How long does ESO store chat logs?

JessieColt

zhevon wrote: »

JessieColtub17_ESO wrote: »

Don't make stupid threats and you wont have to worry about how long anything is kept.

I distinctly remember our 7th grade class (I'm in my 50s) being being told that idling saying "I am going to kill you" is generally bad idea. That concept should probably be extended to other threats and internet behavour generally.

Yep, I remember those lessons as well.

I also remember toy guns that were made out of transparent pink plastic (squirt guns) with bright white triggers.

Growing up (I am 44) we had the freedom to play and pretend, but how serious we were was restricted by what we had available to us, and how we were taught by our elders with regards to what was and what wasn't acceptable behavior.

Those lessons seem to be lost, or just not taught, to those coming up behind us.

zhevon

JessieColtub17_ESO wrote: »

zhevon wrote: »

JessieColtub17_ESO wrote: »

Don't make stupid threats and you wont have to worry about how long anything is kept.

I distinctly remember our 7th grade class (I'm in my 50s) being being told that idling saying "I am going to kill you" is generally bad idea. That concept should probably be extended to other threats and internet behavour generally.

Yep, I remember those lessons as well.

I also remember toy guns that were made out of transparent pink plastic (squirt guns) with bright white triggers.

Growing up (I am 44) we had the freedom to play and pretend, but how serious we were was restricted by what we had available to us, and how we were taught by our elders with regards to what was and what wasn't acceptable behavior.

Those lessons seem to be lost, or just not taught, to those coming up behind us.

I also was able to pretend to smoke with candy cigarettes with real names and somehow managed to never smoke.

Adalich

yeah I remember those cigarettes, my gateway drug to the real tobacco though was cannabis. Never touched a cigarette until after I smoked a joint. Gave up cannabis and started smoking cigarettes and now I don't smoke at all. I'm sure I got the whole slippery slope thing the wrong way round.

Adalich

[Moderator Note: Edited per our rules on Spamming]

Kayira

If you are scared that someone reads your chat logs, just don't write anything that other shouldn't hear. The internet is easily monitored, so never write anything that could be used against you or others shouldn't know in the game. The safest way to tell anything to anyone is face to face.

kimboh

First of all, read the terms of service that you agreed too.
Second, stop smoking pot.

Crumpy

You give em your personal details and credit card etc and you're worried about chat logs?

wrlifeboil

The NSA paid people to play World of Warcraft to look for spies and terrorists. Why not eso?

Sirian

AlexDougherty wrote: »

They don't technically store chat logs, but the servers keep a sort of record with new chat forcing out the old, which probably takes less than a day for any record of what you said to disappear.

However from the content of your post I would deduce that you said something you really shouldn't have. If someone reported you for it, Zos could probably find it and save it for the purpose of deciding whether to ban you. So don't say it again.

If they force out old chat then how can they find it? Wouldn't it be gone?

By the way I didn't say anything bad, but there is always that possibility I could say something stupid after a few beers and regret saying anything the next day.

Crumpy

Ha well we all do that my friend, in ESO or not

JKorr

Sirian wrote: »

Wow, thanks so much for all your helpful information because I greatly appreciate it a lot. The main reason why I was asking these questions and I am bit paranoid on what I type on the internet is because one gamer is in jail for years and another gamer is going to trial soon and could face many years in jail as well because comments were taken literal and out of context.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/02/13/texas-man-faces-decade-in-prison-over-facebook-comments/?tid=pm_lifestyle_pop

http://dailycaller.com/2013/07/02/second-teen-spends-months-in-jail-for-video-game-threat/

Let's see... what are some of the worst things I could possibly say online.....

"Shoot yourself in the face and go drink bleach."

"I'm gonna go shoot a bunch of kindergarten kids."

"Go kill yourself."

"First I'll shoot up the high school like Columbine."

Good examples of what NOT to post online, under any circumstance. Sarcasm and hyperbole don't translate well through text. The current social atmosphere tends to take threats of any kind literally since things keep happening. There was another incident that is still in the news where someone went off the deep end, posted videos online, and killed quite a few people. If you don't make stupid threats and statements you don't have much to worry about.

"LFG tank and healer for a run through dungeon X" isn't going to get anyone upset. "How did you manage the boss in this quest?" No one will look twice.

Long string of profanity with threats of physical violence? Yeah. People will look twice. Forget the idiots in the links you posted, there have been people who have hunted down other gamers who they thought cheated/dissed them/whatever, and killed them.

Don't act like an immature idiot with anger management issues and there won't be a problem in the first place.

And drunk posting is usually a very bad idea. You are never as witty, smart, and impressive as you think you are.

dolmen

Sirian wrote: »

By the way I didn't say anything bad, but there is always that possibility I could say something stupid after a few beers and regret saying anything the next day.

That happens to me in RL... It's the red wine... I've started to cut back.

Maybe you should role play your character as a soft spoken, polite and mild mannered <insert race here> who wields an awesome <insert weapon here>.
If you work at staying in character you will end up thinking over every thing you say.

Adalich

[Moderator Note: Edited per our rules on Spamming]

Elvent

your internets gets sent over to the internets databases and your employer and family gets notified and all your logs gets faxed over to them and you are pretty much SOL, sorry man but thats the way the interwebzorz work

AlexDougherty

Sirian wrote: »

AlexDougherty wrote: »

They don't technically store chat logs, but the servers keep a sort of record with new chat forcing out the old, which probably takes less than a day for any record of what you said to disappear.

