The Internet is awash with people demanding compensation as their personal data is now in the hands of hackers but they may be in for a shock if they take legal action against Sony. MCV has noted the following statement in the Sony Online Terms & Conditions:
We exclude all liability for loss of data or unauthorised access to your data, Sony Online Network account or Sony Online Network wallet and for damage caused to your software or hardware as a result of using or accessing Sony Online Network.
Sony may be liable to a fine from Information Commissioners Office (ICO) of up to £500,000 if they are found to have broken the UK Data Protection Act but it appears that individual PSN users will not be able to claim any financial compensation.
Source: MCV
AG2297
Did I read the T&C’s? Nope.
Would it have made any difference, even by the tiniest amount? Nope.
Why not? Because you will probably find it is the same story with every other major company and if I was to read that in some T&C’s there is no way I would suddenly presume the company would one day get hacked and possibly have my data stolen and then because of these T&C’s I wouldn’t be able to sue them.
“Oh Susan *insert company here* doesn’t take responsibility if they are hacked and our data is stolen, better not agree to that then (and the 100 other T&C’s we need to sign for various companies) incase that happens. They also dont insure for Zombie Outbreaks, definitely not signing it then”
This is completely expected.
3shirts
Exactly. Whether or not we read the terms, we’d all still have bought the console and signed up to PSN because we take on the risk on the basis that they will try to protect our data.
colossalblue
yep. The important issue lies in whether the T&Cs or EULAs are legal in the UK (or EU, US for that matter). That’s a very complicated question which will be pulled apart by people with much more knowledge of the subject than I have. I’m inclined to think that those huge licence agreements are pointless though. Barely anyone reads them, fewer fully understand them. They’re a button click among half a dozen other button clicks. I think there’s a case to be argued that people can’t be held accountable for that. I suppose we’ll have to wait and see what the courts decide.
I think that the bigger issue for Sony lies in the disastrous way they’ve handled the PR around this. They’re losing the faith of their customers rapidly and if that’s not addressed in a swift and very meaningful way then they may not fully recover from this fiasco for a long time.
3shirts
I wonder how much 75 million 3D Bravias would cost Sony?
squashme
id say about $2billion give or take
squashme
if their gonna compensate everyone with a new 3D Bravia TV I wouldnt say no to that
squashme
EULA isnt law so you regard that as legal we’ve been through that before on various other threads
bradleeeeey
Has there been any news about when It’ll be back on?
Hopefully they beef up the security a bit.
squashme
within a week (hopefully)
3shirts
Let’s be under no illusion. No-one is ever going to be caught for this. Hacking of this type is routed through countless laundered connections in extremely unfriendly countries all over the world to make tracking the originator almost impossible.
“Hello, is that Libya? It’s Britain here, would you mind awfully tracing this IP address for me?”
Tuffcub
Oh I’m pretty sure Sony will spend as much money as it takes to find the guy (or gal). You dont hack something this big and make headline news across the globe and get away with it.
3shirts
Oh yes you do.
Breaches on this scale utilise mammoth botnets laundering connections all through the third world, warring nations and political black holes. This is very high earning organised crime we are talking about, not a few script kiddies hacking about.
As I said above, the UK police and government are never gonna get anywhere trying to trace connections from North Korea or Iraq and there could be literally hundreds of hops in the chain, all of which require cooperation from the local governments. No amount of money covers that, the authorities have no interest in trying to catch them (especially when the crime is just financial) and Sony don’t have the political whack to do it themselves.
hunterstryfe
Sony are Japanese in origin, maybe they should get Yakuza to hunt em down !!!!!
Awayze
If Sony don’t compensate people, hackers will get annoyed again and this time hopefully they will release a custom firmware as hackers already know exploits in the latest firmware.
I was a hardcore Sony fanboy but I’ve lost all trust in PSN now, I’m buying a Xbox 360, sticking with online on the 360.
Tuffcub
Excellent, enjoy rebuying all the games and paying for online, that makes sound financial sense. And when XBLA is hacked (which it’s bound to be at some point) you’ve still got a PS3! Win!
OK, im being sarcastic (quelle suprise) but why you should imagine this will never happen to XBL is beyond me. Everything is hackable, and the Xbox is a massive target now. You would be better off sticking the the PS3 and its forthcoming massive security upgrade.
