Blizzard Entertainment® Online Privacy Policy

 

California Residents: Click HERE for the California Notice at Collection

 

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. and its subsidiaries (collectively "Blizzard") respects the privacy of its players and online visitors and recognizes the importance of providing a secure environment for them. We have adopted a company-wide online Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) that explains how we collect, store, and use the information you provide us. This Privacy Policy details how Blizzard safeguards the privacy of its online visitors and users of its products and services. This Privacy Policy does not cover Information provided when you apply for a job at Blizzard. This Privacy Policy does not apply to and cannot control activities when you click a link to other sites from a Blizzard website. We highly recommend that you read the privacy policy of any third-party website you may be directed to before providing any personally identifiable information.

 

The personal information you provide may be transferred to, stored, and processed within the United States or other countries where Blizzard maintains facilities or business operations.

 

By using this website and/or any of Blizzard’s products or services, you acknowledge the terms of the Privacy Policy. If you object to anything described in this Privacy Policy, please do not use our websites or play our games. This Privacy Policy may change from time to time, so please check back periodically to ensure that you are aware of any changes. If we make a material change to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you by posting the change on our websites or in this Privacy Policy.

 

This Privacy Policy and the certification seals on our websites confirm that Blizzard is a valid licensee, and participating member, in good standing of the Entertainment Software Rating Board’s Privacy Certified Program (“ESRB Privacy Certified”). ESRB Privacy Certified is designed to ensure that our information collection, use and disclosure practices are responsible and appropriate. To protect your privacy, we have voluntarily undertaken this privacy initiative, and all of our websites where this Privacy Policy is posted have been reviewed and certified by ESRB Privacy Certified to meet established online information collection, use and disclosure practices.

 

1. What personal information do we collect and how do we use it?

 

Information collected from you. If an online visitor submits information to Blizzard, it will usually be through either: (1) the purchase of goods or services though our online platforms, (2) product or account registration, or registration for online game participation, (3) player match-up services, (4) message boards or forums, (5) eCards or recruit-a-friend e-mails, (6) warranty registrations, (7) contest registrations, (8) the playing of a game or use of a service, (9) surveys, research, sweepstakes, contests, and promotions (10) customer service or technical support, (11) Share Wish List feature, (12) mobile notification and/or (13) newsletters, emails, or social media. Personal information collected may include your name, home address, phone number, and/or e-mail address. We do not require this information to gain access to our websites, however, you will not be able to utilize certain products, services, or features that require unique identifiers for registration, or receive materials such as newsletters unless such information is provided.

 

Visitors purchasing products or services may have to provide additional information such as a valid credit card number, expiration date, and shipping and billing addresses.

 

For some activities, we may ask you to create a username and password and/or to provide other personal and non-personal information including but not limited to your age, date of birth, gender, phone number, and/or game and platform preferences; we may combine such information with other personal and/or non-personal information.

 

In specific cases, we may ask you to provide a copy of a document or government-issued ID to verify your identity, location, and/or account ownership. When photo identification is provided to us, we ask that you obfuscate any sensitive information per our Customer Service guidelines, and it is normally deleted as soon as the identification verification is complete or after 30 days if the case was not addressed within this period of time, unless otherwise required to establish, defend, or exercise our legal rights.

 

From time to time, we may also post customer testimonials that contain personally identifiable information on Blizzard’s websites. However, we will obtain the customer’s consent to post these testimonials prior to publication in accordance with the applicable Blizzard agreement.

 

Additionally, communications made using a product or service should not be considered private. Blizzard may monitor and/or record your communications (including without limitation chat text) when you are using a product or service for toxicity analysis, to prevent cheating and fraud, or for enforcement of Blizzard’s End User License Agreement (EULA) and/or terms of use. By using the speech to text feature in voice chat, you understand that your communications, including voice, may be used for transcription of speech to text, including for accessibility purposes. We do not retain the chat transcription beyond actioning for toxicity, and it is thereafter deleted. We provide notice when these communications are monitored, and you may choose not to use these communications features. Users should not have an expectation of privacy concerning the transmission of any user generated content or communications, including without limitation chat text or voice communications, and you hereby acknowledge that we will monitor and record such communications as described in this Privacy Policy. Because voice chat and other communications may be viewed and/or heard by other users, users should avoid revealing any personally identifiable information in those communications.

 

Information Collected Automatically. In addition, your web browser or client software may transmit certain geographic information or information regarding your computer (capabilities, game data processing, hardware or software information, cookie information etc.) or usage of our websites, products, and services (referring/exit pages, clickstream data, etc.) to Blizzard. Blizzard may also collect IP information, which it may use to determine your approximate location. Blizzard may use this information to generate aggregate statistics about our user community. In addition, Blizzard may use such information for security, system integrity (the prevention of hacking, cheats, etc.), personalization of your experience to tailor content, like personalizing information about our games, including for marketing or promotional purposes, or for enforcement purposes. We may combine this automatically collected information with other information we collect about you.

