Blizzard Entertainment, a division of Activision and maker of the popular video games “World of Warcraft,” “StarCraft” and “Diablo,” has been hit with a class action lawsuit claiming the company coercers gamers into paying for an online security tool that doesn’t provide “even minimal protection.”
The Blizzard class action lawsuit, titled Benjamin Bell v. Blizzard Entertainment, accuses the video game developer of demanding money ($6.50) for a security tool the plaintiffs contend should not only be free, but doesn’t even work. The class action lawsuit follows a series of security breaches, including one in May when Blizzard recognized an increase in account thefts, and a data hack in August, which leaked players’ email addresses and personal security questions.
At issue in the Blizzard class action lawsuit is the use of Authenticators to access its Battle.net servers, which support multiplayer gameplay for all of the company’s major PC games. The Authenticator service is designed to be a security measure to prevent potential hacks into player accounts by randomly generating a new password every time the player signs into Battle.net.
Plaintiffs in the Blizzard class action lawsuit estimate the company has earned roughly $26 million from these Authenticators, which don’t provide “even minimal protection for their sensitive personal, private, and financial data.”
Furthermore, the plaintiffs contend, these added security measures should be provided free to all users, especially in light of the heightened threat users’ accounts face.
According to the class action lawsuit, Blizzard failed to disclose to consumers the danger their accounts faced and “that additional products must be acquired after buying the games in order to ensure the security of information stored in online accounts that are requisites for playing.”
“This deceptive upselling, coupled with Blizzard’s negligence in maintaining proper security protocols, compromised millions of customers’ email addresses, passwords, answers to personal security questions, and other items of sensitive information.”
The class action lawsuit continues that Blizzard’s website “has suffered multiple instances of theft of the private information of its customers and [Blizzard has] added extra, hidden, post-sale costs onto their products, namely in the form of auxiliary security devices that customers must purchase to ensure the sanctity of their private information when using defendants’ products.”
Blizzard vigorously denies the allegations, saying in a statement that the class action lawsuit is “without merit and filled with patently false information.”
The company defended its actions following the August hack and called the allegations against the Authenticator untrue and based on a misunderstanding of its purpose.
“The suit’s claim that we didn’t properly notify players regarding the August 2012 security breach is not true. Not only did Blizzard act quickly to provide information to the public about the situation, we explained the actions we were taking and let players know how the incident affected them, including the fact that no names, credit card numbers, or other sensitive financial information was disclosed,” the company said.
The company added that Authenticator is “an optional tool that players can use to further protect their Battle.net accounts in the event that their login credentials are compromised outside of Blizzard’s network infrastructure…. Considering that players are ultimately responsible for securing their own computers, and that the extra step required by the Authenticator is an added inconvenience during the log in process, we ultimately leave it up to the players to decide whether they want to add an Authenticator to their account.”
Plaintiffs in the Blizzard class action lawsuit are seeking damages for users as well as removal of the rule that users must create a Battle.net account (which requires inputting personal and financial data) for non-MMO games in order to prevent Blizzard “from tacking on additional, undisclosed costs to ensure security in the form of a post-point-of-sale Authenticator.”
The Blizzard Class Action Lawsuit case is Bell, et al. v. Blizzard Entertainment, Inc., et al., Case No. 12-cv-9475, California Central District Court.
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9 thoughts onBlizzard Entertainment Class Action Lawsuit
I have been playing wow for years and they banned me. Why? I said bad words to player NO JOKE. Karma catches up to them. If they don’t loose their players by bad expansions, They ban them.
I have been playing wow for years and they banned me. Why? I said bad words to player NO JOKE. Karma catches up to them. If they don’t loose their players by bad expansions, They ban them.
I have been playing wow for years and they banned me. Why? I said bad words to player NO JOKE. Karma catches up to them. If they don’t loose their players by bad expansions, They ban them.
I have been playing wow for years and they banned me. Why? I said bad words to player NO JOKE. Karma catches up to them. If they don’t loose their players by bad expansions, They ban them.
I to have been playing since 2005 and have NEVER been hacked in any way, shape, or form. I have two accounts one with an authenticator and one without, neither of them have been hacked. The authenticator was less then $10 a one time purchase with no monthly reoccuring fee. If you have been hacked multiple time I think a person needs to look at their computer use, maybe a little less porn, little less gold buying or selling. Take responsibility for your own computer usage!
In addition, “an optional tool that players can use to further protect their Battle.net accounts in the event that their login credentials are compromised outside of Blizzard’s network infrastructure…. Considering that players are ultimately responsible for securing their own computers, and that the extra step required by the Authenticator is an added inconvenience during the log in process, we ultimately leave it up to the players to decide whether they want to add an Authenticator to their account” does nothing for the player base when it is Blizzard’s servers that hold our personal and billing information that are being hacked — not our home computers … I’ve had multiple unauthorized transactions from my debit card being used to move my characters from server to server in what I’m assuming is gold farmers who are pooling gold on a single server to sell to a prospective client (which is against their TOS-EULA), but it is my dime that is paying for that. Authenticators help nothing in the way of security – ask Blizzard about how their cell phone based authenticator algorhythms were manipulated and even people WITH the authenticators were getting locked out after hackers got in and changed their passwords on them using those authenticators.
idiot!.
I’ve been playing WoW since 2005, with and without an authenticator and have been hacked multiple times regardless of whether I had the authenticator or not. The first time I was hacked, Blizzard did a restore of my in-game characters and advised me to download their digital (cell phone) authenticator … so I did … and then months down the line, I find out that personal information had been hacked. I am wondering how to be included in this class action suit or is it too late? I’ve had it up to here with customer service and I’m happy to see that someone is finally doing something in an effort to put Blizzard on the pyre for all the shortcuts they’ve been taking over the years to take more money from their player base.
blizzard lost ….stupid think why….players lawsuit is pending. a players is forced to wait for server shut downs when players pay for a full month of play in which most abilities wont work therefore affecting paid gameplay. blizzard will loose once again. its a fact. why because they will be responsible for reporting individual game play and if they are not able to, blizzard will be in deep water since is a paid game. blizzard should be insuring players a guaranteed , their abilities and resources will work against an enemy player or npc, when ever the player chooses to use them. Therefore resulting in players being cheating on online paid game, where all functions of the game should work properly! frustation and stress could result from abilities not working properly when they should be, when a paid game play should be guaranteed.