Customizing and opting out of Real ID
by Robin Torres 
Jul 8th 2010 at 9:00AM
To be clear, everyone who does not have a parentally controlled account has in fact opted into Real ID, due to a security flaw. Addons have access to the name on your account right now. So you need to be very careful about what addons you download -- make sure they are reputable. In order to actually opt out, you need to set up parental controls on your account. This is not an easy task. Previous to the Battle.net merge, you could just go to a page and set them up. Done. Now, you must set up an account as one that is under parental control. Once your account is that of a child's (a several-step process), your settings default to Real ID-disabled. Any Real ID friends you have will no longer be friends. In order to enable it, you need to check the Enable Real ID box.
Setting up parental controls:
- Go to the appropriate battle.net site for your region. (That link should take you there.)
- Push the Create or Manage a Battle.net Account button.
- Log in as normal.
- Click on Parental Controls, which is an option listed under Manage My Games. (And, if you're like me, you'll be sad that you are still not in the beta.)
- Choose the No - Setup Parental Controls button.
- Fill in your info as both the child's account and your own. (Why they make this distinction, I don't know. Parental controls always used to be an option for adults to manage their own game time.)
- You will receive an email. You need to save this email, because the link in there is the only way to get to the parental controls. Otherwise, you have to make Blizzard resend it. Click the link to get into the controls.
- Save Settings and then be told it will take up to 30 minutes to go into effect.
If you are using Real ID, there are a few things you should know:
- Check your Pending tab. It's under Social (!), Friends. Real ID friend requests will be listed there.
- Add Real ID friends by typing in their Battle.net email addresses. Choose Add Friend from the Friends tab of Social and type each address in there. Warning: if you have a player targeted, it will add that person as a friend when you press the Add button.
- The status line will broadcast to all of your Real ID friends. It looks like just a status that you might think people would only see when viewing you on their Friends List, and it is also that. But as soon as you change it, it sends a message to everyone on your list. So, make sure you really want all of them to know that you are scanning the AH before you set your status.
- Those excessive notifications can be turned off. I really wish I had known this when many of my friends were having crashing issues.
- Go to your options by pressing ESC or the computer icon.
- Choose Interface.
- Select Battle.net.
- Adjust your notifications as desired.
[Robin Torres] has logged on.
[Robin Torres] is streaming an event. You have been warned.
[Robin Torres] is harshing your RP buzz.
The cross-realm chat with people you trust is really a pleasant thing in a non-RP setting. It is also a fun way to keep in touch with absent friends and family who already know your phone number, IM and home address. Just make sure that you are OK with your full, real name being shown to their Real ID friends. As with anything online, if you are aware of the risks and take the proper precautions, it can be a fun feature.
When the Facebook integration goes through, perhaps we will get some of the same privacy features, such as turning off Friends of Friends and being able to be invisible. And unicorn mounts. We could get unicorn mounts for merging our Battle.net and Facebook accounts. They would breathe rainbows and be able to teleport.
/skips away, humming a happy tune
Filed under: News items, Account Security, Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 10)
Wynddom Jul 8th 2010 9:07AM
Well, I guess I'll just nip off and pretend to be a minor, since those are the only folks who get any protection from absolute identity theft nowadays. GG Blizz.
Pat Jul 8th 2010 9:18AM
I always wanted to be 15 again. -.-
Netherscourge Jul 8th 2010 9:55AM
So if you tag your account with a parental control, you simply can not post on the forums at all. Nor can you have a BNET friends list.
It's the same thing as simply choosing NOT to post on the forums and choosing NOT to use the firends list.
This makes no difference to the larger issue about Privacy. Blizzard is BLOCKING a major aspect of the game we pay for if we choose to remain anonymous.
Blizzard is forcing us to give up our privacy in order to use game features we're paying for.
Lohkie Jul 8th 2010 10:08AM
@ Netherscourge
one major difference between this and opting to not use the forums/realID feature in game is that this has to be done if you really want to keep your info private. as they said in this post and i believe another is that there are issues w/ addons that actually just give out your info even if you don't post on the forums or decided to not use realID. all in all this whole thing seem pretty fail on blizz's part.
Netherscourge Jul 8th 2010 10:33AM
The add-on stuff is frightening.
You know these add-on developers need donations to stay motivated/profit to keep developing their UI mods.
Well, what better way to make money off an add-on then by collecting people's real names and then SELLING peoples' real names, which are linked to their character's names, which might be linked to their Facebook accounts, which might not be set properly to prevent anyone from seeing their e-mails and even their addresses and phone numbers and photos and other personal information.
This is a huge potential Pandora's box here. Not everyone is web-saavy to put up security blocks on all these things. Some Blizzard fans are goign to get scammed and spammed as a result of this RealID garbage.
And the high-quality fans who provide good feeback for Blizzard developers will go to Unofficial Fansite Forums, where it's not likely Blizzard will follow to gather information.
