Hearing Zone Chat no matter what zone you’re in, even in trials, dungeons and homes

Rittings · December 2022

So I’m hearing snippets of what appear to be random strangers in zone chat. Upon first investigation it appears to be pieces of random zone chats from around Tamriel… however further investigation is that whilst it appears to be zone chats, it’s not always the case. Sometimes it’s from guild chats and private group chats. This is an horrific private invasion bug that I’m shocked hasn’t been addressed.

The names all appear in the normal bottom of the screen, and persist no matter what chats your logged into. And all names have a big grey square at the end of their psn. But knowing you could be in a private game chat and sharing sensitive information when you think it’s only with a friend but actually many random people are hearing? It’s got huge legal ramifications…

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_Bill

This ineeds your attention asap.

Rittings · February 2023

This is back again as of today (after maintenance). I'm hearing the chat of a person and I messaged them and they said that they aren't even in any chats - which is confirmed since I could just hear them talking to someone in their house. Whilst they don't have their microphone hard muted, they double checked and found their mic not enabled in ANY chat they are in.

They had to hard mute their chat. Honestly, if Sony got wind of this they would be furious about it. It's a MASSIVE privacy issue. Unless players hard mute, or remove their microphones they could find themselves randomly broadcasting to anyone. And in a world of fraud issues, this is highly dangerous - I mean I could easily have heard sensitive information, and in the wrong hands it could prove incredibly damaging.

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_Bill @ZOS_RichLambert @ZOS_MattFiror

Y'all need to get on this ASAP... I'm happy to provide screenshots etc, but I'm purposely NOT recording anything for legal purposes...

Rittings · February 2023

I did submit a ticket but didn't even get an email response to it... but the longer this is left unaddressed the more culpable Zenimax become - so it's really in their best interests to address this, and I'm happy to help or answer questions on it... but talking to others in my guild and they say they have experienced it also... and also so have their other guilds. It's HUGELY SERIOUS if this turns out the way I expect...

Necrotech_Master · February 2023

on PC ive seen the opposite issue, ill still keep seeing group chat even after leaving the group lol

this usually only persists until logging out and in though

Rittings · February 2023

No this is hearing random people even if you or they, or both of you are not in any chats…. I’m actually going to have to file a report with Sony because I fear the security breach and not getting any response from ZeniMax is kind of alarming to be honest… it’s scary that ZoS clearly have no care for personal privacy breaches and I’d fear for any of our private data if this is their attitude and reaction…

Necrotech_Master · February 2023

like its auto putting them in the voice zone channel, but its also bleeding them into various instances outside of the normal zone/area chat?

i only have a vague understanding of the console eso chat since ive never played there but seen people on the forums mention it before lol

Rittings · February 2023

Yes. This is exactly what is happening. I’ve had no choice but to report to Sony PlayStation legal team… since ZeniMax aren’t even responding to my tickets or on here and honestly it’s only a matter of time before this causes someone a huge fraud issue….especially with all the bot scammers out there… if one of them gets info, you can rest assured that they’ll abuse and exploit the information for financial gain.

Amottica · February 2023

What is odd is that, based on this thread, no one is commenting that they had the same issue as tough it is not wide spread. If this was wide spread the forums would be lit up.

Rittings · February 2023

I think it's just a PlayStation issue... and I can say with confidence that I'm not the only one experiencing this... I've spoken to a few people, and even spoken to one of the people I can hear and they confirmed someone else had said something similar to them...

The problem is, bugs aren't really being reported because there's a general apathy amongst the user base right now that Zenimax don't fix anything so why bother reporting it... and you can kinda see their point too. Especially true in the PS community... here's a screenshot of what it looks like when you get a random in your chat... see the grey square pixel block at the end of their name... that's not actually part of their gamer tag, that's the indicator that this is a person in a chat glitch that can be heard by everyone...

Rittings · February 2023

Here's a different person... same glitch...

And talking of the "apathy" and the fact Zenimax don't seem to care anymore for PlayStation... I've submitted 2 tickets now, and neither of them even have the generic response via email... just completely ignored... like they've switched off all customer support for PlayStation.

Rittings · February 2023

I was leading a Vet Sunspire run yesterday and day before and both times had like 4 or 5 random people I could hear throughout the trial... which is kinda annoying too because you can't mute them, since they aren't actually in a proper chat channel that I was in... I was in group chat, and didn't have any other chats enabled or active... but could still hear them, and it was a bit confusing as to who was giving information and callouts etc...