 

Blizzard and its affiliated companies, and our partners, such as marketing partners, (listed here), may use tracking technologies such as cookies, beacons, tags, scripts, and/or similar technologies on our websites to analyze trends, administer the website, track users’ movements around the website, tailor content and marketing, gather information about our user base, remember users’ settings, for authentication, and to improve and adjust user experiences. We may also use clear gifs in our HTML-based emails to let us know which e-mails have been opened by recipients. This allows us to gauge the effectiveness of certain communications and the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. For more information about Blizzard’s use of cookies, please see our Cookie Policy, which is also incorporated by reference into this Privacy Policy and made part of this Privacy Policy. Users can control the use of cookies at the individual browser level. If you reject cookies, you may still use our websites, but your ability to use features or areas of our websites may be limited.

 

We, and third parties with whom we partner to provide certain features on our websites or to display advertising based on your web browsing activity, use Local Shared Objects such as Flash cookies, and Local Storage such as HTML5, to store content information and preferences. Various browsers may offer their own management tools for removing HTML5. To manage Flash cookies, please click here.

 

We partner with third party ad networks to manage our advertising on other sites. Our ad network partners may use tracking technologies to collect information about your activities on this and other websites to provide you targeted advertising based upon your interests. Some of these ad networks are members of the Networking Advertising Initiative (“NAI”) and/or the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”) – organizations who offer a single location to opt out of receiving tailored ads. If you wish to not have your information used to serve you targeted ads, you may opt-out by visiting the DAA’s Consumer Choice page and/or the NAI’s Consumer Opt-Out page. Please note this does not opt you out of being served advertising. You will continue to receive generic, or non-targeted, ads. Please also note we strive to adhere to the DAA’s Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising.

 

Information collected from third parties (our vendors, affiliates, and business partners). Blizzard may enhance or merge the personal information collected from Blizzard websites, applications, and our games with data from third-party partners and vendors, in order to update your contact information, perform market analysis, improve our products, services, or systems, or for other purposes described in this Privacy Policy. If you register an account using another company’s credentials such as Facebook credentials, , the following information may be collected: (1) your first and last name and other information made publicly available by you, (2) your friends list, (3) the email address associated with your account, (4) live profile including picture profile, and (5) and other data shared by the company such as gamertag and game play data. This information may also be used to tailor content, marketing, and improve and adjust your user experience. Similar data exchanges will occur when you link your Blizzard account with other companies, such as Twitch and console platforms.

 

How we use your information. The personal information you provide Blizzard, and that Blizzard collects automatically, will allow us to provide our games and services, fulfill your product or service order; alert you of new products or services, features, or enhancements; handle/route your customer service or technical support questions or issues; to send eCards or “recruit-a-friend” emails; and/or notify you of upgrade opportunities, contests, promotions, or special events and offers. We also use this information to secure our services and user accounts, to prevent cheating and fraud, to monitor for toxicity, and to enforce our agreements with you. In addition, we use your Information to operate our business, including analyzing our performance, conducting research, meeting our legal obligations, and for recruitment purposes in the US.

 

We may use your personal information for internal marketing or demographic purposes to adapt our products and services. We do this to better understand and serve our customers.

 

Personal information submitted by individuals acting solely in a business capacity is not subject to the uses set forth above or to any other practices stated in this Privacy Policy. This includes employees and former employees.

 

2. What type of communications may you receive?

 

Offers

We will occasionally send you information on products, services, special deals, sweepstakes, contests, and promotions. Out of respect for your privacy, we present the option not to receive these communications. Please see the “Choices” section below.

 

Service-related Announcements

We will send you service-related announcements when it is necessary to do so. You will also receive communication regarding your account security, such as reminders to reset your password and alerts related to changes and suspicious login activity on your account. Some of these communications may be sent by SMS message. Generally, you may not opt-out of these service-related communications, which are not promotional in nature.

 

Game-related Announcements

We may send you information related to the game(s) you play. For instance, we may congratulate you on your recent success.

 

Customer Service

Based upon the personally identifiable information you provide us, we will send you a welcoming email to verify your username and password. We will also communicate with you in response to your inquiries, to provide the services you request, and to manage your account.

 

Recruit a Friend/E-cards/Share Wish List

If you choose to use our recruit-a-friend, Share Wish List, or e-card features, we will ask you for your friend’s name and email address. We will automatically send your friend a one-time email inviting him or her to visit the website. Blizzard does not store this information and uses it solely to send this one-time email and to track the success of our referral program.

 

3. Who is collecting your information?

 

When you are asked for information while on a Blizzard website or in a Blizzard game or service, you are providing that information to Blizzard.

