GameStop Sued Over Privacy Violations

[dragontiers]

Don't Gamestop's everywhere do this? And all I get asked when I pre-order something is my phone number... and my license to show I'm 18(actually 19, but old enough to buy M rated games). When I buy I just get asked for the ID.

Yeah, that's pretty much it. Admittedly, it makes more sense for them to hold on to the credit card number, since that's the most relevant piece of info to them and it allows the customer to be easily identified.

Their practices have always weireded me out. Not when you're pre-order, when you're selling games. I can't remember whether it's your address or phone number that they ask for (it has been a while since I've sold a game) but they always want some kind of info like that, and it's creepy. What are they using it for?

Generally speaking, if you are trading in a game they need to take your name, address, phone number, license number, etc. for legal reasons. If it turns out the items you are trading in were stolen and the police came looking for them, Gamestop would be required to furnish said information as part of the investigation. If they don't take your information, they could be considered at fault, and face charges of their own. This applies any time a store purchases anything from the general public, most notably pawn shops.

 

[terror_ninja]

My local EB Games always scans my drivers lisence when I go to trade games. I thinkt hey might do it aswell when I buy R18 games.

But I dont think they keep it in their system, I know they have my name and phone number but I dont think they have anything else because they have to punch it into the computers every time even though they know who I am.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I pretty much exclusively make my Gamestop purchases with a check card,and I've never been carded for anything short of an M-rated game. However, I'm not a member of the rewards program, and I never pre-order anything except for the Harry Potter books, and that series is over and completely unconnected to Gamestop. I doubt that Florida has stricter laws on this than California, since A.) it's a point of pride among our state politicians to be "friends of business" -- and indeed, our current governor is a corporate raider who financed his campaign with embezzled funds -- and B.) if your signature has rubbed off of the card, it's not uncommon for a clerk in any given store to check the signature on your driver's license instead, so at least in that situation, I doubt it's illegal.

What I really wanted to post here was man, that is one roomy Gamestop. Even the big ones around here are the size of an oversized walk in closet, and the small ones are the size of normal one. The store in the picture looked like it was closer to the size of a gas station convenience store, or even an FYE. I'm sure the camera angle played a part, but man do I wish the local Gamestops were that big.

Edit: I never trade games either; once it comes into my possession, it stays there forever. There is a good reason for Gamestop to run your card with system trade ins, which may extend to game trade-ins as well. Basically, the store is treated like a pawn shop under the law, at least in Florida, and they are required to take down serial numbers and hold the items they take in while they wait for any stolen property reports to come in. I know this because I went on a long, fruitless search to get a replacement for a used DS Lite that I got for Christmas thanks to a Black Friday sale, which unfortunately had a cracked hinge. Long story short, I never did get the stupid thing traded out for one that wasn't faulty, but I did learn a lot more than I ever wanted to know about how Gamestop handles trade-ins.

 

[HentMas]

Yet I can't help thinking that if you're truly uncomfortable handing out such information, perhaps instead of filing a lawsuit you should just say no.

well, i would agree with that, but in the end the store didnt even said it was saving that information, i dont know if its reasonable or not, but i would expect that if my personal info is to be "saved" by a third party, i would proabbly want to know it before he does it

and its common custom to ask for personal information while doing some transactions as to aknowledge the identity of the purchaser, but not to save it

i dont live in the US, and here in MX we are not that scared about "big brother" or other info that might be floating around about us, but i see why the customer would be scared.

 

[J3llo]

I dont care about all the legal mumbo jumbo all i care about is that that horrible company loses money some how.

 

[Catalyst6]

*snip*

Yeah, that's pretty much it. Admittedly, it makes more sense for them to hold on to the credit card number, since that's the most relevant piece of info to them and it allows the customer to be easily identified.

Their practices have always weireded me out. Not when you're pre-order, when you're selling games. I can't remember whether it's your address or phone number that they ask for (it has been a while since I've sold a game) but they always want some kind of info like that, and it's creepy. What are they using it for?

Generally speaking, if you are trading in a game they need to take your name, address, phone number, license number, etc. for legal reasons. If it turns out the items you are trading in were stolen and the police came looking for them, Gamestop would be required to furnish said information as part of the investigation. If they don't take your information, they could be considered at fault, and face charges of their own. This applies any time a store purchases anything from the general public, most notably pawn shops.

Actually, that makes a lot of sense. Sorry, Gamestop! I apologize for defaming you.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

So, California wants to make sure game retailers can make sure kids don't get games by...stopping retailers from checking up on whether their consumers are kids?

Or that there's no way the customer knows what information is kept/deleted on the machine?

Or that that's common practice in most UK stores for exchanges/returns?

(Inglip tells his followers "The Mangi")

 

[Arella18]

I agree you should just say no...but you should also report the clerc to their manager if they're doing something that could...oh let's see GET THEIR BOSS FINED.

She's at fault for doing it and the clerk is at fault for asking...but she should have sued the clerk not the damn store -_-

 

[Trogdor1138]

... Why did she give them her info in the first place?

So now she's suing them because she couldn''t be fucked asking about it?

Good job lady.

 

[SelectivelyEvil13]

Yet I can't help thinking that if you're truly uncomfortable handing out such information, perhaps instead of filing a lawsuit you should just say no.

But as evidenced in case, "No" doesn't have a dollar sign prefix and three zeroes at the end.

I've never purchased anything at a Gamestop, but I don't see any reason for them to do anything beyond identity confirmation prior to purchasing.

Stores requesting area codes to obtain a survey of where their consumers come from is not unfamiliar to me, but personal addresses is one instance of information that a retailer such as Gamestop does not need to know. I would be especially suspect of handing out my email address because unwanted spam surly would follow.

 

[godfist88]

oh California, when will they stop with all these frivolous lawsuits? it's gotten totally out of hand now.

 

[Greyhawk]

I've been asked for things like zip codes, home addresses, phone numbers and such; from GameStop and other stores. My response is always the same, "Why do you need it?" Almost every time, the cashier gets the "deer in the headlights" look and gives some halfassed reply about marketing or some such. "Do you really need it?" I ask back. They've all respond with a sheepish "No." 100% of the time.

As much as I hate giving grief to a person who is in one of the most thankless professions, I can't seem to let this kind of question go with a simple "No thanks."

 

[NAKEDsnake2010]

Ok allow me to clear up some things. I know for a fact that they only ask you for personal info only when pre-ordering and when you trade stuff in. The only thing they would have asked for during a credit card purchase is your I.D. to verify that you are you. The only other reason they would need any personal info is if you were signing up for their powerup rewards program, but you get a subscription to game informer with that so you kinda got to. and the only information of hers that would be saved on the computer is her name, address, phone number, and date of birth that way if any one comes in claiming to be her they will know not to believe them.

 

[JDKJ]

Yet I can't help thinking that if you're truly uncomfortable handing out such information, perhaps instead of filing a lawsuit you should just say no.

But as evidenced in case, "No" doesn't have a dollar sign prefix and three zeroes at the end.

I've never purchased anything at a Gamestop, but I don't see any reason for them to do anything beyond identity confirmation prior to purchasing.

Stores requesting area codes to obtain a survey of where their consumers come from is not unfamiliar to me, but personal addresses is one instance of information that a retailer such as Gamestop does not need to know. I would be especially suspect of handing out my email address because unwanted spam surly would follow.

According to a recent opinion issued by the California Supreme Court, the reason that the retailers are so keen on obtaining zip code information is that they then use that information coupled with the name to search and find the customer's home address which they then use for mailings. The retailers argued that they weren't storing prohibited "personal identifying information" because a zip code is shared by a group of individuals and isn't personal to any one individual. The Court found that it is "personal identifying information" because every individual's address contains a zip code.

 

[JDKJ]

Don't Gamestop's everywhere do this? And all I get asked when I pre-order something is my phone number... and my license to show I'm 18(actually 19, but old enough to buy M rated games). When I buy I just get asked for the ID.

Yep: If you're buying something with a credit card you need to present it so the last four numbers of it can be punched in. That's everywhere though, as far as I know, so long as the purchase is $15 - $25 or more.

At gamestop however (in Maryland at least) you now also need to provide two forms of ID, anything issued by the state (well...any state really) and anything else be it a credit card or something.

Anyway: This whole things sounds stupid. It could have either been easily avoided or, it's something the customer is blowing up for no good reason. I've had people get uppity about me asking for their phone number and/or, their e-mail while trying to sign them up for power-up rewards. Sorry, I've been working retail since about 09. I have kind of a Randal outlook where customers are concerned.


Granted, that video applies more to when I was working at Blockbuster...

I think GameStop went beyond the last four digits of the card number. It looks like they record the entire card number. Which they have no need to do that I can see. When the swipe the card or enter it's number at the terminal connected to the card-issuer, all the information that the card-issuer needs to honor the debt on behalf on their cardholder is transmitted. Why does GameStop need my full card number and personal information in order for the transaction to be honored by my cardholder? They don't. They're just fishing for information they can use for their own personal purposes (mailing lists, complying customer demographic statistics, etc., etc.)

I agree, they deserve a slap on the wrist for this.

You have to agree that $1000 a person is absolutely bat fuck insane though

That depends on why GameStop wants the information and what they plan to do with it. If that use -- whatever it is -- is of great financial value to them (which I suspect it is or they wouldn't be doing it the first place), then the financial penalty for their wrongdoing needs to be greater than their financial gain from the wrongdoing or there's no incentive for them to cease doing wrong. They'll do the cost-benefit analysis and conclude that even with the slap on the wrist, there's still financial gain in continuing their illegal conduct.

If I steal $100 and get caught and fined $75, why should I stop stealing? I'm still $25 ahead of the game (no pun intended).

I wouldn't worry about that, they could be harvesting and selling the blood of each customer and they wouldn't come anywhere near $1000 a person.

How much do you think a name and phone number is worth anyway? They obviously aren't selling the credit card information to criminals otherwise this headline would look more like Angry Customers With Stolen Identities Burn Down Gamestop

I think they deserve some sort of penalty, but $1000 a person? Absolutely insane.

I dunno about that. If they're using the information to compile mailing lists and then selling or trading those mailing lists to or with other companies (which many businesses do), the financial benefit from that (either in terms of sales generated by mailing list campaigns or from the outright sale of lists) could be worth well in excess of $1000 a pop. A mailing list of consumers with credit cards who have been positively identified as willing to plop down their cards on a particular product or service can be worth its weight in gold.

No mailing list in the history of the world has ever been worth $1000 a person for a name and phone number, ever. It's clear they aren't selling the credit card numbers or else identity theft would be rampant among their customers.

If you can show any evidence otherwise I'll eat my own face.

Putting aside the fact that it isn't a mailing list if all you've got is a name and phone number and citing the following example:

A friend of mine is known to regularly lose more than $100,000 a time on his trips to Las Vegas. He's very well know by the Wynn folks, who regularly e-mail him invitations with offers of complimentary rooms, All-Star game tickets, etc., etc. They've shared his mailing information with the other casinos in town who also regularly mail him invites and comp offers. What do you think the value of a casino's mailing list of high-rollers could be?

 

[Danpascooch]

Don't Gamestop's everywhere do this? And all I get asked when I pre-order something is my phone number... and my license to show I'm 18(actually 19, but old enough to buy M rated games). When I buy I just get asked for the ID.

Yep: If you're buying something with a credit card you need to present it so the last four numbers of it can be punched in. That's everywhere though, as far as I know, so long as the purchase is $15 - $25 or more.

At gamestop however (in Maryland at least) you now also need to provide two forms of ID, anything issued by the state (well...any state really) and anything else be it a credit card or something.

Anyway: This whole things sounds stupid. It could have either been easily avoided or, it's something the customer is blowing up for no good reason. I've had people get uppity about me asking for their phone number and/or, their e-mail while trying to sign them up for power-up rewards. Sorry, I've been working retail since about 09. I have kind of a Randal outlook where customers are concerned.


Granted, that video applies more to when I was working at Blockbuster...

I think GameStop went beyond the last four digits of the card number. It looks like they record the entire card number. Which they have no need to do that I can see. When the swipe the card or enter it's number at the terminal connected to the card-issuer, all the information that the card-issuer needs to honor the debt on behalf on their cardholder is transmitted. Why does GameStop need my full card number and personal information in order for the transaction to be honored by my cardholder? They don't. They're just fishing for information they can use for their own personal purposes (mailing lists, complying customer demographic statistics, etc., etc.)

I agree, they deserve a slap on the wrist for this.

You have to agree that $1000 a person is absolutely bat fuck insane though

That depends on why GameStop wants the information and what they plan to do with it. If that use -- whatever it is -- is of great financial value to them (which I suspect it is or they wouldn't be doing it the first place), then the financial penalty for their wrongdoing needs to be greater than their financial gain from the wrongdoing or there's no incentive for them to cease doing wrong. They'll do the cost-benefit analysis and conclude that even with the slap on the wrist, there's still financial gain in continuing their illegal conduct.

If I steal $100 and get caught and fined $75, why should I stop stealing? I'm still $25 ahead of the game (no pun intended).

I wouldn't worry about that, they could be harvesting and selling the blood of each customer and they wouldn't come anywhere near $1000 a person.

How much do you think a name and phone number is worth anyway? They obviously aren't selling the credit card information to criminals otherwise this headline would look more like Angry Customers With Stolen Identities Burn Down Gamestop

I think they deserve some sort of penalty, but $1000 a person? Absolutely insane.

I dunno about that. If they're using the information to compile mailing lists and then selling or trading those mailing lists to or with other companies (which many businesses do), the financial benefit from that (either in terms of sales generated by mailing list campaigns or from the outright sale of lists) could be worth well in excess of $1000 a pop. A mailing list of consumers with credit cards who have been positively identified as willing to plop down their cards on a particular product or service can be worth its weight in gold.

No mailing list in the history of the world has ever been worth $1000 a person for a name and phone number, ever. It's clear they aren't selling the credit card numbers or else identity theft would be rampant among their customers.

If you can show any evidence otherwise I'll eat my own face.

Putting aside the fact that it isn't a mailing list if all you've got is a name and phone number and citing the following example:

A friend of mine is known to regularly lose more than $100,000 a time on his trips to Las Vegas. He's very well know by the Wynn folks, who regularly e-mail him invitations with offers of complimentary rooms, All-Star game tickets, etc., etc. They've shared his mailing information with the other casinos in town who also regularly mail him invites and comp offers. What do you think the value of a casino's mailing list of high-rollers could be?

A hell of a lot, how much do you think Gamestop could make per person though? They already shop at Gamestop after all, with the prices of videogames being more or less universally set as far as retail goes, how is an email or two going to change where they shop? Much less generate $1000 a head.

I'm not saying they shouldn't be penalized, but $1000 a person? Really?

 

[airrazor7]

this sounds odd. Gamestop employees will only ask to see your ID, not record anything from it, to verify that you are the card holder (like most stores do) and then the customer uses the card reader. If the card reader is down, they will usually refuse card payments of any kind and tell customers that they can only pay in cash until the card reader is functioning again. Something seems...off about this situation and I'm betting that the customer who got this lawsuit going has exaggeratted her role of being a victim.

 

[Xastabus]

Gamestop does not retain credit card numbers at physical stores. If they did I could just have them bring up my account and charge me. For very obvious reasons that isn't possible. I seriously doubt their in-store point of sale system even has fields on the customer account for credit card information.

This only happens on their website where it is done with the customer's consent for customer convenience.

I expect to see this "class-action" fail.

 

[JDKJ]

Don't Gamestop's everywhere do this? And all I get asked when I pre-order something is my phone number... and my license to show I'm 18(actually 19, but old enough to buy M rated games). When I buy I just get asked for the ID.

Yep: If you're buying something with a credit card you need to present it so the last four numbers of it can be punched in. That's everywhere though, as far as I know, so long as the purchase is $15 - $25 or more.

At gamestop however (in Maryland at least) you now also need to provide two forms of ID, anything issued by the state (well...any state really) and anything else be it a credit card or something.

Anyway: This whole things sounds stupid. It could have either been easily avoided or, it's something the customer is blowing up for no good reason. I've had people get uppity about me asking for their phone number and/or, their e-mail while trying to sign them up for power-up rewards. Sorry, I've been working retail since about 09. I have kind of a Randal outlook where customers are concerned.


Granted, that video applies more to when I was working at Blockbuster...

I think GameStop went beyond the last four digits of the card number. It looks like they record the entire card number. Which they have no need to do that I can see. When the swipe the card or enter it's number at the terminal connected to the card-issuer, all the information that the card-issuer needs to honor the debt on behalf on their cardholder is transmitted. Why does GameStop need my full card number and personal information in order for the transaction to be honored by my cardholder? They don't. They're just fishing for information they can use for their own personal purposes (mailing lists, complying customer demographic statistics, etc., etc.)

I agree, they deserve a slap on the wrist for this.

You have to agree that $1000 a person is absolutely bat fuck insane though

That depends on why GameStop wants the information and what they plan to do with it. If that use -- whatever it is -- is of great financial value to them (which I suspect it is or they wouldn't be doing it the first place), then the financial penalty for their wrongdoing needs to be greater than their financial gain from the wrongdoing or there's no incentive for them to cease doing wrong. They'll do the cost-benefit analysis and conclude that even with the slap on the wrist, there's still financial gain in continuing their illegal conduct.

If I steal $100 and get caught and fined $75, why should I stop stealing? I'm still $25 ahead of the game (no pun intended).

I wouldn't worry about that, they could be harvesting and selling the blood of each customer and they wouldn't come anywhere near $1000 a person.

How much do you think a name and phone number is worth anyway? They obviously aren't selling the credit card information to criminals otherwise this headline would look more like Angry Customers With Stolen Identities Burn Down Gamestop

I think they deserve some sort of penalty, but $1000 a person? Absolutely insane.

I dunno about that. If they're using the information to compile mailing lists and then selling or trading those mailing lists to or with other companies (which many businesses do), the financial benefit from that (either in terms of sales generated by mailing list campaigns or from the outright sale of lists) could be worth well in excess of $1000 a pop. A mailing list of consumers with credit cards who have been positively identified as willing to plop down their cards on a particular product or service can be worth its weight in gold.

No mailing list in the history of the world has ever been worth $1000 a person for a name and phone number, ever. It's clear they aren't selling the credit card numbers or else identity theft would be rampant among their customers.

If you can show any evidence otherwise I'll eat my own face.

Putting aside the fact that it isn't a mailing list if all you've got is a name and phone number and citing the following example:

A friend of mine is known to regularly lose more than $100,000 a time on his trips to Las Vegas. He's very well know by the Wynn folks, who regularly e-mail him invitations with offers of complimentary rooms, All-Star game tickets, etc., etc. They've shared his mailing information with the other casinos in town who also regularly mail him invites and comp offers. What do you think the value of a casino's mailing list of high-rollers could be?

A hell of a lot, how much do you think Gamestop could make per person though? They already shop at Gamestop after all, with the prices of videogames being more or less universally set as far as retail goes, how is an email or two going to change where they shop? Much less generate $1000 a head.

I'm not saying they shouldn't be penalized, but $1000 a person? Really?

Keep in mind that the $1000 is the maximum civil penalty allowed by the law ($250 being the minimum). Any attorney worth their salt is gonna ask for the maximum (whether or not they truly believe that's what their clients should fairly be compensated). You know the old saying: "Ask for steak. If all you get is hamburger, that ain't bad. You still got something to eat."

And think of the millions of dollars that GameStop spends on advertising every year. If the demographic information about their customers they illegally collect can help them focus the scope of that advertising and improve the dollar-spent-on-advertising to dollar-generated-by-advertising ratio by as little as 5%, that's pretty significant.

 

[SelectivelyEvil13]

Yet I can't help thinking that if you're truly uncomfortable handing out such information, perhaps instead of filing a lawsuit you should just say no.

But as evidenced in case, "No" doesn't have a dollar sign prefix and three zeroes at the end.

I've never purchased anything at a Gamestop, but I don't see any reason for them to do anything beyond identity confirmation prior to purchasing.

Stores requesting area codes to obtain a survey of where their consumers come from is not unfamiliar to me, but personal addresses is one instance of information that a retailer such as Gamestop does not need to know. I would be especially suspect of handing out my email address because unwanted spam surly would follow.

According to a recent opinion issued by the California Supreme Court, the reason that the retailers are so keen on obtaining zip code information is that they then use that information coupled with the name to search and find the customer's home address which they then use for mailings. The retailers argued that they weren't storing prohibited "personal identifying information" because a zip code is shared by a group of individuals and isn't personal to any one individual. The Court found that it is "personal identifying information" because every individual's address contains a zip code.

Thank you for the info JDKJ!

The ostensible reason of "where our customers drive from" is a pretty sneaky excuse for "where we can mail our garbage to." Now I'm at a loss of precise memory of where I've been where zip code was asked for, along with possibly other such information. As no recent retailers come to mind, I doubt I've been back! Most likely they were stores like Old Navy or Dick's Sporting Goods. I'm glad that the former hasn't barraged my home address with Gap or Banana Republic flyers; they do something along the lines of that with the email though.