Source:
http://www.threadmeters.com/rTNdYG/A_Tr ... _PLS_READ/A TRUE STORY OF REAL ID STALKING
When I signed on last night, I used the RealID system carefully. I friended 3 people I knew in real life. One of them is my boyfriend Bob (of course I realID friended my boyfriend, that's exactly what its for.) So I was careful. I only used RealID for a few real life friends. I care about my privacy.
Bob was not careful. Turns out that I can be responsible for the mistakes of a friend, or a boyfriend, because of the Friends of Friends thing.
Bob has a very, very active Wow social life. He added everyone he knew in the game who would pass on their email address. He added a lot of people including all the people he pugs raids with. I was teasing him about how many peoples RealIDs he had. He didn't even think about the fact that he was giving all those people MY name, too.
Bob added this kid I don't like much. This kid used to make really inappropriate comments to me because I'm a girl, so I stopped grouping with him, but Bob still raids with him. The kid is really immature, he likes internet pranks, and he has a very poor sense of humor. I've been kind of mean to him in the past so maybe it's my fault for provoking him...... he doesn't like me at all... maybe it's my fault??
I'm the only female name on Bob's friends list. Maybe when this kid was checking out Bob's RealID friends, he noticed my a girl's name on the list, and it didn't take much logic to put two and two together. Oooh! Now he has Bob's Girlfriends name! Lets have a little fun with Google!!
He googled me. My name is all over the internet - it's on my company's website.
THIS KID CALLED MY WORKPLACE THIS MORNING.
He wasn't malicious (except for the part where he freaked me out and irritated my coworkers). He thought it was funny. He's a little kid and he had too much time on his hands, and he was used to playing pranks like this on the internet. And we were all joking last night about this stuff last night in guild chat....... maybe I gave him the idea?! I don't know. I don't want to know.
I think it was funny. Would you?
I am so shocked that I basically handed this kid my name. Why? Because I real ID friended one person, my boyfriend. I used the system carefully but now I'm paying the price - my loss of privacy - for a mistake *someone else made*.
Why should we be responsible for who our friends friend... my boyfriend feels awful about it... but it's not his fault! This friend of friend thing sucks!! Why in the world would Blizzard share your name with who your friends friend??? How could they think this is OK?
TO READERS:
Be careful who you friend - and who THEY friend. You aren't just sharing your info with who you add - you are sharing your private info with every single person your friends add. You are now responsible for the safety of all your friends friends too. Blizzard has now made you responsible for your FRIENDS FRIENDS. Keep in mind that anyone you add to your list is sharing YOUR REAL NAME WITH ALL THEIR FRIENDS ANYTIME. Are your friends adding people you don't know? Are your friends adding people you wouldn't want to share your name with? Are you sure?
Are you ok with the fact that the moment you choose to realID friend *one single person* you give them permission to spread your real name *to anyone*?
TO BLIZZARD:
Why is the option to view Friend's Friends real names on by default? This is awful. Why is there no privacy setting? This was like the first privacy setting Facebook ever had! Friend Of Friend! We need control over what Friends of Friends see!
I get that you want us to use our Real Names. I wish I could use an alias, but I can't. So TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for it -
If you are going to force us to use our real names for RealID, GIVE US PRIVACY AND DONT SHARE OUR NAME WITH ALL OUR FRIENDS FRIENDS. How can you do that? I feel betrayed.
It's been less than 12 hours and ALREADY THIS HAS HAPPENED TO ME.
Please turn off friend of friend before it happens again to someone else.
This is the biggest issue I have with RealID, and the reason why I cancelled my account. It doesn't matter how careful you are with your friends or your add-ons, because, chances are, other people are NOT as careful as you. And once you friend someone using RealID, you just lost all control you had over it. Because all of their friends (and all of their friends' add-ons, I might add) can see your information.
Who in the hell thought it was a good idea to share your information WITH ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS' FRIENDS?!?!?!?! Dumbest. Idea. Ever!!!!