Online gaming data breaches will likely continue to increase as the industry continues to grow at the rate in which it is doing so, and with monetisation now a significant factor.
Essentially, there is value in not only your information in respect of online gaming but also in the accounts that you hold when it comes to characters and digital assets. Hackers are increasingly targeting such assets because they can make money from selling them on at your expense.
Your Lawyers, as Leading Data Leak Lawyers, represent thousands of people engaged in compensation claims in England and Wales. Find out if we can help you with a data breach compensation case by contacting our team here now.
Claiming compensation for online gaming data breaches
It is likely that we will see more and more online gaming data breaches because the popularity of this industry has grown exponentially in recent years. A lot of new games that come out are specifically designed and engineered for them to be played in massive multiplayer online ways, and as the industry has become so monetised, there are clear values in hackers targeting accounts. If you have spent years of time and money on building a character and your digital assets on a particular game, this character may have significant worth. Cyberhackers may want to steal your account from you so they can sell your assets on and make money at your expense. This has happened a lot in the past.
Ultimately, what we are looking at when it comes to claiming compensation for online gaming data breaches is whether you have been the victim of negligence. If your personal information has been misused and/or exposed through no fault of your own, that is when you could be entitled to pursue a case.
Examples could include where your information is exposed because it is hacked from a gaming platform, or where it is leaked or disclosed without your consent. If an account that belongs to you is hacked because of poor cybersecurity on your part (such as weak passwords) then there may be nothing you can do. But if your information is exposed through no fault of your own and because of the negligence of a company, that is when you could be eligible to pursue a case.
Anniversary example: EA Sports data breach
When it comes to examples of online gaming data breaches, there was the EA Sports data breach that occurred in October 2019. We are now three years on from this event, and we have previously taken cases forward for those affected by the EA Sports data breach.
According to Electronic Arts Limited in relation to notification of the EA Sports data breach, the incident occurred on or around the 3rd October 2019 and involved the opening of a registration portal for EA Sports FIFA 20 Global Series. Unfortunately, because of technical errors, some players attempting to register were seeing the information for other players who had already signed up. This is understood to have affected some 1,600 people and it essentially resulted in the unauthorised disclosure of private and personal information.
The EA Sports data breach is an example of potential negligence arising from an issue where personal data was then exposed through no fault of the customers affected.
How to get compensation for a data leak
If you want to know how to get compensation for a data leak, whether this is from an online gaming scenario or in any other kind of situation, we want to help you.
Our expert legal team can provide free, no-obligation legal advice here now. If we can pursue your case for you, we may be able to represent you on a No Win, No Fee basis.