However from the content of your post I would deduce that you said something you really shouldn't have. If someone reported you for it, Zos could probably find it and save it for the purpose of deciding whether to ban you. So don't say it again.

If they force out old chat then how can they find it? Wouldn't it be gone?

By the way I didn't say anything bad, but there is always that possibility I could say something stupid after a few beers and regret saying anything the next day.

If they get a report it will be before the old chat is forced out, therefore they can find it, save it, then make a decision. Remember I said less than a day for it to be wiped, that's still plenty of time for action to take place.

BTW the "you obviously said something you shouldn't" was half in jest, which is why it had the angry/fuming face.

Adalich

[Moderator Note: Edited per our rules on Spamming]

zgrssd

Sirian wrote: »

Hey, I was wondering how long ESO stores chat logs? The reason why I ask is because I am concerned that long term storage of data is an invasion of ones privacy. I feel like if they store long term chat logs of a player they could spy on a player by reading all their information and figure out what kind of person they are and etc. Essentially they would be stalkers of players? Also, could use chat log information against you by taking words out of context by claiming you are going to kill someone when you were actually talking about killing something in the game or in a movie and the ESO employees ending up calling the cops you for something you didn't do wrong. Is there someone who actually monitors zone chat and would do anything like this?

If they even make chat logging (I am not sure, so I always send screenshots of the chat with my reports), they have to keep it for a while.
Plus if you insult or threaten someone on the internet via chat, you are fully liable for civil charges.

After all if they ban someone they have to proove that they violated the TOS of the game. Ohterwise it would be a legal nightmare and the law department doesn't want those.

seaef

Once they turn them over to the NSA, probably forever.

Lox

Have I really just read that from the OP or am I dreaming?

I think ill pinch myself to see if I wake up!

The fact that you are typing in the chat field is you basically agreeing to put that information in the public domain. If you don't want the information to be available then don't type it .... it's really not complicated. Anyone in the game could be logging the chat!

AlexDougherty

Lox wrote: »

Have I really just read that from the OP or am I dreaming?

I think ill pinch myself to see if I wake up!

The fact that you are typing in the chat field is you basically agreeing to put that information in the public domain. If you don't want the information to be available then don't type it .... it's really not complicated. Anyone in the game could be logging the chat!

Yes, and the fact you can scroll up and see previous chats means some sort of log is happening. I just doubt it is saved, unless they get a report.

Khandi

They don't store them. They print out the really good ones and post them in the restrooms.

Sirian

AlexDougherty wrote: »

If they get a report it will be before the old chat is forced out, therefore they can find it, save it, then make a decision. Remember I said less than a day for it to be wiped, that's still plenty of time for action to take place.

Do you work for Zenimax or know someone that works there? The only reason why I ask is because you seem pretty confident that they get rid of the chat logs within one day, unless someone reports you then they save it.

Sidney

Serious answer: Everything you do online can be seen by someone. Anytime you agree to any TOS you're agreeing that they can use whatever data they have and that if you disagree you must decline the TOS and go on your way.

Elgarr

It's their game, they can store the information for as long as they want, it's only people who have something to hide who worry about what's being stored and for how long.

But knowing zos, they most probably have no idea how long the store information for, I wouldn't be surprised if it was no time at all.
Look at the bank space bug debacle and missing items, did they return the items?
Lol no, they gave you money instead.

AlexDougherty

Sirian wrote: »

AlexDougherty wrote: »

If they get a report it will be before the old chat is forced out, therefore they can find it, save it, then make a decision. Remember I said less than a day for it to be wiped, that's still plenty of time for action to take place.

Do you work for Zenimax or know someone that works there? The only reason why I ask is because you seem pretty confident that they get rid of the chat logs within one day, unless someone reports you then they save it.

No, I don't know anyone at Zenimax.

But the fact you can scroll up the chat screen to read comments made while you were playing suggests to me a sort of short term log.

I seriously doubt they would store them long term, since that would take up a heck of a lot of memory.

This combined with a healthy dose of suspicion leads me to believe they can probably find a comment if someone complains, and make a record. Which in turn means I don't make any comments that can be construed as bullying (I'm not racist so don't make racist comments anyway).

But it's only a healthy dose of suspicion, not paranoia, i doubt they keep proper records of chat, and definately don't think they turn records over to any intelligence agency (not even NSA which living outside America has no jurisdiction over me anyway).

KitLightning

AlexDougherty wrote: »

But the fact you can scroll up the chat screen to read comments made while you were playing suggests to me a sort of short term log.

I seriously doubt they would store them long term, since that would take up a heck of a lot of memory.

They most likely does store the data in order to follow up on reports, though what the expected time-frame per resolution is, could be from one month etc. etc. etc.

btw the data logs from a chat isn't expensive to store...

AlexDougherty

KitLightning wrote: »

btw the data logs from a chat isn't expensive to store...

Are you sure about that?, I don't mean to sound insulting, but we are talking about a couple of million players (obv not all at once). Surely even with just text that's a lot of data.

Sirian

Another thing I was thinking about if there is a possibility they don't save the chat logs because they want you to take a screenshot when you report someone. However, I have been to lazy to screenshot gold spammers in zone chat and gold spammers sending me in-game mail messages about gold. I just report their name and what they have done wrong. I wonder after I report them if they go investigate chat logs and so forth, or do they rely on screenshots as proof? If they relay on screenshots as proof then their chat logs are deleted probably within a days time. I really wish Zenimax would reply to this thread, so I can get understanding on what really happens with chat logs instead of all this speculation by random posters.