# Since when did Blizzard start asking for Govt. ID's?



## Selim873 (May 25, 2016)

So I decided to play Hearthstone after around a year, but my old phone broke so I got a new one.  I used the authenticatior.  I know this is legit because I did all of this through their site.  A few coworkers told me they had to do the same thing and it went by just fine.   They even have a support article on it.

They obviously have a security problem.  Why should they feel the need to do this?  I feel like this is very personal stuff.

https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/7006


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## Deleted User (May 25, 2016)

Wow. I was planning on playing Hearthstone once I get a better computer but I guess I might not now that I know they need identification like _this_ in some cases.


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## Minox (May 25, 2016)

They are requiring it since it's one of the only ways of identifying that you are who you claim you are.


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## Taleweaver (May 25, 2016)

What the proverbial fuck is that? 


I guess I'm never playing diablo 3 or starcraft 2 again. FOR SECURITY REASONS, I don't give out that sort of personal information.


...

And I know I'm paranoid, but immediately envision sort of a dr. Strangelove War room with a neurotic president making an important declaration:

*President:* next point: Korea has become a threat lately. While we need to maintain our political position as neutral, we still need to gather information about its citizens. If at any chance possible, their military status as well.
*One staff chef: *_*pipes up*_ Ooh! I know JUST the thing! There's this US-based gaming company that has lots of clients in the region. Surely they can somehow get us that information. 
*President*: good! Get to it immediately!
*Staff cheff:* Sir, yes sir! _*quickly leaves room*_
*President:* so...next point, wait...yes, what is it?
*Another army guy: *sir...I was just thinking: you were talking about NORTH Korea, right?
*President: *_*shrugs*_ that's not going to make much difference, is it?


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## 3DSPoet (May 25, 2016)

While I agree that Blizzard asking for copies of photo ID for verification is kind of silly....You gave them a TON of personal info when you created your account! 

If you just want to play Hearthstone, just create a new bnet account and start over.

You could try calling customer support.  They have other ways of fixing things for you (things like verifying the account info, etc) and can sometimes unlock your account without you having to send in your driver's license.


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## RedBlueGreen (May 26, 2016)

Minox said:


> They are requiring it since it's one of the only ways of identifying that you are who you claim you are.


That's ridiculous though.


3DSPoet said:


> While I agree that Blizzard asking for copies of photo ID for verification is kind of silly....You gave them a TON of personal info when you created your account!
> 
> If you just want to play Hearthstone, just create a new bnet account and start over.
> 
> You could try calling customer support.  They have other ways of fixing things for you (things like verifying the account info, etc) and can sometimes unlock your account without you having to send in your driver's license.


I've worked in customer support before (not for games, but still) and I've had to confirm things to change accounts but never get an actual ID. It's ridiculous to ask for that if you're not a government company or somebody's employer, or require proof of age because of the law.


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## Deleted User (Jun 5, 2016)

Taleweaver said:


> I guess I'm never playing diablo 3 or starcraft 2 again. FOR SECURITY REASONS, I don't give out that sort of personal information.



I had a bit of an argument with Blizzard a few years ago about credit card info. The tl;dr is that they have (or at least had, I jumped through their hoops and haven't been back since) a policy that if someone hacks your account, you have to pay the CC charges for anything they buy with your card, but they didn't want to let me remove my credit card details from the account.

_Anyway_, it turns out to delete a Blizzard account, you have to mail them a physical letter (all the way to the USA) with a scan of your passport. They have a really bad attitude to this kind of stuff, unfortunately.


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## 3DSPoet (Jun 6, 2016)

Sir_Substance said:


> I had a bit of an argument with Blizzard a few years ago about credit card info. The tl;dr is that they have (or at least had, I jumped through their hoops and haven't been back since) a policy that if someone hacks your account, you have to pay the CC charges for anything they buy with your card, but they didn't want to let me remove my credit card details from the account.
> 
> _Anyway_, it turns out to delete a Blizzard account, you have to mail them a physical letter (all the way to the USA) with a scan of your passport. They have a really bad attitude to this kind of stuff, unfortunately.



On the other hand,though, let's say your psycho girlfriend decides to make the odd revenge choice of deleting your Battle.net account.  If they didn't have security verification in place, she could do it and any games or content you've purchased on Battle.net account would be wiped out and then you'd have to call Blizzard and REALLY work to prove who you are and pray they could restore all the lost stuff....  

It works both ways.  Their policies might be a bit over the top, but they are there for a reason.


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## Deleted User (Jun 6, 2016)

3DSPoet said:


> It works both ways.  Their policies might be a bit over the top, but they are there for a reason.



Isn't that what their authenticator app is for? They have a mechanism to allow people to enable that sort of defense if they want it.

As a side note, does anyone know if Blizzard can even authenticate an Australian passport?


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## NORBIN (Jun 8, 2016)

It's not just Blizzard, other game companies are starting to enforce this as well. Nexon America often asks for photo ID when doing ban appeals or account recoveries.


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## Deleted User (Jun 9, 2016)

That doesn't surprise me as much as the fact that Nexon actually has an American division, to be honest. What I've heard from people trying to use Nexon's payment systems leads me to believe they've been aggressively user-hostile jerks for a long time, westerners just haven't seen much of it because they operate mostly in Asia.


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