#0 - July 9, 2010, 7:12 p.m.
Thank you... at this time... for rescinding the publication of our legal names to the general public. However, your willingness to do this has lost my trust. I trusted you so much, I agreed to your Terms of Use without a second thought. That's my fault. I didn't imagine Blizzard would do anything with my billing information other than use it for billing purposes. With other companies I watch those notices like a hawk. Blizzard I trusted. My bad. Your willingness to disclose my legal name-- given as part of that information-- to the general public opened my eyes in a hurry.
The Privacy Policy states that you will allow us to opt-out of third party information sharing. However, no such warning nor option was given when you associated my legal name with my character in-game by making it a RealID friend of itself. My legal name was then accessible to a default identifier, which many found out using perfectly innocent add-ons. I was not using an add-on, however, this too diminished my trust of you. Others who used RealID under the understanding that they were opting in only to have their information shared with the person they were trading information with suddenly found themselves viewable to friends of friends. They were given no option to opt in or out on this. This shattered my trust of any and all RealID features now and in the future.
The Privacy Policy states that you will give us the opportunity to control how our personal information is used, yet states you reserve the right to disclose it freely. It says we are allowed to opt-out of RealID, but at present the only way is to enable Parental controls, which does not even seem to work reliably.
If I have to handle this with the privacy address I will, but I think it would restore everybody's faith a little to have you actually address these concerns openly. So here is my question.
How do I permanently opt out of having my billing information used for anything but billing purposes?
Is the only method of permanently protecting my information to request it be purged from your accounts permanently?
I don't forgive you based on what little has been said, or that 'at this time' change of policy, sorry. If I can safely leave my billing information in your hands-- which does not go away when I cancel the accounts-- and know that it will not be divulged to third parties because I am not there to enable some control or opt out of something, then maybe I can give this some time to heal and see if I can trust you again. If I can't say 'no' to you sharing my information in a permanent and secure way, then I will have no choice but to move on permanently.
I'm not going to claim to speak for anyone else, I know I'm not the only one with this sentiment but it's up to each person to choose for themselves. I would just like to know once and for all, is my choice to wipe the accounts or remain at risk? Or can I say 'NO' and leave it on file so I don't have to sit here for days worrying about the next near miss?
Please let me, and everybody else who might have these concerns, know for certain. Not "at this time." If we're misreading the words "at this time", I'm very sorry, but given our recent experiences and the ways the community feels lied to, I'm sure you can understand. Please get someone to give us a definite commitment to our privacy if we want it, or let us know that's something we can't expect from you.