 

Occasionally, Blizzard may use third-party contractors to collect and process personal information on its behalf (for product and prize fulfillment, etc.). In these instances, Blizzard controls the use of your data via written contracts which conform to this Privacy Policy.

 

In addition, some services are provided with partner companies. For instance, if you purchase something from Blizzard and ask that it be sent to you via FedEx, your information will be collected by FedEx. If you do not want your information shared, you can choose not to allow the transfer of information by not using that service or by not providing any information. We contractually limit the way that service providers and third parties can use and disclose the personal information we provide to them and we require them to provide the same level of privacy protection as required by applicable law.

 

Our websites may include certain social media features such as the Facebook "Like" button, and widgets such as the Share this button or interactive mini-programs that run on our websites. These features may collect your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, which page you are visiting on our websites, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Social media features and widgets are hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our websites. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.

 

4. With whom may your personal information be shared?

 

Blizzard will share your personal information with service providers and third parties only in the ways that are described in this Privacy Policy.

 

We may, however, share de-identified, aggregated, and/or public information with third parties. Additionally, we share unique identifiers specific to your device with service providers and third parties to tailor content and to adjust and improve our services.

 

We may share your personal information with our affiliated companies, available here, including for our affiliated or subsidiary companies’ own marketing purposes such as personalized advertisements. Blizzard is not responsible for the privacy practices of our affiliates and the use of your Information by those companies (such as for product improvement) will be governed by those specific companies’ privacy policies, which you may find on each company’s website.

 

If you purchase a product or license a game from another company on our Battle.net platform or when you link accounts or otherwise interact directly with another company, we may share information we collect such as your account information and game play data with that company so they may establish or maintain a direct relationship with you. Because of that sharing, you may receive communications from that company including for their own marketing purposes such as personalized advertisements. Blizzard is not responsible for the privacy practices of those companies and the use of your Information by those companies.

 

We share some of our players’ game data with our community of developers who create applications and websites that benefit our player community. You may opt-out of having your game data included in this program by opting out of game-data sharing in the Privacy section of Battle.net account management.

 

We reserve the right to disclose your Information if we are required to do so by law. We may also disclose your information to law enforcement or in civil litigation in connection with the enforcement of our rights or your legal obligations (e.g., bringing legal action against you if you are violating the EULA).

 

We may share your information with vendors Blizzard engages to perform services for Blizzard (for example, platform providers, media partners, event ticket providers, merchandise vendors, survey providers, billing, consumer services support, information technology hardware and software). In these situations, a written contract between Blizzard and the vendor shall control such disclosure, the vendor must agree to reasonable levels of security regarding your data and the vendor will not be permitted to use your data except as required for the performance of those services for Blizzard. If your data is anonymized, the vendor may use it for other purposes.

 

As with any business, your personal information is also an asset of Blizzard and will become part of our normal business records. As such, we may also disclose your personal information to a third party if we decide to sell a line of business to that third party, so you can continue to receive service and information in connection with that line of business with as little disruption as possible. Similarly, in the event of a merger, acquisition, reorganization, bankruptcy, or other similar event, your personal information may be transferred to Blizzard's successor or assign.

 

Blizzard may also have message boards, forums, and/or chat areas, where users can exchange ideas and communicate with one another. When posting to a message board, forum, or chat area, the information is being made publicly available online and the user does so at his or her own risk. For certain forums, anyone posting or replying to a post may be doing so using their Real ID -- that is, their full first and last name -- with the option to also display the name of their primary in-game character (see discussion regarding Real ID below). If your personal information is posted on one of our community forums, you may contact us at dataprivacy@blizzard.com to request removal. Sometimes, we may not be able to remove your personal information, in which case we will let you know if we cannot do so and why.

 

5. What choices do you have regarding the collection, use, and distribution of your personal information?

 

You have choices over the Information provided by you and by other sources, and how Blizzard uses that Information. You can exercise your choices by updating your preferences at any time and also by managing your settings in your Battle.net account, on your devices and third-party accounts.

 

Your Choices About Information Provided Directly by You

If you do not want to provide Blizzard with personal information that we collect directly from you, then you can choose not to provide it. If you choose not to provide us with personal information, we may not always be able to provide you with the Blizzard product or service you want. For example, without providing an email address, you cannot create a Battle.net account.

 

Your Choices About Information Provided by Third Parties

You may control how third parties, like when you link your account to social media, collect and share your Information by changing your preferences or opting out of collection directly with those third parties. Before disclosing Information to third parties, we recommend you check their respective privacy policies for further details.