Awayze
But the hackers have my details, even if I change my password, whats not to say they can use my D.O.B and security questions to change my password to their liking?
The hackers were saying in the chat log how PSN security was old and lame, I’d think MS’s security would be A LOT better since they charge people.
Its Sony’s fault, when the PS3’s “Hypervisor” got hacked, Sony should have updated PSN asap.
squashme
actually its geohotz fault if he hadnt had got through base level 1 security and gotten access to the hypervisor PSN would still be working right now you want someone to blame blame geohotz
Death_In_Flamez
Don’t get me wrong here, but has anyone ACTUALLY has any problems here? Lets look at myself for example….
1. No PSN purchase info has been posted through the PS Store to my email. This indicates hackers have not been able to hack through maintenance to get to the store and therefore my 20 quid is safe. To anyone and everyone I would think just getting on PSN quickly when it does return and changing your password should not be a problem. Even the bottom-dwellers can’t deal with a new password.
2. Although not an immediate thing has anyone had anything weird concerning their banks details occur? Just saying.
3. Whoever said that comment about losing consumer trust has got it bang on the head. I myself am seriously considering not getting the NGP after this issue and switching over to Xbox eventually. To be honest as well. PS+ shouldn’t be affected really as it’s not been a whole month. You will still be able to play this months games if you downloaded them in time :/
hazelam
not personally, it would be unlikely anyway as i don’t have a card on the psn, but there are reports.
http://vgn365.com/2011/04/26/psn-users-reporting-hundred-of-dollars-stolen-from-them/
jimmy-google
I’ve also seen reports of banks telling people not to cancel their cards as there wasn’t enough data taken; even if there was they believe they would spot it and stop it.
It may be hard to prove that the fraud was due to the psn. It could be a bit like when people get the ylod after a firmware update. It could just be bad luck.
The chances are (with the number of fraud cases) at some people with a psn account will have been effected by fraud through another group.
hazelam
but if the numbers of psn users with their card details storen on sony’s system who have money stolen from their accounts goes up by an unusually large amount that would be a good indication.
3shirts
@jimmy-google Dunno about any difficulty proving PSN is the cause. Card companies often spot breaches long before anyone else knows about it purely because they have software very adept at spotting patterns. In any case, we know PSN was compromised and card data was stolen. It doesn’t really matter if has been stolen from anywhere else as well, Sony will still have to pay compensation (to card companies at least) for failing to meet the Payment Card Industry standards.
squashme
apparently the way we log in from now on will be different when it comes back online
Ross
i’ve also seen reports of people having money stolen from them, but i heard somewhere that if you have not yet had anyone try to use your card or sent you spam emails you could not get any as if you just stole someone card detail you would spend it as quickly as possible before they cancelled the card.
hunterstryfe
I have had: No Email stating PSN purchase or PSN Wallet Funding
I have had: No odd activity in my bank, to be safe I have ordered new cards, destroyed old cards, changing online banking details and withdrawn all my money for the meantime.
squashme
sony shares have fallen another 3% and falling by the second lol
jimmy-google
Maybe worth buying some soon then.
squashme
lol theyve taken a big nose dive in the last week and a steeper nose dive in the last in the last 48 hours or so
3shirts
That’s the game.
At what point do you buy, gotta be before everyone else cottons on to it but not while it’s still dropping
squashme
well you dont buy shares in Sony right now while they keep falling
TURRICAN-808
Would the quotes statement be true for PS Plus members that have saves at Online Storage?
Ross
one thing is that it only takes one person to sue sony successfully for them more people to give it a go and sue them.
Ross
sorry then
squashme
ive already done that successfuly :D
deadwelsh
this still doesn’t seem as bad as the story about the iphone tracking all of your movements illegally to me.
My data has probably been stolen and sold before, someone from Natwest sold a load of details a couple of years back…
hunterstryfe
No just similar to the PS2 plotting to kill you whenever you turn it off
mullarted
I’ve never found myself disliking a corporate more than I currently dislike Sony. I hope this hits them where it hurts. I’m off to spend my money elsewhere. If it hasn’t all been nicked.