It's just a bug... Storm finally sued for Stealing our Phone numbers...

[jacked]

Another SPOT ON response Illustris...

first: the issue of whether collecting phone numbers is illegal or not.

This is directly form the court documentation complaint:
"There exists, however, a hidden and unauthorized method through which an App, such as a Storm8 game, is able to access the phone number of the iPhone on which it is installed."


Before we discuss... let's first read this article about a company that used an iPhone app to gain their customer phone number -then cold-called them to upsell:

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives...calls_them.php

In this article they position this undocumented feature as something Apple provides in its sandbox. "It's Not a Bug, It's a Feature" However, they do position it as a company that ABUSED an undocumented feature.


So the question is: is it 'illegal' for Storm8 to ALLEGEDLY use this undocumented feature to access your wireless phone number and transmit it to their databases?

According to the Complaint: its in violation of Violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1030, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”), in Violation of Cal. Penal Code § 502, California’s Computer Crime Law (“CCCL”), and in Violation of Cal. Bus. Prof. Code § 17200.

whats unclear is how they use the terms "undocumented" and "unauthorized"...


Regardless, very, very interesting indeed.

Keep in mind - innocent until proven guilty. this is for discussion purposes ONLY. There is no proof that they use this method to gain wireless numbers - nor if it is truly 'illegal' as the complaint papers state.


Just as a reminder - back in August Storm8 responded to the press reporting the 'bug':
"Thanks again for alerting us of the situation. We did have a bug that has been fixed. The updated app will need to go through the regular review process. You should expect to see it live shortly in the app store.

Once again we thank you for bringing this to our attention and apologize to our users for the oversight.
Regards, [Name] Storm8 Support Team"

Once again: the court complaint papers:
"Storm8’s characterizations of its practice of harvesting phone numbers as a “bug” and an “oversight” are false. Storm8 could not have accidentally harvested its users’ phone numbers it used very specific and specialized software code to do so."


Finally, Illustris's comment about creditability begs for another thread to discuss in detail. I for one have exposed TWO cheaters that were banned in NinjasLive (strike one) and the Glitch, which HAS NOT been made right, (strike two)... will this class action lawsuit be strike three?

[trenae]

Originally Posted by jacked

In this article they position this undocumented feature as something Apple provides in its sandbox. "It's Not a Bug, It's a Feature" However, they do position it as a company that ABUSED an undocumented feature.

whats unclear is how they use the terms "undocumented" and "unauthorized"...

Regardless, very, very interesting indeed.

Indeed it is very interesting as was that article. Now if I had been getting cold-calls from a developer about anything I would have been pissed too. Wonder if companies who do such things scrub their list against the do not call registry (although I'm not sure if the registry is world wide - I know in the US we have it and can place complaints when getting such calls if on the do not call list).

[jacked]

Originally Posted by trenae

Wonder if companies who do such things scrub their list against the do not call registry...

I would love to know if other countries have what we have - I'm on the do not call list therefore I can lodge a complaint if that is breached.

However, It doesn't really worry me if Storm8 all of a sudden cold-called me about a product. Annoying YES, and breach of some sort of confidentiality, SURE...

What TRULY worries me is that a company could package these phone numbers into a list - AND SOLD IT. As everyone knows this happens with phone number and email databases - they are a marketers dream and they are bought and sold on the open market like and other commodity.

I'm in NO WAY saying that Storm8 would even think of doing this - but with both email and phone numbers it's quite common... outside of the USA especially.

[trenae]

Originally Posted by jacked

I would love to know if other countries have what we have - I'm on the do not call list therefore I can lodge a complaint if that is breached.

However, It doesn't really worry me if Storm8 all of a sudden cold-called me about a product. Annoying YES, and breach of some sort of confidentiality, SURE...

What TRULY worries me is that a company could package these phone numbers into a list - AND SOLD IT. As everyone knows this happens with phone number and email databases - they are a marketers dream and they are bought and sold on the open market like and other commodity.

I'm in NO WAY saying that Storm8 would even think of doing this - but with both email and phone numbers it's quite common... outside of the USA especially.

I'll probably end up doing a search later to see what other countries utilize if any a do not call registry. Problem is in other countries there are different laws/codes - so it might be they don't have the same protections with certain information (now I'm curious so will end up looking into it - gives me something interesting to search for).

And yeah you are right companies can do packages to sell off information (NOT saying S8 does) but it's easy enough to do actually. In most cases that's how some companies send you junk fliers - but they usually go through certain channels to get this type of information (information is sold all the time).

And you are correct - email addresses are a very common thing to sell off as they are probably one of the easiest things to obtain. At this point I'm not too concerned by this as not enough information has been released. Those in the US and especially those in CA know that it's VERY easy to file a law suit - wrong, right - it doesn't matter. There will always be an attorney who will take on a case.

The information that has been released is light on details and information - which is preciously why at this time I'm not too concerned by any of this. In the end S8 will need to show they are no longer using this so called programming to collect information.

[jaysellshondas]

Originally Posted by jacked

Another SPOT ON response Illustris...

first: the issue of whether collecting phone numbers is illegal or not.

This is directly form the court documentation complaint:
"There exists, however, a hidden and unauthorized method through which an App, such as a Storm8 game, is able to access the phone number of the iPhone on which it is installed."