 

Your Choices About Blizzard Using Your Information

You can exercise choices over how Blizzard uses your personal information and update your preferences at any time:

• to remove yourself from receiving targeted email marketing or newsletters from Blizzard, simply click the unsubscribe link in the email or access your Battle.net account and edit your email communication preferences. You will need your password to access your account. To unsubscribe from communications from our affiliates, please unsubscribe directly through the methods in those emails or privacy policies.
• to disable selected Cookies from collecting information relating to the effectiveness of advertising campaigns or analytics data and from serving you with personalized advertising, please see our Cookie Policy to find out more about cookies, and the options available to manage them; and
• To remove having your game-data available to our community of application developers, opt-out of game-data sharing in the Privacy section of Battle.net account management.

 

If you opt-out of receiving email marketing communications from us, please note we may still contact you occasionally about the status of your account, such as to inform you that your account may be expiring, or for other service-related information. If you are located in the United States and wish to exercise any privacy rights you may have under applicable state law, please see Section 6 (Users in the United States: Your US Privacy Rights and Additional Privacy Information for California Residents).

 

6. Users in the United States: Your Privacy Rights and Additional Privacy Information for California Residents

 

In addition to the information provided throughout this privacy policy, state privacy laws in the United States require that we disclose to residents of those states additional information about the processing of their personal information. Below we describe the purposes for which we use and disclose personal information and for each purpose, the categories of personal information we use and disclose and the categories of third parties to whom we disclose the personal information.

 

Service functionality: We use certain personal information to provide you with our products and services, including to take steps to create an account, enter a contract for sale or for services, facilitate purchases or process payments, fulfill orders, send service communications, provide customer service functions, and conduct general business operations, such as accounting, recordkeeping, and audits, analyzing our performance, meeting our legal obligations, and recruiting.

 

Service improvement: To improve and grow our products and services, including to verify and maintain the quality of our services, develop new products and services, and understand how our products and services are being used, our customer base and purchasing trends, and the effectiveness of our marketing.

 

Personalization: To offer you recommendations and tailor our products and services to your preferences.

 

The personal information we collect and use for these purposes includes:

• Personal information provided by you:
  • Contact information, including name, account username, date of birth, email address, telephone number
  • Demographic information including your gender, date of birth, and country
  • Payment information, collected by our third-party payment processors to complete a purchase
  • Information that you provide when you register with a Property, including when you link to a third-party account
  • Audio information
  • Information contained in your communications to us, including when you contact customer service
  • Any information that you provide by interacting with our products and services (please note that some comments or information may also be visible to other users of our products and services)
  • Customer service information, such as any issues you raise and their resolution

 

• Personal information automatically collected:
  • Websites visited before and after you use a product or service
  • Browser type and language
  • IP address
  • Hardware and software information
  • Gameplay data
  • In-game communications, such as when you use a chat feature
  • Usage data
  • Purchase history

 

We disclose this personal information to:

• Service providers, including tournament providers, billing firms, customer service support, consultancies, information technology providers, cybersecurity providers, payment processors, accounting, and auditing firms

• Partners and licensees who provide you with goods or services you have requested, or create applications and websites that benefit our player community

 

Blizzard also may publicly display certain personal information about you, including certain account information and gameplay information, on our products and services, or the properties operated by our third-party partners and licensees. If you have synced a third-party account with your Battle.net account, we, or our third-party partners or licensees, may make your username available to be searched by other users if you have not opted out of this feature.

 

Sweepstakes, Contests, and Promotions: When Blizzard runs contests, sweepstakes, or promotions we collect certain personal information from participants to enter them into the event and to deliver any prizes won and we combine that personal information with other personal information we have collected about you and use such combined information for the other purposes stated in this Privacy Policy, such as to create your account or engage in marketing.

 

The personal information we collect and use for this purpose includes:

• Personal information provided by you:

  • Contact information, including name, address, postal code, age and/or date of birth, email address, telephone number, and other information you submit
  • Information you provide in order to claim any prizes you win

 

We disclose this personal information to:

• Service providers, vendors, or business partners, such as entities conducting surveys or promotions on our behalf pursuant to contact.

 

Advertising and marketing: To send you marketing communications and newsletters, personalize the advertisements you see on our products and services and third-party websites, and measure the effectiveness of our advertising.

 

The personal information we collect and use for this purpose includes:

• Personal information provided by you:

  • Contact information, including name, username, date of birth, email address, telephone number
  • Demographic information including your gender, date of birth, and country
  • Information that you provide when you register with a product or service, including when you link to a third-party account
  • Any information that you provide by interacting with our products and services (please note that some comments or information may also be visible to other users of our products and services)
  • Information about your interests in and use of various products, programs, and services
  • Marketing preferences

 

• Personal information automatically collected:

  • Websites visited before and after you use a product or service
  • Browser type and language
  • IP address
  • Hardware and software information
  • Gameplay data
  • In-game communications, such as when you use a chat feature
  • Usage data
  • Purchase history
  • Information and identifiers from your mobile device

 

We disclose this personal information to:

• Online marketing or advertising partners including on our mobile games

  • These partners may combine this personal information with information that they have collected about you when you use their services (or the websites and services of third parties) to personalize your experience or to improve the accuracy of their analytics, targeting, and measurement systems.

