File this one under “where do people find time for this shit:” One intrepid World of Warcraft player somehow figured out that every screenshot taken in the game is secretly watermarked with a few bits of secret user data. Every picture of dragons, wolves, castles, Murlocs has a secret bit of code that helps Blizzard figure out what you were up to when it was taken.

When you pull the encryption out of the image, you get this:

The image, when decoded, contains your account ID, the IP address of the server you’re playing on and a timestamp. Apparently the idea is this: Blizzard employees can scan screenshots to determine whether you’ve been playing on a private server or doing other anti-EULA-type things. For the most part, there doesn’t appear to be anything hackers or spammers could use to their advantage - account IDs are publically available on the Armory – but WoW players are pissed off all the same.

Of course, the main thing everyone seems to be upset about is Blizzard’s forgetting to mention to players that every screenshot they share or post contains personal data about their account. Oops! The EULA does note that Blizzard can obtain personal information about your gameplay habits, but doesn’t make mention of storing it in the screenshots you post to the world.

Watermarks have been found in screenshots as far back as 2008. Make of that what you will.

[TH]

Tweet

25% of voters think this story ROCKS!

Vote Now!    (1) (3)