Blizzard placed a keylogger on my computer?

#0 - June 16, 2010, 2:15 a.m.

So this morning when I logged onto my client (after the maintenance, around 2:08pm EST), I noticed that it was downloading a file of some sort. It said "Updating" in the middle of my screen. I got excited, thinking maybe I had missed the announcement that 3.3.5 was *finally* coming out--I mean, it's taking long enough.

I got into the game, and was prompted to restart my client. I did so willingly, and was a bit taken aback when I noticed no changes. I politely asked trade what was up, since most people are up-to-date, and willing to inform. (Trade channel is nice on my realm. Not retarded. Wow!) They told me that Blizzard has now placed a keylogger on my machine to police it, stopping me from playing any "Private servers, or visiting gold-selling websites". My jaw hit the floor.

First of all--I don't do *either* one of those. Private servers are stupid. I pay for my retail because I want to play on real realms, not private ones. I'm a law abiding citizen. I don't buy gold; I work for it. I'm usually always broke. (51g at a time, hell yeah!)

Second--I was reading the terms of service one more time, and I found this paragraph.

"B. WHEN THE GAME IS RUNNING, BLIZZARD MAY OBTAIN CERTAIN IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR COMPUTER AND ITS OPERATING SYSTEM, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION YOUR HARD DRIVES, CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT, IP ADDRESS(ES) AND OPERATING SYSTEM(S), FOR PURPOSES OF IMPROVING THE GAME AND/OR THE SERVICE, AND TO POLICE AND ENFORCE THE PROVISIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT AND THE EULA."

My only question about this is, really, why does Blizz now use a keylogger if they're so against those hackers and gold-farmers using one themselves? Wouldn't that be hypocrisy in the highest form? It's not that I'm concerned about it mining my PC for information, but rather that Blizz has a history of making "bugged" things. I'd hate for there to be an error in this supposed logger, and it destroy and corrupt my computer.

Does anyone have any intel on what the update was today? A blue response would be nice.

#12 - June 16, 2010, 2:43 a.m.

Q u o t e:
Thanks. That's all I was concerned about.

Glad to hear it.

The players in question might have been referring to some of the security measures we have in place to prevent exploitation, but those have been in place for a very long time, and have nothing whatsoever to do with your browsing habits.

In fact, account security is ultimately the player's responsibility, and with that in mind, this could be a great time to read up on steps you can take to further secure your account:

Account Hacked? Security Issue? Look Here!
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=24702231244&sid=1

As a final note: It's never wise to believe everything you read on the internet. Thank you for taking the time to fact check.