Blizzard Facing Lawsuit Over Forceful Authenticator Purchases

[exfileme]

A class action lawsuit claims that Blizzard is making millions from customers because it's not properly securing sensitive personal information.

Blizzard Facing Lawsuit Over Forceful Authenticator Purchases : Read more

 

[crisan_tiberiu]

They could have bundeled the authenticator with the game... not that hard ?!

 

[ben850]

If you have a smart phone it's free.. this hardly sounds like AV/Blizz is trying to trick anyone.

 

[bllue]

It truly is pathetic. A customer should not be expected to pay extra to attempt to fix a company's utter FAILURE of safeguarding serious information. Buying or using an authenticator doesn't even protect you from being hacked (as was the case in the early Diablo 3). It is nothing but greed coming from Activi$ionBli$$ard

 

[therabiddeer]

1) It is free to use if you have a smart phone
2) Blizzard loses money on each sale because they sell it AT COST and ship for free
3) Blizzard uses Vasco Digipass units, which at retail cost €12.99 (Blizzard most likely gets a big discount for their bulk purchases)
http://shop.vasco.com/

 

[Guest]

Blizzard doesn't make money selling authenticators your paying the shipping and handling fee, and if your so broke to not be able to get one to up your own security, while your paying 60+ dollars for games on a single account non the less a 15 a month for the game, the decision is yours, they offer other alternatives free of charge, Mobile authentication, and even Dial in authentication that costs you no money at all.
So bllue think before you accuse blindly.

 

[therabiddeer]

Oh good, the anti-blizzard train has already rolled out to downvote people.

 

[Christopher1]

[citation][nom]bllue[/nom]It truly is pathetic. A customer should not be expected to pay extra to attempt to fix a company's utter FAILURE of safeguarding serious information. Buying or using an authenticator doesn't even protect you from being hacked (as was the case in the early Diablo 3). It is nothing but greed coming from Activi$ionBli$$ard[/citation]

Right in one. A customer should NOT be required to spend more money to beef up security that should have already been there in the damned first place.
I foresee Blizzard settling this case REAL quickly.

 

[boyabunda]

[citation][nom]therabiddeer[/nom]1) It is free to use if you have a smart phone2) Blizzard loses money on each sale because they sell it AT COST and ship for free3) Blizzard uses Vasco Digipass units, which at retail cost €12.99 (Blizzard most likely gets a big discount for their bulk purchases)http://shop.vasco.com/[/citation]

You really believe Activision Blizzard loses money on each sale of authenticators? LOL

 

[Guest]

In actuality it does indeed protect you from nearly any possible outside attempt to log in to your account. they have to actually guess the number right within a small number of tries before the account needs to then be unlocked by customer service. the chance of guessing correctly before the account is locked is so small that they waste more money on the power required to run the computer than they could ever hope to gain by breaching an account eventually.

And secondly... if they bundled them with the game... then everyone is paying for them... even people that don't need them. Since they can get a free one on any device they might have that supports it... so why pay for one you won't use.

 

[casualcolors]

I was wondering how long it would take for this practice to be examined.

 

[Gundam288]

[citation][nom]ben850[/nom]If you have a smart phone it's free.. this hardly sounds like AV/Blizz is trying to trick anyone.[/citation]
And in the US they charge out the wazoo for data for smartphones. That is the reason I don't have one.

The app maybe free, but the data isn't free from your carrier.

[citation][nom]therabiddeer[/nom]1) It is free to use if you have a smart phone2) Blizzard loses money on each sale because they sell it AT COST and ship for free3) Blizzard uses Vasco Digipass units, which at retail cost €12.99 (Blizzard most likely gets a big discount for their bulk purchases)http://shop.vasco.com/[/citation]

I can confirm that Blizzard does use the Digipass GO 6 for their authenticators and so does EA/Bioware for SW:ToR. I have one of each since I used to play both games and they are currently just chilling on my desk collecting dust.

Both say on the back "Digipass ® GO 6" "Made in China" with a different serial number and their own different bar codes as well.

 

[therabiddeer]

[citation][nom]boyabunda[/nom]You really believe Activision Blizzard loses money on each sale of authenticators? LOL[/citation]
Considering it costs them money to deal with the huge number of accounts that are stolen on a daily basis, yes. They probably end up breaking even or come out ahead in the end due to being able to use fewer GM's to handle account restoration.

 

[Guest]

Blizzard's games have certainly gone downhill since 2009 but their customer service has pretty much remained solid. Almost every single instance of someone being "hacked" is a result of some idiot doing the wrong thing. Back in 2004-7, it was people clicking on keyloggers (a website with a virus that is downloaded to the user's computer to relay account info), and now since the authenticator was released in 2008 to prevent keylogging, it's people clicking on fake password reset emails and such and willingly giving away their information. Blizzard supplied the authenticator because it thought that it would reduce the headaches caused by people whining about how they got "hacked," not to intentionally cripple their own account security in order to make a couple bucks on the side, especially since WoW by itself is a multi billion dollar franchise and selling off customer loyalty for a measly 26 million, which would be over 4 years if this figure is from the introduction of authenticators onward, isn't very lucrative when factoring in the loss of customers.

