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ESRB responds to privacy concerns, exposes e-mail addresses
ESRB responds to privacy concerns, exposes e-mail addresses-January 2024
Jan 10, 2025 12:43 AM

  One of the issues the Entertainment Software Rating Board champions is online privacy, going so far as to offer member companies a government-sanctioned seal of approval for those who comply to its set of rigid standards. However, in a cruel twist of irony, the industry rating standard appears to have violated its own best practices to inform concerned citizens that Blizzard had scuttled plans to display players' real names on message boards.

  As reported by WOW.com, the ESRB sent out a mass e-mail notification yesterday to those who had written in to complain about Blizzard's controversial Real ID system. And while the ESRB's statement was benign, the rating organization failed to obscure recipients' e-mail addresses in the blast. As such, the e-mail addresses of the reportedly 1,000 petitioners were exposed to other recipients.

  So you've shared the e-mail address of 1,000 angry WOW users. What's the worst that could happen? Today, the ESRB issued an apology for its gaffe.

  "Yesterday we sent an e-mail to a number of consumers who wrote to us in recent days expressing their concern with respect to Blizzard's Real ID program," the ESRB said in a statement obtained by WOW.com. "Given the large number of messages we received, we decided to respond with a mass e-mail so those who'd written us would receive our response as quickly as possible--rather than responding to each message individually, as is our usual practice."

  "Through an unfortunate error by one of our employees, some recipients were able to see the e-mail addresses of others who wrote on the same issue. Needless to say, it was never our intention to reveal this information and for that we are genuinely sorry. Those who write to ESRB to express their views expect and deserve to have their contact and personal information protected. In this case, we failed to do so and are doing everything we can to ensure it will not happen again in the future."

  "The fact that our message addressed individuals' concerns with respect to their privacy underscores how truly disappointing a mistake this was on our part. We work with companies to ensure they are handling people's private information with confidentiality, care and respect. It is only right that we set a good example and do no less ourselves."

  The ESRB had not responded to GameSpot's request for comment as of press time.

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