I have something us EU Citizens can try. I believe this data collection is going against the privacy laws in the EU.
If you have been "Superbanned" and you can not update your hardware device that you paid 'money' for. You could start with this:
Please see the Nintendo site for the proper mail. As it is a GmbH (Germany) you could do it to "[email protected]" but there are more emails, check your local site.
Subject:Request to access to personal data according to Art. 15 GDPR
My reference: 2018-######
Date: 2018-MM-DD
To Whom It May Concern:
I am hereby requesting access according to Article 15 GDPR. Please confirm whether or not you are processing personal data (as defined by Article 4(1) and (2) GDPR) concerning me.
In case you are, I am hereby requesting access to the following information pursuant to Article 15 GDPR:
1. all personal data concerning me that you have stored;
2. the purposes of the processing;
3. the categories of personal data concerned;
4. the recipients or categories of recipient to whom the personal data have been or will be disclosed;
5. where possible, the envisaged period for which the personal data will be stored, or, if not possible, the criteria used to determine that period;
6. where the personal data are not collected from the data subject, any available information as to their source;
7. the existence of automated decision-making, including profiling, referred to in Article 22(1) and (4) GDPR and, at least in those cases, meaningful information about the logic involved, as well as the significance and the envisaged consequences of such processing for me.
If you are transferring my personal data to a third country or an international organization, I request to be informed about the appropriate safeguards according to Article 46 GDPR concerning the transfer.
My request explicitly includes any other services and companies for which you are the controller as defined by Article 4(7) GDPR.
As laid down in Article 12(3) GDPR, you have to provide the requested information to me without undue delay and in any event within one month of receipt of the request. According to Article 15(3) GDPR, you have to answer this request without cost to me.
I am including the following information necessary to identify me:
Name: [OPTIONAL]
E-mail: [OPTIONAL] (eshop email, If you use it on the switch, I recommend you add it)
Console-Serial: ########
Console-MAC-Address: ########
If you do not answer my request within the stated period, I am reserving the right to take legal action against you and to lodge a complaint with the responsible supervisory authority.
You can also add your eshop email or other info (if you have a Nintendo account) if you wish. They are required to give you all the data they have.
This way you can request to see the Data Nintendo has of you.
After this, you could go to the next step and request that Nintendo deletes all data they have (meaning the block) from their server. If you still get the error, this means that they have not.
Request to delete the Data they have of your Device (GDPR Erasure request):
Subject:Request for erasure of personal data according to Art. 17 GDPR
My reference: 2018-######
Date: 2018-MM-DD
To Whom It May Concern:
I am hereby requesting immediate erasure of personal data concerning me according to Article 15 GDPR.
Please erase all personal data concerning me as defined by Article 4(1) GDPR.
I am of the opinion that the requirements set forth in Article 17(1) GDPR are fulfilled.
If I have given consent to the processing of my personal data (e.g. according to Article 6(1) or Article 9(2) GDPR), I am hereby withdrawing said consent.
In addition, I am objecting to the processing of personal data concerning me (which includes profiling), according to Article 21 GDPR.
In case you have disclosed the affected personal data to third parties, you have to communicate my request for erasure of the affected personal data, as well as any references to it, to each recipient as laid down in Article 19 GDPR. Please also inform me about those recipients.
If you object to the requested erasure, you have to justify that to me.
My request explicitly includes any other services and companies for which you are the controller as defined by Article 4(7) GDPR.
As laid down in Article 12(3) GDPR, you have to confirm the erasure to me without undue delay and in any event within one month of receipt of the request.
I am including the following information necessary to identify me:
Name: [OPTIONAL]
E-mail: [OPTIONAL] (eshop email, If you use it on the switch, I recommend you add it)
Console-Serial: ########
Console-MAC-Address: ########
If you do not answer my request within the stated period, I am reserving the right to take legal action against you and to lodge a complaint with the responsible supervisory authority.
If there is one thing that people know about the GDPR it's that GDPR fines(administrative fines) can go up to 20 million Euros or 4 percent of annual global (note global!) turnover, whichever of both is highest.
They are not going to risk this for a banned account.
Absolutely none. What do you have to lose? (Except for time, but I've minimized this for you).
Some people in this topic have magic-8-balls and a glass ball to see the future. Or have a 20 year law degree and such to know everything. My advise, ignore them. Commenting without having it tried out is utterly useless.
One personal friend of mine has done a data request, I'll post some of those results here once he gets an answer.
I don't think this will help you if you're already banned. But it might keep you from getting flagged if you aren't yet.
