Ubisoft Terminating ‘Inactive’ Accounts

[J4MESOX4D]

https://www.pcgamer.com/your-ubisoft-account-can-be-suspended-and-subsequently-permanently-deleted-for-inactivity-taking-your-games-library-with-it/

Maybe if they made a good game once in a while, users would actually have an incentive to use their diabolical services. This is a stark, dark reminder of the perils of digital ownership where your entire purchase history can be nuked because you haven’t logged in for X period or for other reasons without any notice whatsoever and this goes for other services too.

Valve surely cannot tolerate these absurd terms forced upon their users especially when it can impact titles bought through the Steam Store. Users may be left with dead licences and due to the archaic account linkage, it will give users an extended headache trying to untie a dead account linked to Steam if they wish for some reason to rebuy or purchase new Ubisoft titles on a new account going forward.

I’m grateful that Valve let’s sleeping accounts lie but things could change in time and terms could tighten. A good starting point would be to not let companies set dangerous precedents like Ubisoft are doing and Valve should step up and side with their community on this one especially against a company that came crawling back so shamefully because they need the business that Steam has.

[RiO]

Автор сообщения: muckymucks

What's really funny about this story is that this has been Ubisoft's policy for years, it's written right in their policy pages but nobody, not even journalists, bothered to read them. It's only because of this tweet and suddenly it's bombshell news. Publishers can get away with murder if they really want to. Gamers are stupid and ignorant.

Not just gamers.
Consumers in general are.

Iirc it was Amazon that once put a clause in their terms of service by which you would grant them legal custody of your firstborn child or some such. Guess how many people didn't read that?

[KalGimpa]

Автор сообщения: muckymucks

What's really funny about this story is that this has been Ubisoft's policy for years, it's written right in their policy pages but nobody, not even journalists, bothered to read them. It's only because of this tweet and suddenly it's bombshell news. Publishers can get away with murder if they really want to. Gamers are stupid and ignorant.

i have known about this policy for a long time

this is the first company that i have been a part of

that i know of

that did it

i may have missed it with the others,

definitely a possibility

but it is a slimy thing to do

[Kargor]

Автор сообщения: Breakpoint

After 5 years inactivity, deletion is ok though. They cannot keep everything forever.

You know how much data is used up by an account? I'll tell you -- a tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny amount. Give or take, could be even less.

Yes, they can easily keep things "forever".

Автор сообщения: Crazy Tiger

Such things won't change unless laws and regulations regarding digital content and licensing change.

Yeah, that's the problem. Companies can get away with declaring your purchase is "just a license, so we can do whatever we want as none of the laws concerning property apply to us".

This may or may not be backed by actual laws -- more likely, it was never challenged in a serious way. And even if it's found to be legal -- it's not part of any constitution anywhere (probably), so laws can change it. In fact, considering how constitutions value "property", it might be the law that makes your purchase "worth nothing" that has the constitutional problem... at least it might be possible; I'm not a lawyer.

In fact, there's at least one case, probably more, where someone had a lot of stuff on his Google account -- and they just blocked it. Bang. Gone.
Laws will have to start dealing with electronic accounts eventually, to get them out of the "we can do whatever we want" handling by companies.

[Mr. Monday]

Автор сообщения: Breakpoint

Автор сообщения: kitt

what reasons would anyone have not to login into Ubisoft Connect twice a year? or at least after they received a warning.

And you also say that need to change but of course you don't mentioned any timeframe yourself (except them not deleting accounts at all).

You could forget and not receive the notification mail accidentally.

You could be in the hospital.

You could work for your exams.

You could be under pressure at work.

You could lose your computer.

You could be in depression, etc.


Six months is too short.

Add "You're in the military and are currently deployed to an area where you don't have internet access" to this list.

[[N]ebsun]

Account deletion should have a 2 year notification period, whereby a notice of inactivity is sent every 6 months warning of the possible account deletion - after that 2 year notification period, there should be another 5 year inactivity period before the account is deleted where logging in, replying to the notification, or any other activity on the account resets the process to the start.

It's up to them to set the terms however, so as a user you need to read those terms and not create an account if you don't agree with it..

If they have changed the terms of the agreement, and you have not logged in to accept the new agreement, then they should not take any action.

[kitt]

Автор сообщения: Mr. Monday

Автор сообщения: Breakpoint

You could forget and not receive the notification mail accidentally.

You could be in the hospital.

You could work for your exams.

You could be under pressure at work.

You could lose your computer.

You could be in depression, etc.


Six months is too short.

Add "You're in the military and are currently deployed to an area where you don't have internet access" to this list.

1) your fault

2) in which case are you in a hospital for 6 months without the possibility to use the internet or let family/friends log in? except when you are in a coma obviously but then you probably have bigger issues that your account

3) you work 6 months straight for your exam? do you eat? do you poop? do you sleep? do you shoer?

