document: title: blizzard
paragraphs: Blizzard Entertainment and its affiliate companies (collectively "Blizzard") respect the privacy of its on-line visitors and recognize the importance of providing a secure environment for them. We have adopted a company-wide On-Line 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 on-line visitors and does not apply to information that may be collected by Blizzard off-line. Please note that when you click a link to other sites from a Blizzard website, this Privacy Policy does not apply to, and cannot control the activities on, those other sites. 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.
This Privacy Policy and the certification seals shown 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.
If you are a visitor from outside the United States, 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 online products or services, you signify your assent to this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to this Privacy Policy, please do not use our websites. 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 and, if necessary, give you additional choices regarding such change prior to the change becoming effective. Your continued use of the Blizzard websites will signify your acceptance of these changes.



1. What personal information is collected?

If an on-line visitor submits information to Blizzard, it will usually take the form of either: (1) the purchase of goods or services though our on-line stores, (2) product or account registration, or registration for on-line 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) a consumer complaint, (9) surveys, (10) customer service or technical support, (11) Share Wish List feature, and/or (12) newsletters. 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 registration or receive materials such as newsletters unless such information is provided.
If you register an account using your Facebook account, the following information may be collected: (1) your first and last name and other information made publicly available by you, (2) your friends list, and (3) the email address associated with your account.
Some of our websites and/or online services require you to create an account with a third party service provider. For example, users are required to create a Mashery ID in order to use our development website. The username and email address that you create through this platform are collected by both Blizzard and Mashery. In these types of instances, we strongly encourage you to also review the privacy practices of the third party prior to divulging any personal information.
Visitors purchasing products or services will be required to provide additional information such as a valid credit card number, expiration date, and shipping and billing addresses.
Please note that, depending on the Blizzard website that you are visiting, many of the activities listed above may not be available and, as such, personal information may not be collected.


2. What other types of information may we collect?

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, and/or game and platform preferences; and, we may combine such information with other personal and/or non-personal information. In addition, your web browser or client software may transmit certain geographic information or information regarding your computer (capabilities, game data processing, etc.) to Blizzard. Blizzard may use this information to generate aggregate statistics about our user community and may provide such information to advertisers and/or our partners. Blizzard may also use such information for security, system integrity (the prevention of hacking, cheats, etc.), or enforcement purposes. Certain information regarding your game play, such as a timestamp of your last game played and your game progressions, will be collected from you and/or automatically generated based upon your use of our game services. 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.


3. How do we use your personal information?

The personal information you provide Blizzard will allow us to 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. Blizzard may enhance or merge the personal information collected at a Blizzard website with data from third parties in order to update your contact information, perform market analysis, or improve our products, services, or systems. Blizzard may also provide your personal information to other companies or organizations that offer products or services that may be of interest to you. In such cases, we will notify you that the information will be shared and provide you with an opportunity to opt-out.
Lastly, we may use your personal information for internal marketing, profiling, or demographic purposes, so we can adapt our products and services to better suit your needs. We do this to better understand and serve our customers.
Please be advised that personal information submitted by individuals acting solely in a business capacity (e.g., personal information contained in job applicant's resume) is not subject to the uses set forth above or to any other practices stated in this Privacy Policy.


4. What type of communications may you receive?



Special Offers and Updates

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


Service-related Announcements

We will send you strictly service-related announcements on rare occasions when it is necessary to do so. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance, we might send you an email. Generally, you may not opt-out of these communications, which are not promotional in nature.


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. We will communicate with you by email or telephone, in accordance with your wishes.


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 for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email and to track the success of our referral program.


5. Who is collecting your information?

When you are asked for information while on a Blizzard website, you are sharing that information with Blizzard, its parent, and its various affiliates and sister companies, unless specifically stated otherwise. As a result of this sharing, you may receive communications from any of Blizzard's affiliates. From time to time, Blizzard may use third party contractors to collect and process personal information on its behalf (for product and prize fulfillment, credit card processing, etc.).
In addition, some services are provided in conjunction with partner companies. If your personal information is being collected by a company other than Blizzard and not on Blizzard's behalf, you will be notified at the time the information is collected. If you do not want your information shared, you can choose not to allow the transfer of information by not using that particular service or by not providing any information at that time.
Please be aware that we cannot control the activities of third parties to whom we provide data, and while we cannot guarantee that they adhere to the same privacy and security procedures as Blizzard, we will take reasonable steps to assure that these third parties will provide sufficient protection of personal information.
Please be aware that advertisers or websites with links to and from our websites may collect personal information about you. And remember, this Privacy Policy does not apply to, and cannot control the activities of, those other advertisers or websites. We encourage you to carefully read the privacy policy of any advertiser or website you visit.
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 either 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.


6. With whom may your personal information be shared?

Blizzard will share your personal information with third parties only in the ways that are described in this Privacy Policy. We do not sell your personal information to third parties. We may, however, share non-personally identifiable, aggregated, and/or public information with third parties. Additionally, we may share your game play data, Battletag, Blizzard ID, and/or unique identifiers specific to your device with third parties for the purpose of tailoring content as well as personalizing, adjusting and improving our services. In addition, we may share your personal information with other Activision Blizzard group companies for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.
We reserve the right to disclose your personal information as required by law or in special cases when we have reason to believe that disclosing such information is necessary to identify, contact, or bring legal action against you if you are violating the Terms of Service or Use Agreements for a Blizzard website or product, or may be causing injury to or interference (intentionally or unintentionally) with Blizzard's rights or property, other users of a Blizzard website or product, or anyone else who could be harmed by your activities. We also reserve the right to disclose your personal information if we have a good faith belief that it is necessary to prevent fraud or other illegal activities.
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 websites 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, please be aware that the information is being made publicly available on-line 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 privacy@blizzard.com to request removal. In some cases, we may not be able to remove your personal information, in which case we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why.