The reason I think that is because "banned/flagged true/false" doesn't constitute personal data. It's something only relevant to their servers that has no meaning out of context, even if it is a result of personal data having been logged in the past.
I think it's unaceptable in the first place that a digital medium does not contain the game in a fully playable form, but that's a personal issue and probably not on topic.
But your question is a valid one in this context. I guess there is currently no court ruling on this, so it's hard to tell.
The fact that the game is not fully playable is not Nintendo's fault, it's because the 32Gb switch gamecards are more expensive than the 16Gb ones so Rockstar (the company behind the game) chose to put the game in 16gb gamecards instead of 32gb because it's cheaper.
About modifying your system. It's actually legal here in Sweden. Why stores like shop01media are allowed to sell these kind of products. It's the same with a car, you are allowed to change colors of it, and it's still the same car. So it's also a intresting potential court case however Homebrew is a bannable offense or not. I don't think it is, but I'm not a lawyer nor found anything that provides against or for.
is it really legal, though? IIRC, european law (which also applies to Sweden) states that selling tools and/or hardware to circumvent copyright protection is not legal. For a gaming console it could potentially be argued that hacking inevitably circumvents protection measurements and afaik, the "right to jailbreak" speficifically excepts gaming consoles for this reason.
There's probably no court ruling currently that definatelly declares hacking consoles as illegal and the companies are not actively trying to get a definite court ruling or precedence on this, as it might backfire for them. Probably safer for the companies to keep it in a gray area and deter most people that way.
Legal or not, I don't think class actions are possible in EU so if you wish to sue Nintendo, you have to do it alone. Even if you bought for 1000 euros on eShop, it would be crazy to sue a huge company for a such "small" amount of money.
However, getting the data from Nintendo is still interesting because it may help to understand what precise telemetry Nintendo checks in order to trigger a ban.
is it really legal, though? IIRC, european law (which also applies to Sweden) states that selling tools and/or hardware to circumvent copyright protection is not legal. For a gaming console it could potentially be argued that hacking inevitably circumvents protection measurements and afaik, the "right to jailbreak" speficifically excepts gaming consoles for this reason.
There's probably no court ruling currently that definatelly declares hacking consoles as illegal and the companies are not actively trying to get a definite court ruling or precedence on this, as it might backfire for them. Probably safer for the companies to keep it in a gray area and deter most people that way.
There has never been a court ruling in the EU about it. So it's perfectly legal to sell and modify your products in Sweden, so we have the right to modify them however we want. It was actually a ruling longtime ago with Jensen of Sweden that caused it if I remember correct. But I was just a We-teeanger back then.
About modifying your system. It's actually legal here in Sweden. Why stores like shop01media are allowed to sell these kind of products. It's the same with a car, you are allowed to change colors of it, and it's still the same car.
In Germany it is the same. It is not forbidden to modify your system. Just the same with cars. You are not only allowed to change the color, you are allowed to change everything.
On the other hand, there are laws that forbid the use of the car in public, if you changed important things. You are only allowed to use such a modified car on private property without direct access to public streets.
Just like you can modifiy your switch and Nintendo can do nothing about it, but if you try to use their online service with a modified console, they can deny it.
is it really legal, though? IIRC, european law (which also applies to Sweden) states that selling tools and/or hardware to circumvent copyright protection is not legal. For a gaming console it could potentially be argued that hacking inevitably circumvents protection measurements and afaik, the "right to jailbreak" speficifically excepts gaming consoles for this reason.
There's probably no court ruling currently that definatelly declares hacking consoles as illegal and the companies are not actively trying to get a definite court ruling or precedence on this, as it might backfire for them. Probably safer for the companies to keep it in a gray area and deter most people that way.
There has never been a court ruling in the EU about it. So it's perfectly legal to sell and modify your products in Sweden, so we have the right to modify them however we want. It was actually a ruling longtime ago with Jensen of Sweden that caused it if I remember correct. But I was just a We-teeanger back then. You are allowed to crack the copy protection if it hinders you to be able to watch for example a DVD.
Legal or not, I don't think class actions are possible in EU so if you wish to sue Nintendo, you have to do it alone. Even if you bought for 1000 euros on eShop, it would be crazy to sue a huge company for a such "small" amount of money.
However, getting the data from Nintendo is still interesting because it may help to understand what precise telemetry Nintendo checks in order to trigger a ban.
In Germany it is the same. It is not forbidden to modify your system. Just the same with cars. You are not only allowed to change the color, you are allowed to change everything.
On the other hand, there are laws that forbid the use of the car in public, if you changed important things. You are only allowed to use such a modified car on private property without direct access to public streets.