 

• Social media platforms

  • If you interact with us on social media platforms (or social media plug-ins and applications) (“Social Media”), you acknowledge that we access your personal information, such as name, username, or profile picture, solely under your Social Media privacy settings, and use it to tailor content, marketing, and improve and adjust user experience relating to our products and services, When you post Information publicly through our products and services, or on Social Media, it will be viewable by other users of these sites and we cannot prevent further use of the Information by third parties. For more information about how your Social Media uses and protects your Information, please refer to their privacy policies and terms of use.

• Business partners for their own marketing purposes, when you give us your consent to disclose your personal information to them.

 

Security and Fair Gaming: To protect and secure our products and services, assets, network, and business operations; and to detect, investigate, and prevent activities that may violate our policies or be fraudulent or illegal; or when necessary to protect our property or rights or the safety of our employees, customers, or other individuals. To provide a fair gaming experience to all players, Blizzard uses anti-fraud, anti-cheat, and anti-toxicity technologies to prevent any cheating and bad behavior in our games.

 

The personal information we collect and use for this purpose includes:

• Personal information provided by you:

  • Contact information, including name, username, date of birth, email address, telephone number
  • Information that you provide when you register with a product or service, including when you link to a third-party account
  • Any information that you provide by interacting with our products or services (please note that some comments or information may also be visible to other users of our products and services)

 

• Personal information automatically collected, including by monitoring and recording on your device:

  • Websites visited before and after you use a product or service
  • Browser type and language
  • IP address
  • Hardware and software information
  • Gameplay data
  • In-game communications, such as when you use a chat feature
  • Usage data
  • Information and identifiers from your mobile device
  • Activities on your device, including information about the programs running alongside the game, as specified in the applicable Terms of Use or End User License Agreement

 

We may disclose this personal information to:

• Service providers such as platform providers, cybersecurity providers, tournament providers, and information technology providers

• Other entities when we believe that this is necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of any person

• Regulatory or law enforcement agencies

 

Legal compliance: To comply with legal process, such as warrants, subpoenas, and court orders; to respond to lawful regulatory or law enforcement requests, such as when we have a good-faith belief that we must do so by law, including but not limited to disclosure to law enforcement or other government officials in connection with an investigation of fraud, intellectual property infringements, or other activity that is illegal or may expose you or us to legal liability; to exercise, establish, or defend our legal rights; to protect the vital interests of any person; and to comply with applicable legal requirements. Such personal information includes:

 

• Any information requested through legal process or that we believe in good faith is necessary to respond to lawful regulatory or law enforcement requests for the purposes listed above.

 

We may disclose this personal information to:

• Regulatory or law enforcement agencies, including jurisdictions outside of the United States where we have a good faith belief that the response is required by law in that jurisdiction, affects users in that jurisdiction, and is consistent with internationally recognized standards.

• Our legal advisors or consultants.

 

Corporate change: We may disclose any personal information that we have collected about you in connection with the sale of our business or assets in the event of a merger, acquisition, reorganization, bankruptcy, or other similar event.

 

In addition to the disclosures above, we may disclose personal information to our affiliated companies when that information is used for service functionality, service improvement, personalization, sweepstakes, contests, and promotions, advertising and marketing, and security and fair gaming. These companies may use it for their own marketing purposes. Blizzard is not responsible for the privacy practices of our affiliated companies and the use of your personal information by our affiliated companies will be governed by those specific companies’ privacy policies, which you may find on each company’s website.

 

1. Your US Privacy Rights

Residents of some states have certain rights regarding their personal information. We describe below the rights that may be available to you, depending on your state of residence.

 

Right to Request Access to Your Personal Information

You may have the right to request, up to two times in a 12-month period, access to the personal information we have collected about you and information regarding the source of that personal information, the purposes for which we collect it, and the third parties and service providers to whom we sell, share, or disclose it. Please note that certain information may be exempt from such requests under law.

 

Right to Request Correction of Your Personal Information

You may have the right to request that in certain circumstances we correct personal information that we have collected about you. Some information may be exempt from such requests under law.

 

Right to Request Deletion of Your Personal Information

You may also have the right to request that we delete personal information that we have collected from or about you. However, we need certain types of personal information so that we can provide our products and services to you. If you ask us to delete it, you may no longer be able to access or use our products and services. To submit a request for deletion, click here to access our online webform. The deletion of a Battle.net account is permanent and cannot be reversed; also, all games, assets and history will also be permanently deleted.