 

[wildkitten]

[citation][nom]ben850[/nom]If you have a smart phone it's free.. this hardly sounds like AV/Blizz is trying to trick anyone.[/citation]
Except the hack in May, many accounts that had smartphone authenticators experienced hacks which at first Blizzard denied than later admitted was true. A software based authenticator is hackable, a dongle one can only be hacked through a Man in the Middle attack which has to do with a keylogger intercepting the input of the code and someone immediately trying to use it once they receive the logged in hopes that the code is still valid. Blizzard was very slow in responding to this and even mislead people to the size of the breach.

[citation][nom]therabiddeer[/nom]1) It is free to use if you have a smart phone2) Blizzard loses money on each sale because they sell it AT COST and ship for free3) Blizzard uses Vasco Digipass units, which at retail cost €12.99 (Blizzard most likely gets a big discount for their bulk purchases)http://shop.vasco.com/[/citation]
If Blizzard loses money on the physical dongle, how can they report a PROFIT of $26million? You do realize reporting a profit means they MADE money, not lost money.

 

[therabiddeer]

[citation][nom]wildkitten[/nom]If Blizzard loses money on the physical dongle, how can they report a PROFIT of $26million? You do realize reporting a profit means they MADE money, not lost money.[/citation]
Easy, THEY HAVENT. The $26 million figure comes from the fact that 40% of users have one. Given the fact that there are roughly 10 million WoW players that is how you arrive at the $26 million figure. 4 million x 6.50 = 26 mil
http://www.geekosystem.com/blizzard-26-million-security-authenticators/
Unless they figured out a way to buy the devices for free from vasco (which as I stated, charges €12.99 for one) and ship them for free... they did not make $26 mil. Hell, even with a staggering $2 profit on each sale, they would have to sell 13 million of them (or every WoW player and a VAST majority of D3 players). Which is not likely given the fact that we are told only 40% of WoW players have them!

 

[abraham_mammogram]

[citation][nom]therabiddeer[/nom] 2) Blizzard loses money on each sale because they sell it AT COST and ship for free 3) Blizzard uses Vasco Digipass units, which at retail cost €12.99 (Blizzard most likely gets a big discount for their bulk purchases)http://shop.vasco.com/[/citation]

To play devil's advocate, can you really say that blizzard is paying at cost, when the only information you have to go off is the shelf price of the unit in question? Just because bacon is 3$ a pound a the store, does not mean that McDonalds pays that much to place it on it's burger, and then sell it to you.

 

[therabiddeer]

[citation][nom]abraham_mammogram[/nom]To play devil's advocate, can you really say that blizzard is paying at cost, when the only information you have to go off is the shelf price of the unit in question? Just because bacon is 3$ a pound a the store, does not mean that McDonalds pays that much to place it on it's burger, and then sell it to you.[/citation]
I already addressed that with this statement: "Blizzard most likely gets a big discount for their bulk purchases" inside of that very quote

 

[manofchalk]

[citation][nom]Gundam288[/nom]And in the US they charge out the wazoo for data for smartphones. That is the reason I don't have one.The app maybe free, but the data isn't free from your carrier.[/citation]

Then we should sue every free-to-play game in existence because our internet connection isn't actually free, and therefore they are adding additional costs without our knowledge or consent.
You realize that's a ridiculous argument right?
It might be vaguely justifiable if Blizzard was an IP, but they aren't. You should be well aware that you downloading something will incur download costs, regardless if the data being downloaded cost anything initially.
And whats to stop you connecting to a WiFi (Which is free at any McDonald's) and downloading the app through that?

 

[Draconian]

I support this. Companies are not going to take the safeguarding of their customers information seriously until they get hit by lawsuits and it hurts them financially and creates bad publicity. Unfortunately, many judges are conservative, pro-business types, and would dismiss such a lawsuit (as what happened with the Sony hack lawsuit).

 

[JamesBondage]

Greed is driving this lawsuit.

 

[JamesBondage]

[citation][nom]Draconian[/nom]I support this. Companies are not going to take the safeguarding of their customers information seriously until they get hit by lawsuits and it hurts them financially and creates bad publicity. Unfortunately, many judges are conservative, pro-business types, and would dismiss such a lawsuit (as what happened with the Sony hack lawsuit).[/citation]

What country do you live in? This magic land of judges that think with their heads and help the economy sounds much better than what the US and its liberal wrecking ball of judges have done.

 

[mouse24]

Uh, last I knew it was a 6 dollar once in a lifetime purchase. I doubt they are make a lot of money selling everyone a 6 dollar key fob once. Its much more likely they are making butt tons more money by charging you every month 15 dollars.

I have played wow since TBC all the way through to cataclysm. I have NEVER had my account compromised. I have also NEVER had to change my password because of a blizzard related account hack.

Cmon guys its 6 dollars for every account you own. Whats more money grubbing a one time 6 dollar purchase or the price of the game + expacs + 15 bucks a month.

 

[Pherule]

[citation][nom]ben850[/nom]If you have a smart phone it's free.. this hardly sounds like AV/Blizz is trying to trick anyone.[/citation]
Don't have a smart phone. Don't want a smart phone. Don't need a smart phone.

I have a desktop PC and it meets my needs.

 

[Guest]

Ultimately even if Blizzard managed to make themselves unhackable, you would still want the authenticator as you with your PC, is a huge target still! Oh, and mouse24, you don't need on authenticator per account, if you link the accounts, one device, all accounts. This whole lawsuits is pretty stupid, espcially when you consider most people have a cell phone and they have the dial in authenticator, and the app, both of which are free, stop complaining about stupid things people!