4) only if you work on the Titan

5) if you lose your computer you don't lose access to the internet

6) depression doesn't mean you can't acces the internet

7) 6 months are too shot? thats half a year

8) which military base doesn't have internet nowadays? again family/friends are free to login



And 6 months doesn't mean they will delete you at exactly the 6 month mark.



Also thanks to the person that gave me the Jester award on my posts. You know the Jester doesn't bother me at all so its quite the waste of points.





other examples:

https://blog.google/technology/safety-security/updating-our-inactive-account-policies/



https://istouchidhackedyet.com/do-mega-accounts-expire/
"Does Mega delete inactive accounts?
Your account will temporarily be disabled for being inactive after three months if your account remains inactive and non-responsive."

https://web.de/email/tipps/posts/tipps-fuer-ungenutzte-postfaecher/290/ (one of the email providers I use)

https://proton.me/support/inactive-accounts

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/topic/microsoft-account-activity-policy-7c0a9fa7-0982-b7c6-fd72-df852b63699f



and the list goes on..




probably against EU laws (or some German law) in most cases but who has the money to take it the courts? well, I don't have the money..

[Crid]

why are ppl only now starting to complain about that ? is there really nothing more interesting going on....
I got an email of that sort myself, a couple years ago, saying I haven't used my account in over 4 years, and will be deleted if I don't click that link .. within 30 days, a very generous amount of time imo.
Took a second to click it and I still have my account .. however, thinking about how if I don't use something in 4 years, I probably won't use it again, it wouldn't have been a big loss anyways

[karidosu]

Poor Ubisoft icant keep my accoun for 5 years?
Lol

[DarkMachine]

So does Google themselves and plenty of other services of ages past:

https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-stop-google-delete-account-inactive/

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/12418290

Автор сообщения: wuddih

Valve, at least for a while, dunno if they still do, did delete inactive accounts(2 years) if they had nothing of monetary value on them (wallet credit/paid sub - the latter means anything that is not a sub defined as type of "no cost" or condensed: f2p games)

as for poopysoft, not news to me, this is just resurfacing. i believe to have read that the inactivity period is 4 years.

on google, it is 2 years, which actually affected me once.

Google previously did try shutting down accounts that is obviously create for spams and both Microsoft and Yahoo actively cleared email accounts that haven't been used in years. This have happen like decades ago.

[Lithurge]

Автор сообщения: Kargor

You know how much data is used up by an account? I'll tell you -- a tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny amount. Give or take, could be even less.

Yes, they can easily keep things "forever".

Ubisoft is a French company, which means they're subject to EU laws. As I've already stated there's a data processing law that REQUIRES companies to delete peoples data when they no longer have a relationship. So no, even though it's easy and very low cost, they can't keep accounts forever.

The law is vague about time limits, but gives the impression it should be deleted sooner rather than later unless you're a certain type of organisation, e.g. banks are required to keep data for a period after a relationship for potential law enforcement purposes.

They may be overzealous in their interpretation and it's entirely possible that owning a license to a game is enough to constitute a relationship with them, but that needs to be tested.

[Tito Shivan]

Автор сообщения: kitt

its known since at least 2020 so I don't understand the renewed fake shock?

Overwatch 2 landed on Steam and people look for a stick to hit the beaten horse with.

[kitt]

Автор сообщения: Tito Shivan

Автор сообщения: kitt

its known since at least 2020 so I don't understand the renewed fake shock?

Overwatch 2 landed on Steam and people look for a stick to hit the beaten horse with.

ok but what has Ubisoft to do with Overwatch 2? (I will give you the benefit of a doubt here though)


Obviously there is a lot to complain about when it comes to companies like Ubisoft, Blizzard and Co

[BloodShed]

You're all acting like this is new.

It's not.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/559218/could-gdpr-policy-erase-your-games-it-happened-to-an-ubisoft-customer.html

And here's a quote for what qualifies for account deletion:

Ubisoft said it does take account deletion seriously, that it’s not done willy-nilly, and four criteria are considered before it happens:

• The gaming activity of the account since its creation.
  
  
• The ownership of PC games since the creation of the account: accounts tied to purchased games are not eligible for deletion
  
• The duration of inactivity of the account, meaning the last login to our ecosystem (including from Ubisoft games on Steam and other platforms). While our Terms of Use are meant to reflect every possibilities, in practice, we have never deleted accounts that have been inactive for less than 4 years.
  
• The existence of an active subscription to Ubisoft + related to the account.

Before an account is deleted, Ubisoft said, the gamer should receive three emails over a 30-day period offering to restore the account to active status. The user will also receive an error message when logging in warning of the pending deletion.

[DeadPhoenix]

I haven't touched my Ubisoft account for over 3 years. And if they happen to delete it. I'm okay with it.

[BloodShed]

Автор сообщения: DeadPhoenix

I haven't touched my Ubisoft account for over 3 years. And if they happen to delete it. I'm okay with it.

If you have any purchased games (From Ubisoft or via Steam (and played once)) your account is safe.
If not, you would have received warning E-mails.