It's a lose-lose situaiton. I hope Blizzard admits this was a huge mistake and a bad idea and scraps the whole thing.
BTW - if they link RealID to the WOW ARMORY site, for the whole world to browse free of charge, I'm done with ALL Blizzard games. (Becasue all Blizzard games use BNET, which is RealID linked)
Elmouth Jul 8th 2010 11:17AM
Thats only in-game tho, god forbid you could do that with the forced realID of the forums.
bjoker1 Jul 8th 2010 12:30PM
But as time has shown us with Developers and their popular games (Modern Warfare 2 DLC prices, Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott), people will complain and whine about something and boycott the hell out of it, but when it comes down to it they will still pay for it (or in this case) use and accept the feature.
David Jul 8th 2010 12:56PM
GG Blizz indeed. First it was the removal of the one feature I was excited about in Cataclysm (Path of the Titans) I resigned myself to playing to the cap and then putting the game away again. Now this entire Real ID comes in and quite honestly I don't need it. I don't have a Facebook/MySpace/Twitter because of privacy concerns, so why would I opt in to this?
I don't expect corporations to give a damn about me, but I always have a choice to use their services or not. In this case I've cancelled my account and will not be coming back. I've had a wonderful time playing WoW, but it's obviously time to move on.
Blacksheep Jul 8th 2010 12:57PM
I'm a little concerned about how far this will all go also, real ID forced on us on the forums now, what if it also ends up on WOW Armory or becomes more invasive? The Add ons getting your real name is just as bad as facebook letting the add ons have full run of all your data without telling you.
It's all a little scary, I like sharing some information with some people, I don't want it just tossed out there by default to everyone. Again, we have the reverse problem, we should need to opt in, not have to opt out.
I'm not considering canceling my WoW account right now or anything, none of this has been implemented yet and it could change or not be as bad as we imagined it. But if they start pulling a facebook, I might just have to say goodbye to WoW as I'm not hardcore anyway (only play 2-3 nights per week). It's just so unfortunate that everyone is doing this now. I had to opt out of sharing all kinds of data that has been in my Yahoo account since the 90s the other day, had to do it on facebook a hundred times, now here?
Hoggersbud Jul 8th 2010 1:27PM
Time has also shown many things being rejected, and the folks doing the rejection causing a change to something more palatable.
This ain't just game content, or extra prices, this is people's real lives.
tulipblossom Jul 8th 2010 7:10PM
I'm beginning to think I may do the exact same thing, Wynddom. It's really frustrating to me that I need to go to all this trouble just to protect myself. In many cases online, it's the other way around; you have to go out of your way to expose yourself and your true identity, because there are so many safeguards put into place, to keep your personal information private and protected. Why is this company that so many of us have known and loved suddenly careless with their customers privacy?
I chose not to use RealID in the game, to add friends and whatnot. The friends I know irl have plenty of ways to get in touch with me. They can call me; IM me over aim; e-mail me; talk to me in-game, using the old in-game chat that works just fine; or they can simply visit me at home. They know my real name, they have no need to be reminded of it, every time they look at their friends list. They also have no need to be given my login e-mail. It's not that I don't trust any of them with this information, but they simply have no -reason- to know such a private detail, currently. I mean, I trust each and every one of them with my life, however none of them know my social security number, bank information, or even the secret handshake I had with Little Bobby Blue when I was ten. There is no -reason- for them to currently have knowledge of such private details.
Also, while I may trust my best friend Curly Sue, who naturally knows my real name, I don't know or trust every single one of her friends. That being said, I certainly don't feel they have any reason to know my full name, either. I mean, think about it this way -- Pretend you walked into a room full of people, you know one of them, but not the other forty. You look at the front of the room, where they're all staring and you realize that your name is sprawled across a large chalkboard. Perplexed and a bit uncomfortable, you ask the one friend you have in the room why your name is on the board and they say "oh, because you're my friend." Do you feel anymore comfortable knowing that your name is on that board? I mean, the other 40 people in the room are still looking at it, too. Don't you have an urge to erase it? I know I would. It's my name. I should get to choose who I share it with. But, friends of friends takes that away from me.
I still don't quite understand the addon thing, though. This just makes the whole situation even more frustrating. So, I may have to do the parental controls thing, which I would really rather not go to all that trouble. So, are there any particular addons that cause this breach or is it all? Does anyone have a list? And, how does the script work? Is that just something one has to do to themselves or can others run it and see your name if you're in the vicinity? All of this is just so unnecessary. Why couldn't we have simply had aliases?
And, then of course, there's the new forum system that may be implemented in the future. So, now, if I want to keep my personal life (my name) private, I forfeit my right to post on the official game forums, which as far as I know, I pay for. I mean, I must pay for them, right? If I didn't, I'd be able to post without a subscription. So, even though I pay for the right to post, I'm forfeiting that right because I value my privacy.