Just like you can modifiy your switch and Nintendo can do nothing about it, but if you try to use their online service with a modified console, they can deny it.
That's not what I have been arguing about however. The console I understand if it's banned. It might be a way legally to go around it, but I'm mostly concerned about accounts with bought items on them, that's what I've been arguing for.
They can just pseudonymize your account details, essentially erasing your records but keeping the Switch banned.
GDPR isn't intended to exploit the banning of hardware which you has been used out of the accepted ToS.
t's just wrong. I still got access to my car then. I never lose my car, I can do whatever I want with it except drive it on the streets. So your logic with a car here is flawed.
The fact that the game is not fully playable is not Nintendo's fault, it's because the 32Gb switch gamecards are more expensive than the 16Gb ones so Rockstar (the company behind the game) chose to put the game in 16gb gamecards instead of 32gb because it's cheaper.
Yes, I know it's the publishers choice. But the additional data is hosted by N and they can block you from accessing the content, making your physical copy useless.
As it is always with laws, it's simply not easy to say what courts would decide. It's a fuzzy subject concerning many issues.
One could argue that Nintendo only has to provide you the product once. Once it is on your switch, they can't take it back from you, but I guess nowhere in the law does it explicitly state they have to give you the opportunity to redownload it at a later time. If they did, though, how long would they have to provide you that opportunity?
But that would leave open the question about backing up the data for this game. How exactly does this work on the switch? Is there some way for us to back the data up once we downloaded it? Is the data for these games (Doom, LA Noire, Wolfenstein) also blocked?
Here's some anecdotal story regarding a similar issue I ran into with music purchased on google play a few weeks ago, even though it's somewhat off-topic:
I bought music on Google play about two years ago. Google Play allows you to download the song in a DRM free format (.mp3) a set number of times (can't recall if it's 2 or 3 times). After that, you can't download it anymore. But you have a DRM free copy that you can back up to wherever you want, use it on any device you want etc.
Now, I downloaded this song once and burned it to a CD for my mother (I basically purchased the music on behalf of my mother as she didn't feel technically adept to do it herself). Two years later she asks me to buy another few songs and burn them to a CD, but include the old songs as well (so she doesn't have to switch cds the whole time).I couldn't find the song in my Play library even though I could see it in my purchase history so I contacted their support. As it turns out, Google has since terminated the licensing with the artist for the original version of the song and it was no longer available to download it. They offered my a full refund of the original purchase but I declined as I figured it was not worth the effort for the value of 0,79€. They kept insisting on refunding me even though I declined multiple times. The third time tey asked me for my CC details for the refund I simply ignored their email.
t's just wrong. I still got access to my car then. I never lose my car, I can do whatever I want with it except drive it on the streets. So your logic with a car here is flawed.
I can do everything but drive it in public! But I can drive it on my property!
*I can do everything but download from the public servers! But I can download stuff on a private server!"
????????????????
I want to see how this pans out when enough people send that email.
It's not about getting unbanned, it's about setting a precendent.
They can't just handwave it away because of the mandatory deadline and other mandatory stuff.
And it's not something that basic CSRs can answer without having to consult their legal department, so at least you can enjoy the fact that they had to trouble themselves to deal with it (well... until they standardize a process for dealing with GDPR requests from banned users, form responses, etc.).
ALSO, some people here claimed that the console ID/cert is not "personal info", but then reading this link:
...online identifiers provided by their devices, applications, tools and protocols, such as internet protocol addresses, cookie identifiers or other identifiers such as radio frequency identification tags.
And they can even just keep only a hash of your console TLS cert. That way, they keep no real data, but they can still maintain their ban list. If you search for "gdpr bans", this is actually how most ban lists (like forum bans) are maintained, by keeping only a hash the required unique data, they're able to maintain ban lists via this "loophole".
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I had a girlfriend who had a twin sister and they would mess with me constantly.... Until one chipped a tooth then finally I could tell them apart.... Lol
@The Real Jdbye, I could see AMD trying to pull off the CPU GPU tandem thing, would be a way to maybe close the gap a bit with Nvidia. Plus it would kinda put Nvidia at a future disadvantage since Nvidia can't make X86/64 CPUs? Intel and AMD licensing issues... I wonder how much that has held back innovation.
@Psionic Roshambo AI assisted game creation is kinda already here, there was recently that AI that can turn any 2D image into a fully modeled 3D object, it's not perfect, but it's a starting point, beats starting from zero
but most recently, there was one that actually generates a working unity scene with terrain and textures already set up that you can import right into unity, that's a huge time saver right there
The Real Jdbye
K3Nv2
Psionic Roshambo
@
BakerMan:
