#FFXIV Plugin is inflicting large dangers for each privateness and safety – Destructoid
Again when Ultimate Fantasy XIV introduced that they had been altering the Blacklist system, some gamers identified that the brand new system might allow gamers to entry data that shouldn’t be for his or her eyes. Worryingly, this prediction has come true within the type of the PlayerScope plugin.
FFXIV is strictly towards any use of plugins or mods. Anybody caught utilizing any sort of game-changing software program is completely banned, which must be sufficient to place anyone off. Nevertheless, this hasn’t stopped individuals from creating or utilizing mods, and the newest doing the rounds is especially troublesome, and it appears to have been enabled by adjustments made by Sq. Enix themselves and had been warned of on the time.
The adjustments made to the Blacklist function with the discharge of Dawntrail gave every participant a singular account ID, which will be picked up by the PlayerScope plugin, permitting anybody who makes use of it to trace not solely particular characters, however alt characters tied to the identical account, motion of every character, and look adjustments as properly. This poses huge dangers for issues like harassment and stalking, which is already one thing of an issue for the MMO.
Gamers who’ve examined the plugin, equivalent to wetsh0laze on Reddit, have reported that to be able to forestall their information being leaked via the plugin, they needed to obtain it themselves, hook up with it utilizing a Discord account, after which lastly decide out of the method.
Nevertheless, a current replace from the developer of the mod has revealed that they are going to be eradicating the choice to decide out from the mod itself, as a substitute inviting gamers to affix the Discord server and be part of a sure channel to “whitelist” their account. This can, nonetheless, require individuals to “confirm their Lodestone account via the plugin”, which nonetheless leaves your complete course of open to misuse and abuse.
Dalamud, the third get together device that many use to implement mod utilization in FFXIV, has issued a assertion relating to the plugin. It states that it “essentially doesn’t approve” of the plugin, however “it’s not doable for the Dalamud mission to stop plugins from getting access to these values (Account IDs)”. It’s additionally not doable for them to ban the mod from a customized repository equivalent to the place PlayerScope is saved, so it’s right here to remain, sadly.
Contemplating their one-strike coverage on mod utilization, it may well solely be hoped that Sq. Enix take swift motion towards creators and customers of this plugin. The one viable resolution that might forestall the additional use of the mod is for FFXIV to overtake the Blacklist system once more, maybe backtracking it to the system that was in place earlier than. Sadly, this doesn’t appear seemingly, however hopefully a means ahead will be discovered that can shield gamers from those that abuse the system.