 

Some personal information may be exempt from such requests under law. We may still retain personal information to: (a) protect our business, systems, and users from fraudulent activity, (b) to address technical issues that impair existing functionality, (c) necessary for us, or others, to exercise their free speech or other rights, (d) comply with law enforcement requests pursuant to lawful process, (e) for scientific or historical research, (f) for our own internal purposes reasonably related to your relationship with us, or to comply with legal obligations.

 

Limit Use of Your Sensitive Personal Information

California residents have the right to limit our use of their sensitive personal information if we use such personal information to infer characteristics about them, subject to certain exceptions. We do not currently use sensitive personal information for purposes that require us to offer this limitation option. In some states, we may be required to obtain your consent before collecting your sensitive personal information.

 

Sale and/or Sharing of Personal Information; Targeted Advertising; Profiling

Under the laws of some states, consumers have the right to opt out of the sale of personal information or the sharing of their personal information with third parties for targeted advertising (also known as cross-context behavioral advertising or interest-based advertising). In applicable states, Blizzard automatically opts out any users who it knows to be between the ages of 13 and 15 from receiving targeted advertising.

 

Blizzard does not currently “sell” personal information, as we interpret that term under applicable law, but we share certain information with vendors who do work on our behalf for the business purposes we describe above.

 

We also may allow third-party advertising companies to collect Information about your activity on our websites and in our apps, for example through cookies, device identifiers, pixels, web beacons and social network plugins. These advertising entities use Information they collect to help us provide more relevant content and for other purposes described in our Privacy Policy. You can control the sharing of your personal information for targeted advertising (and any future sales of personal information) through our websites and apps in the following ways:

• To set up cookie controls and opt-out of advertising cookies, including third-party advertising cookies, click here .

• You can also set up cookie controls through many browser settings and you can use industry-wide opt outs to control the use of cookies for interest-based advertising purposes.

• You may also opt out through the privacy settings page of our Blizzard mobile game applications that may share you data for these purposes.

 

The personal information collected through these methods is associated with your browser or device, so if you would like to opt out for this information you will need to disable cookies or trackers as described above. Because your opt-out preference is stored in a cookie, if you clear your cookies, then we will not recognize your device or your choices, so you must opt out again. You may also disable non-advertising cookies through your browser or device settings.

 

Personal Information Collected Through Battle.net Accounts

In addition to the opt-outs related to advertising above, we support state privacy laws by allowing residents of certain states where this right is applicable to opt out of any other future sale or sharing of their personal information for targeted advertising through our Battle.net account settings and via our website footer link. Logging in with an account helps us to process your request. California residents may also contact our toll-free number 1-877-566-3886.

 

In applicable states, where required, Blizzard recognizes Do Not Track settings and the Global Privacy Control.

 

How to Exercise Your Access, Correction, and Deletion Rights

You may exercise any privacy rights to which you are entitled by submitting your request to us here or by calling our toll-free number above for California residents. To exercise your right to correction, please update your account information directly or send an email to DPO@blizzard.com.

 

For security purposes, we will verify your identity – and may request information from you to do so – when you request to exercise your privacy rights. If you have an online account you use to interact with Blizzard, logging into your account will serve to verify your identity and request. We may request additional information if we believe your account has been compromised. If you do not have an account with us, or if we have reason to suspect that the security of your account is compromised, then we may request additional information from you to match with our existing records to verify your identity, depending on the nature of the request and the sensitivity of the information sought.

 

Some states permit you to designate an agent to make requests to exercise your rights as described above. We will take steps to both verify the identity of the person seeking to exercise their rights as listed above, and to verify that your agent has been authorized to make a request on your behalf through providing us with a signed written authorization or a copy of a power of attorney.

 

Once we have verified your identity (and your authorized agent, as applicable), we will respond to your request as appropriate. If we are unable to complete your requests, we will provide you information about the reasons that we could not comply with your request.

 

Profiling

We do not engage in “profiling” in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects.

 

Right to Nondiscrimination

We will not deny, charge different prices for, or provide a different level of quality of goods or services if you choose to exercise these rights, unless allowed under applicable law.

 

Appeals

Some state laws allow residents who are not satisfied with our response to their requests to appeal our decision by contacting us as described in the written notice we will provide to you.

 

2. Additional Information for California Residents

 

Notice of Privacy Practices for California Residents

Depending on how you interact with us, Blizzard may collect about you the following categories of personal information. For information about the purposes for which we use and disclose information, and additional potential disclosures of personal information, please see Users in the US: Your US Privacy Rights and Additional Privacy Information for California Residents section above.

• PERSONAL IDENTIFIERS, (e.g. account name, BattleTag, name, email address, phone numbers, home address, social media handles, legal guardian details, any open field such as chat records), collected from you (both directly and through your use of our games and services), our vendors, our affiliates and marketing partners, and Social Media and other third-party accounts, if you choose to link them.

