WHILE computer games enthusiasts were preparing to obliterate the evil alien
race of Zerg, their computers were being hijacked by a software company, a
lawsuit alleges. Donald Driscoll, a lawyer in Albany, California, is suing the
maker of the Starcraft computer game, claiming that the software surreptitiously
gathered confidential information.
In Starcraft, players compete against each other over the Internet. Driscoll
alleges that Blizzard Entertainment of Irvine, California, put a 鈥渢rap door鈥� in
their software. 鈥淚t takes a file that has important information about your
computer and your programs, and if Blizzard requests, it tries to upload your
e-mail address and name,鈥� he says.
Susan Wooley, a spokeswoman for Blizzard, confirms that information has been
gathered by Blizzard鈥檚 games server, battle.net. 鈥淲e were having problems with
people being denied access, so our battle.net server went in and gathered their
e-mail addresses,鈥� she says.
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The company has also been able to spot pirated copies of its software, but
Wooley says the data gathered were not used to catch pirates, and have been
deleted. The trap door is no longer in use, she adds.
However, David Banisar, a lawyer with the Electronic Privacy Information
Center in Washington DC, argues that Blizzard鈥檚 actions flouted Californian law.
鈥淚t鈥檚 downright illegal,鈥� he claims.
Driscoll filed the lawsuit on behalf of an organisation called Intervention,
based in Albany, which sues companies it claims are using unfair business
practices. But he argues that the case raises wider privacy issues.
鈥淎ll the government would have to do is hook up with a popular game
manufacturer, and it could search for accounting files and tell whether you鈥檙e
making more than you鈥檙e reporting,鈥� says Driscoll. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to get the word
out to software manufacturers: you can鈥檛 just rummage through somebody鈥檚
肠辞尘辫耻迟别谤.鈥