Before we discuss... let's first read this article about a company that used an iPhone app to gain their customer phone number -then cold-called them to upsell:

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives...calls_them.php

In this article they position this undocumented feature as something Apple provides in its sandbox. "It's Not a Bug, It's a Feature" However, they do position it as a company that ABUSED an undocumented feature.


So the question is: is it 'illegal' for Storm8 to ALLEGEDLY use this undocumented feature to access your wireless phone number and transmit it to their databases?

According to the Complaint: its in violation of Violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1030, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”), in Violation of Cal. Penal Code § 502, California’s Computer Crime Law (“CCCL”), and in Violation of Cal. Bus. Prof. Code § 17200.

whats unclear is how they use the terms "undocumented" and "unauthorized"...


Regardless, very, very interesting indeed.

Keep in mind - innocent until proven guilty. this is for discussion purposes ONLY. There is no proof that they use this method to gain wireless numbers - nor if it is truly 'illegal' as the complaint papers state.


Just as a reminder - back in August Storm8 responded to the press reporting the 'bug':
"Thanks again for alerting us of the situation. We did have a bug that has been fixed. The updated app will need to go through the regular review process. You should expect to see it live shortly in the app store.

Once again we thank you for bringing this to our attention and apologize to our users for the oversight.
Regards, [Name] Storm8 Support Team"

Once again: the court complaint papers:
"Storm8’s characterizations of its practice of harvesting phone numbers as a “bug” and an “oversight” are false. Storm8 could not have accidentally harvested its users’ phone numbers it used very specific and specialized software code to do so."


Finally, Illustris's comment about creditability begs for another thread to discuss in detail. I for one have exposed TWO cheaters that were banned in NinjasLive (strike one) and the Glitch, which HAS NOT been made right, (strike two)... will this class action lawsuit be strike three?

Would one of those 2 cheaters be Torro? I know for a fact you made a living farming him, so I highly doubt you would report him. I know I sent documented proof of how many wins the guy had and how quickly it was increasing. You want to give back all the money and wins you got from him?

[jacked]

Originally Posted by jaysellshondas

Would one of those 2 cheaters be Torro? I know for a fact you made a living farming him, so I highly doubt you would report him. I know I sent documented proof of how many wins the guy had and how quickly it was increasing. You want to give back all the money and wins you got from him?

Yes, it was Torro i reported - immediately once i saw his wins and the fact that until he hit 191 i never saw the guy before - since i don't attack the battle list i hardly ever see anyone on there. i never got a response from Storm8 - until 3 days ago... 20+ days after i reported it... they were happy to inform me that he was in fact banned. however, they could not answer the question of "did you get ALL of his devices?" since he admitted on his own board that only 2 of 3 devices were banned.

to characterize it as making a living is borderline flammatory... and for the insignificant wins i gained fails in comparison to the dozens of levels others jumped since i only found out about Torro when he hit 191... and he went form 191-200 in less than a 60 minutes - since it only took him 21 hours to do ALL 200 levels. i gained only a few levels from unloading all of my stamina on him - and refilling... unloading... refilling.. unloading...

frankly i though the was a present from the Storm8 gods to keep us spending money.

while were on the subject of giving it back... do you want to tell the few of your PE guys who took advantage of the Glitch to give those Global Dignitaries back?

[FRIZ]

Originally Posted by jacked

Yes, it was Torro i reported - immediately once i saw his wins and the fact that until he hit 191 i never saw the guy before - since i don't attack the battle list i hardly ever see anyone on there. i never got a response from Storm8 - until 3 days ago... 20+ days after i reported it... they were happy to inform me that he was in fact banned. however, they could not answer the question of "did you get ALL of his devices?" since he admitted on his own board that only 2 of 3 devices were banned.

to characterize it as making a living is borderline flammatory... and for the insignificant wins i gained fails in comparison to the dozens of levels others jumped since i only found out about Torro when he hit 191... and he went form 191-200 in less than a 60 minutes - since it only took him 21 hours to do ALL 200 levels. i gained only a few levels from unloading all of my stamina on him - and refilling... unloading... refilling.. unloading...

frankly i though the was a present from the Storm8 gods to keep us spending money.

while were on the subject of giving it back... do you want to tell the few of your PE guys who took advantage of the Glitch to give those Global Dignitaries back?

The PE guys that got digs from the glitch were rolled back...

[Morganis]

Storm8 probably gathered these numbers to sell as a list to a solicitation company. Either way, I agree with a number of people that the credibility of Storm8 is going down the drain. I've noticed recently you can sign up with spam advertisers and sites not trusted by many security databases (such as Web of Trust), for Honor Points. I understand that times are tough and Storm8 is a business, out to make money, but don't sell yourselves out to the cheapest bidder.

[jacked]

Originally Posted by FRIZ

The PE guys that got digs from the glitch were rolled back...

ahh im sorry! i guess it was my mistake - must have immediately after being rolled back just spent honor points and bought them GD's all back again. I can't keep up with quick thumbs.

[jacked]

Originally Posted by Morganis

I've noticed recently you can sign up with spam advertisers and sites not trusted by many security databases (such as Web of Trust), for Honor Points.

Very interesting...