• PROTECTED CLASSIFICATIONS, (e.g. age/date of birth, gender, dietary restrictions, food allergies), collected from you (both directly and through your use of our games and services), our vendors, and our affiliates and marketing partners.

• COMMERCIAL INFORMATION, (e.g. order details/purchase history, subscriptions, refunds, payments, shipping details, gifts, tax related information, unclaimed property information), collected from you (both directly and through your use of our games and services), our vendors, and our affiliates and marketing partners.

• ACTIVITY INFORMATION, (e.g. region, activity log, cookies, operating systems and versions, licenses details, forum content, wish list, game-play information, including match data, progress and history, game stats, unlocks), collected from you (both directly and through your use of our games and services), our vendors, and our affiliates and marketing partners.

• INFERENCES ABOUT A PERSON, (e.g. reputation, experience, influencer type, interests), collected from you (both directly and through your use of our games and services), our vendors, our affiliates and business partners, and Social Media and other third-party accounts, if you choose to link them.

• GEOLOCATION DATA, (e.g. geolocation based on IP address, IP address), collected from you (both directly and through your use of our games and services).

• CONTENT OF COMMUNICATIONS, (e.g. audio, speech to text chat transcription, information submitted in forums, chat, or message boards, communications with customer service), collected from you (both directly and through your use of our games and services).

 

We may share personal identifiers, activity information, coarse geolocation data, and inferences with marketing partners and affiliated companies. Blizzard does not currently “sell” personal information, as we interpret that term under California law.

 

We determine the retention period for each of the categories of personal information listed above based on (1) the length of time we need to retain the information to achieve the business or commercial purpose for which it was obtained, (2) any legal or regulatory requirements applicable to such information, (3) internal operational needs, and (4) any need for the information based on any actual or anticipated investigation or litigation.

 

California residents have the right to opt out of the sale or sharing of their personal information, as explained here.

 

We may need to collect your personal information in order to offer you the benefits and rewards you request. For example, we may need your email address in order to verify your account to deliver an in-game item. If we do offer you the chance to participate in such a program, your participation is optional. If you choose to participate, your participation will be subject to the applicable terms or conditions, and you may withdraw at any time. Your information has no real currency value or its equivalent.

 

Reporting: The reporting information required by the California Consumer Privacy Act Regulations §7102 is available below. Statistics relate to all individuals in the United States, as Blizzard cannot determine the residence of all consumers submitting requests.

Requests to Know made in the United States: 11,492 Requests completed in whole or in part**: 9,974 Average days to respond: 1 day

Requests to Delete made in the United States: 62,255 Requests completed in whole or in part**: 49,532 Average days to respond: 5 days

Requests to Opt-out made in the United States*: 8,727 Requests completed in whole or in part**: 8,727 Average days to respond: Immediate

*Only available to residents of states that require Blizzard to accept opt-out requests

**Requests may be unable to be completed due to factors, such as incorrect topic selection in our support forms, an inability to verify a user’s control of an account from which a request is made, a user ceasing to respond to our messages for identity confirmation, or a user cancelling their request.

 

California Shine the Light Law

Since 2005, California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits our customers who are California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. We do not share our customer's personal information with unaffiliated third parties for their own direct marketing purposes. For inquiries regarding our disclosure policy, please send us an email to dataprivacy@blizzard.com, or write us at: Blizzard Entertainment, One Blizzard Way, Irvine, CA 92618-3616, USA, Attention: Data Protection Team.

 

Privacy Rights for California Minors in the Digital World

Since January 1, 2015, California Business and Professions Code Section 22581 permits California residents under the age of 18 to have the right to view, correct and request the removal of content or information they have posted to the message boards or forums. This request can be made by contacting us at Blizzard Entertainment, One Blizzard Way, Irvine, CA 92618-3616 Attention: Privacy Policy Administrator. We can also be reached via e-mail at dataprivacy@blizzard.com. Note that any information posted to the message boards or forums is publicly viewable. We strongly recommend that all users avoid posting personal or sensitive information.

 

Residual copies of content and/or information that have been deleted may remain on our backup servers. We do not have to remove posted content or information if it has been rendered anonymous. We may retain your Information to resolve disputes, enforce our user agreements, or comply with legal requirements; in this case, your personal information will be blocked from use for any other purpose. Additionally, we do not have control over third parties (e.g., other users) who may have copied or reposted the content or information.