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

Blizzard allows you to control the way that we use personally identifying information that we might obtain. At the time you provide personal information, Blizzard may give you the option of declining any future offers or information about new products, promotions, or services. In addition, many of the "mailings" Blizzard may send you, such as newsletters, have procedures within them to cancel the receipt of any future mailings. Lastly, you may be given the opportunity to "opt-out" of certain features or functionality (e.g. Real ID). See the applicable feature's FAQ or information page for more details.
Your browser may allow you to set a Do Not Track (DNT) signal indicating that you do not wish your online activity to be tracked. Currently, our system does not support and cannot act on DNT signal headers that we may receive. However, the choices that we provide you concerning the collection and use of your personal information will continue to operate as described in this Privacy Policy.


8. California Residents: Your California Privacy Rights

Under California law, our customers that are California residents may request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. As detailed above, we do not share our customer's personal information with unaffiliated third parties for direct marketing purposes without their approval.
If at any time you wish to opt out of having your personal information shared with third parties and/or receiving information from Blizzard (via e-mail or postal mail) about new products, services, or promotions, you can do so. You may contact us at Blizzard Entertainment Privacy Policy, Attn: Opt-Out Administrator, One Blizzard Way, Irvine, CA 92618-3616. You can also contact us by e-mailing us at opt-out@blizzard.com. Please indicate what publications or services you no longer wish to receive so that we may better address your needs.


California Privacy Rights for Minors

California residents under the age of 18 have the right to remove, or 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 Privacy Policy, Attention: Privacy Policy Administrator, One Blizzard Way, Irvine, CA 92618-3616. We can also be reached via e-mail at . Please again be advised 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 at any time.
Please note that residual copies of content and/or information that have been deleted may remain on our backup servers. We are not required to remove posted content or information if it has been rendered anonymous or if we are required by law to retain it. Additionally, we do not have control over third parties (e.g., other users) who may have copied or reposted the content or information.


9. What about Children?



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. If parents believe that we have unintentionally collected their childrens' personal information, they may request the deletion of the information by contacting us at Blizzard Entertainment Privacy Policy, Attention: Privacy Policy Administrator, One Blizzard Way, Irvine CA 92618-3616. They may also e-mail us at privacy@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 permission, when on-line. 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 evoke our opt-out policy or to raise any concerns. For more information, you may visit our Parental Controls area at https://us.account.blizzard.com/parental-controls/index.html.


10. 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.
When you and a friend mutually agree to become Real ID friends, you will have access to a number of additional features, including the following:
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.


11. What is Global Play?

Certain Blizzard games feature "Global Play," which allows you to play with other players who are outside of the region associated with the creation of your Blizzard account. 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 the regions where you wish to play.


12. What are tracking technologies and how are they used?

As is true with most websites, we gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information may include a unique identifier such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address and non-personal information such as your browser type, Internet Service Provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and/or clickstream data. We may combine this automatically collected log information with other information we collect about you. We do this to improve the services we offer you, to improve marketing, analytics, or website functionality.
Blizzard and our partners, such as marketing partners and analytics providers (listed here), may use tracking technologies such as cookies, beacons, tags and scripts. These technologies are used in analyzing trends, administering the websites, tracking users' movements around the websites, and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. We may receive reports based on the use of these technologies by these companies on an individual as well as aggregated basis.
We use cookies for various purposes including our shopping cart, to remember users' settings (e.g. language preference), and for authentication. 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 some features or areas of our websites may be limited.
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 this reason, these types of clear gifs are tied to personally identifiable information.
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 .
We partner with third party ad networks to either display advertising on our websites or 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 for the purpose of serving 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 that we strive to adhere to the DAA's Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising.


13. 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 tracking technology discussion above.


14. What do you do if you want to correct or delete your personal information?

If for any reason you are concerned with the way we are using your personal information, or would like to correct or request that we delete such personal information, please contact Blizzard Entertainment Privacy Policy, Attention: Privacy Policy Administrator, One Blizzard Way, Irvine, CA 92618-3616. You can also contact us by e-mailing us at privacy@blizzard.com. We will respond to any request for access within 30 days.
In some cases, we may not be able to delete your personal information and will retain and use our information as long as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and/or enforce our agreements.
Please note that the deletion of your data will lead to the termination of your account and all applicable services.


15. How secure is my personal information?

The security of your personal information is important to us. Blizzard has taken steps to assure that all information collected will remain secure and in its original form, i.e. free from any alteration. As such, access to all personal information is strictly controlled. When credit card information is transmitted, for example, we use industry standard, SSL (secure sockets layer) encryption. We follow generally accepted standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once it is received.
In addition, we will take reasonable steps to assure that third parties to whom we transfer any data will provide sufficient protection of personal information.


16. What if you have a question or complaint?

If you have any questions or wish to file a complaint, please feel free to e-mail us at privacy@blizzard.com or send a letter addressed to Blizzard Entertainment Privacy Policy, Attention: Privacy Policy Administrator, One Blizzard Way, Irvine, CA 92618-3616.
As previously 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 , or ESRB, Attention: Vice President, Privacy Certified Program, 420 Lexington Ave., Suite 2240, New York, NY 10170. You may also e-mail them at privacy@esrb.org.


language: en