Is Blizzard Secretly Watermarking World of Warcraft Users?

[exfileme]

One World of Warcraft gamer has discovered that his screenshots secretly contain user info like the current server IP address, and the time the shot was taken.

Is Blizzard Secretly Watermarking World of Warcraft Users? : Read more

 

[jhansonxi]

Don't worry - the tracking info will be eliminated now that the practice has been made public. They'll replace it with steganography so you won't be so distracted by it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography#Digital

 

[Benthon]

Let the paper shredding begin.

 

[thecolorblue]

just another way we are tracked... AWESOME!!
the zero privacy dystopian future is right around the corner.

...actually it's here already but the 100% loss of privacy that is the wet-dream of the dissent-suppressing corporate controlled govt will take another couple of years to really solidify.

 

[thecolorblue]

[citation][nom]jhansonxi[/nom]Don't worry - the tracking info will be eliminated now that the practice has been made public. They'll replace it with steganography so you won't be so distracted by it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography#Digital[/citation]

wow... very cool, ty for the link

 

[ToKiiNz]

did you people just relize this?

 

[Kami3k]

[citation][nom]thecolorblue[/nom]just another way we are tracked... AWESOME!!the zero privacy dystopian future is right around the corner....actually it's here already but the 100% loss of privacy that is the wet-dream of the dissent-suppressing corporate controlled govt will take another couple of years to really solidify.[/citation]

FYI, it's a private business so they can do whatever they want.

That and even the Constitution doesn't have privacy as a right. Clues, get them.

 

[christarp]

I don't see a problem with this, it's just information about their game.

 

[blazorthon]

If you take a screen shot, apply something like a minor Photoshop or GIMP filter to it and it could irreparably damage watermark data such as this, right?

 

[A Bad Day]

[citation][nom]jhansonxi[/nom]Don't worry - the tracking info will be eliminated now that the practice has been made public. They'll replace it with steganography so you won't be so distracted by it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography#Digital[/citation]

The question is, how long would it take for them to switch?

 

[ex_bubblehead]

The question is, how long would it take for them to switch?

It's possible that they already have and that what's been found was purposly left behind as a red herring.

 

[spasmolytic46]

[citation][nom]A Bad Day[/nom]The question is, how long would it take for them to switch?[/citation]
And what about the last 4+ years of pics already published?

 

[BIL_ASC]

Wow, so we've have been tracked all the time ?
Lucky me, I don't do any strange thing

 

[southernshark]

Wow.... people still play WoW.

Who knew?

 

[A Bad Day]

[citation][nom]ex_bubblehead[/nom]It's possible that they already have and that what's been found was purposly left behind as a red herring.[/citation]

It's also possible that Blizzard doesn't see it as a major problem for the users, until hacking reports ramp up, and they finally see the connection.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]BIL_ASC[/nom]Wow, so we've have been tracked all the time ?Lucky me, I don't do any strange thing[/citation]

It looks like it's not tracking anything per say; the screen has watermarks that have data about your current log in session. It might be cause increased hacking, but tracking beyond tracking screen shots that Blizz sees doesn't seem to be going on through this. Of course, they're still snagging a huge amount of data about our systems that I don't like.

 

[face-plants]

Perfect reason why we need a white hat / grey hat hacking community. Who else would have made this info public?

 

[jhansonxi]

[citation][nom]face-plants[/nom]Perfect reason why we need a white hat / grey hat hacking community. Who else would have made this info public?[/citation]
Metadata in graphic files is relatively common. Many graphics editors can show and edit them. Digital cameras add the date and time of a photo to JPEGs and most photo management tools sort them by date automatically.

Somebody with a concern about privacy was probaby the first to notice AND complain about it.

 

[digiex]

Well, it's not a "secret" anymore.

 

[PreferLinux]

[citation][nom]jhansonxi[/nom]Metadata in graphic files is relatively common. Many graphics editors can show and edit them. Digital cameras add the date and time of a photo to JPEGs and most photo management tools sort them by date automatically.Somebody with a concern about privacy was probaby the first to notice AND complain about it.[/citation]
It is not metadata, it is a watermark on the image itself. The chances of any graphics editor being able to read it is extremely small as it will be a proprietary method.

 

[djscribbles]

No, those are urine stains... (now to read the article)

 

[rebel1280]

[citation][nom]jhansonxi[/nom]Don't worry - the tracking info will be eliminated now that the practice has been made public. They'll replace it with steganography so you won't be so distracted by it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography#Digital[/citation]
hey man thanks for posting this, was a real fun and interesting read

 

[Old_Fogie_Late_Bloomer]

If it's a watermark in the picture data itself, it already is steganography...they just didn't do a good enough job of it.

 

[jhansonxi]

[citation][nom]PreferLinux[/nom]It is not metadata, it is a watermark on the image itself. The chances of any graphics editor being able to read it is extremely small as it will be a proprietary method.[/citation]
You're correct, I misunderstood what they were doing. But stego can be performed on metadata using whitespace encoding. Would be worth investigating to see if they're doing that also.

 

[azraa]

Not a huge deal.
Blizzards efforts to avoid private (pirate) servers from rising have been good.
Many play on WOTLK private servers: I do, as well as on the original

But trying to play Cata on a private server is a mess, and a waste of time
Merely sandboxes. As far as I know, encripted data relating the client to the server make impossible to create/write a server version. This has a particular encription name, I cant recall it now.

But this? This kind of watermark crap is just abusive.