclose it somewhere in the fine print. The cost of such a practice over time is not only access to our personal and private information but also control over our personal computers and devices. Then we really will be prisoners to the Wardens of the networked world. You are a subscribed member of the infowarrior list. Visit www.infowarrior.org for list information or to unsubscribe. This message may be redistributed freely in its entirety. Any and all copyrights appearing in list messages are maintained by their respective owners.