 

7. Privacy Information for Nevada Residents

 

Under Nevada law, Nevada residents who have purchased goods or services from us may opt out of the “sale” of “covered information” (as such terms are defined under Nevada law) for monetary consideration to a person for that person to license or sell such information to additional persons. “Covered information” includes first and last name, address, email address, and phone number, or an identifier that allows a specific person to be contacted either physically or online. As discussed above, we share your information with certain third parties, such as service providers, in ways described above. We do not believe that our sharing in this regard would qualify as a sale under Nevada law. Nonetheless, if you are a Nevada resident who has purchased goods or services from us, you may submit a request to record your preference to opt out for the future. Please note we may take reasonable steps to verify your identity and the authenticity of the request.

 

8. Children and Parents

 

Children Under 13

Once a child states that his/her age is under 13, they will be unable to register an account with us. We do not knowingly collect or store any personally identifiable information from children under 13. However, we may collect technical information required for delivering the service and for the support of our internal operations from all users of our Properties. If parents believe that we have unintentionally collected their children’s’ personal information, or otherwise used their children’s personal information for another purpose, they may request the deletion of the information by contacting us at Attention: Privacy Policy Administrator, One Blizzard Way, Irvine CA USA 92618-3616. They may also e-mail us at dataprivacy@blizzard.com.

 

Note to Parents

We recognize a special obligation to protect personal information about young children. We urge parents to instruct their children to never give out their real names, addresses, or phone numbers, without parental permission, when online. Teenagers under the age of 17 and over the age of 12 should encourage their parents to review this policy and to contact us if they would like to invoke our opt-out capabilities or to raise any concerns. For more information, you may visit our Parental Controls page at https://us.battle.net/account/parental-controls/index.html.

 

9. What is Real ID?

 

Real ID friends can see each other’s real-life name and can see each other’s characters across all Blizzard products and services. By participating in Real ID, you will have the option of making your real name visible to your friend’s friends, who will also be able to invite you to become friends. The controls for Real ID are located in Battle.net account management.

 

When you and a friend mutually agree to become Real ID friends, you will have access to several additional features, including:

• Real Names for Friends: Your Real ID friends will appear under their real-life names on your friends list, when chatting, communicating in-game, or viewing a character's profile.

• Cross-Realm and Cross-Game Chat: With Real ID, friends can chat cross-realm, cross-faction, and cross-game using Blizzard’s products and services.

• Rich Presence: You will see additional info on your friends list about what your Real ID friends are up to in Blizzard’s products and services in real time.

 

10. What is Global Play?

 

Certain Blizzard games feature "Global Play," which allows you to play with other players outside of the region associated with the creation of your Blizzard account. This feature is very beneficial to players who travel frequently or have friends and family in other regions. The Global Play feature requires that some or all of the personal information that you provided when you created your Blizzard account be transferred to servers operated by Blizzard in other regions.

 

11. What are Internet Protocol addresses?

 

An Internet Protocol ("IP") address is the unique number assigned to your server or Internet Service Provider ("ISP"). Blizzard may track such IP addresses for system administration, to report aggregate information, site tracking, security purposes, or to prevent our servers from being abused. See the tracking technology discussion above.

 

12. How secure is your personal information?

 

Blizzard takes a range of security measures designed to protect your personal information and keep it confidential (unless it is non-confidential by nature, for example, publicly available information like user generated content, leaderboard rankings, forum posts and scores, etc.). We also take steps to ensure that the personal information collected is protected from misuse and alteration. In addition, we request vendors who process personal information on our behalf to themselves take a range of security measures designed to help protect your personal information. However, the Internet by its nature is not a secure environment and the nature of security risks is constantly evolving, as are the technical and organizational industry standards relating to management of those risks. The complete security of any personal information collected, stored or used by us or our vendors cannot therefore be guaranteed.

 

It is very important for you to understand that you control the security of your account to a great extent. Choosing a password you don’t use on any other system is important. Changing that password occasionally is also a good idea. Another way to substantially increase your account security is to add a free Blizzard authenticator app to your phone; just go to the app store for your phone and download it at no cost to you.

 

13. Help for People with Disabilities

 

If you have a disability that makes exercising any of your rights in this Privacy Policy difficult, we want to help you through alternative means. Please contact us and let us know how we may best help you, at DataPrivacy@Blizzard.com or 877-566-3886 or Blizzard Entertainment, One Blizzard Way, Irvine, CA 92618-3616, USA, Attention: Data Protection Team.

 

14. What if you have a question or complaint?

 

If you have questions or wish to file a complaint, please e-mail us at DPO@blizzard.com or send a letter addressed to Blizzard Entertainment, One Blizzard Way, Irvine, CA 92618-3616, Attention: Data Protection Officer.

 

As mentioned, Blizzard Entertainment is a licensee of ESRB’s Privacy Certified Program. If you believe that we have not responded to your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, please contact ESRB Privacy Certified at http://www.esrb.org/privacy/contact.aspx. You may also e-mail them at privacy@esrb.org.

 

This Privacy Policy was last updated on March 22, 2024.