What is going on? Seriously, what is going on? I thought I was playing a game, a game based in fantasy. Why on earth is my real life getting dragged into this in any way, shape, or form? I'm not a troll, I have nothing to hide. However, my real name, my privacy, is something I value greatly. If it wasn't, then when I went to the grocery store and shopped for veggies, I'd wear one of those sticker name tags on my shirt, with my full first and last name printed across it. I'd greet every single person I interacted with, with "Hi! I'm Jane Doe." I don't do this for many reasons, the least of which is, it's entirely unnecessary.
The worst part, though? What if, god forbid, someone gets hacked? Now, the hacker has even more ammunition and ways to hurt their victim. They can go onto the forums and post something horrible, revealing their true name, ruining their reputation, and doing irreparable damage. So, if these are the risks, how do they not outweigh everything else? It doesn't matter that there are ways for a player to protect themselves against hacking, it doesn't matter that it's not legally Blizzard's fault if a player gets hacked; it's their job to protect the privacy of their customers. And I, for one, do not feel protected right now.
I've said this in other posts, but every thought I have just continues to lead to one conclusion: they are hoping that this will prevent players from posting on the official forums. They must hope that the forums will become ghost towns, in which, they can express future plans without dissent or opposing opinion. That doesn't change that they're putting us at risk, due to future hacking. I'm just so disheartened, to say the least. Honestly, I haven't even felt the desire to log in the last couple of days. I'm just not even sure that I want to play Cataclysm anymore. I'm going to wait it out a bit and see if anything changes, but I'm just feeling so let down and even a bit heartbroken by this company that I've been in love with for years.
TR Jul 8th 2010 10:00PM
@Netherscourge
What's worrying me the most about all of this is if someone or someones like Anonymous (the Internet activist group not a guild name) sees this as a challenge. Not that Anonymous necessarily does this, but there's always a few people out there who see things like this as a knight templar crusade. While it might help prove a point that Blizzard isn't being careful enough, it may have an unintended (and unwanted) effect and still hurt a lot of innocent people in the process.
Inconvenient as it may be, it should be more time consuming to open up oneself to Real ID networking then to opt-out of it considering where Blizzard is planning on taking it.
lemonastronaut Jul 24th 2010 10:07AM
I'm curious why almost none of the comments are talking about the benefits of RealID? Since it's been introduced it's helped me to keep in touch with people I know in real life, in game, so much. Some characters I didn't even know my brother and friends have I can see and talk to now. Just because I have their IM, their number, and their email already doesn't mean I want to switch to email just to talk to them. I switched over from horde to join alliance and play with my brother, but now I have the ability to play on a different server, playing characters I haven't been on in a long time, and still stay connected to anyone I have a meaningful relationship in game with, wherever I am. I honestly don't really care if anyone gets my email and name. I get spam anyway, and I doubt anyone is going to crack my wow password. So why such a harsh reaction?
Sakirsha Jul 8th 2010 9:11AM
Thanks for gathering and presenting this information, Robin. Very much appreciated.
pwherman Jul 9th 2010 3:56AM
Yes, thank you for the step-by-step on how to set parental controls. Something worth adding is that even if you had set parental controls previously, Blizzard's internal process (of migrating the controls from individual games to one set of overall controls) may have cancelled/deleted your previous settings. Therefore, if you try to retrieve the email for the controls you know you've already set and you don't see that email instantaneously, feel free choosing the "No - Setup Parental Controls" and start as if you've never set them before.
According to Blizzard's FAQ on parental controls, the battle.net account was supposed to inherit the Warcraft account settings, and I was supposed to receive an email about the change. But these things didn't happen, even though with one game my situation is not complicated. And I realized I also stopped receiving my weekly playtime report. I was "parenting" myself, but actual parents may be less than thrilled if this happens to them and it takes them awhile to discover it.
Ryan Jul 8th 2010 9:11AM
Thanks for this insightful guide. I think you hit the nail on the head with:
"to keep in touch with absent friends and family who already know your phone number, IM and home address"
Cambro Jul 8th 2010 11:13AM
Does "absent" mean "not geographically close to you", or "haven't heard from them in a while"? If the latter, I doubt that if they have your phone number, email address, and IM name, that the real ID is really going to be any more effective at getting them to contact you.
Unless of course they are "absent" from the real world and only exist within WoW or Starcraft.
scherbaddie Jul 8th 2010 5:47PM
Just wow. I get this all the time from non-players, but as a WoW player do you really think the people you play with do not exist in the real world?
falc Jul 8th 2010 9:15AM
It is a weakness; a crippling flaw.... A joke played by the Creators upon their own creations.
The sooner you come to accept your condition as a defect, the sooner you will find yourselves in a position to transcend it.
Kylenne Jul 8th 2010 9:21AM
I see what you did there.