Hello.
I’d like to bring a general concern & awareness how using out-dated mechanics from the game, stalker(s) are capable to track & harass their victims.
Before I’ll start, I’d like to highlight that this thread as well as me going vocal/public about it, is a result of a long, 5-years on-going stalking issue with no apparent conclusion and lack of adequate reaction from CS. No matter how many people report this person, tickets made, evidence given, all what was achieved - is 2x 1 week suspension, after which, stalker resumed its activities. A full on-story can be read here:
https://eu.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/%E2%80%9Con-going-harassment%E2%80%9D-or-how-blizzard-don%E2%80%99t-care-about-it-vol-3/444472
Right now, these are 100% established methods that stalker(s) may abuse.
- Ability to add anyone to your friendlist without awareness/permission given by the person who’s character has been added.
- Usage of battle pets for comparison. If stalker knows one of your characters, they can make an educated guess about your alts and do a battle pet comparison, in order to verify that this character is you.
- Blizzard enables API data share by default. This exposes your alt characters on websites such as check-pvp.
There is a fourth method. But it’s inconsistent and hard to predict.
If Person A and Person B add each other on friendlist and then Person B logs on their alt and, let’s say, queue up for LFG. Person A will receive a pop-up that this character name has joined a LFG queue. Even if this alt isn’t in person A friendlist.
What’s more confusing/concerning, is that if Person B removes person A from their friendlist and then repeats the process of queue up on their alt to some LFG, person A will -still- receive a pop-up.
I’ve tested this with a friend. It just works but not always. What sort of logic does this system follows, is a mystery right now.
To those who find this dismissive, un-interesting or “you’re making an elephant out of nothing” sort of arguments. It’s fair to bring them up. But I believe them not to be viable, if you were not stalked/harassed.
In my case, I can make a new character. Join a guild. My GM will receive a message from my stalker who’ll try to put off others from interacting with me. How do they find out my new characters? It’s a mystery to me.
They can sit in rogue stealth, monitor all what I do (I’m a roleplayer so…) and record it. Reach out to people with whom I start to talk. Etc etc.
I’m sure it’ll be one hell of a trip to do something about it in terms of coding. But considering how communication / social system (including guilds) has been left in an abandoned state for years, it only makes things worse. It needs to be updated, overhauled, improved. Why not use FFXIV system where you need person’s permission in order to add them to friendlist? Because with a friendlist, you can track easily whereabouts of your victim.
It’s just… upsetting as a whole.
