A story of digital watermarking, late-night coding and troll drama!
“Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not secretly watermarking your screenshots“
March 2021 Update: You can now own the original screenshot as an NFT here.
From 15/05/2007 (Patch 2.1.0) to 24/02/2015 (Patch 6.1.0) – i.e. for almost 8 years, Blizzard was (secretly) adding a custom, hidden, watermark on screenshots generated by the in-game capture mechanism of World of Warcraft (WoW). This is the story of how we found it.
You can read the original forum post here.
In the press:
[Destructoid]: World of Warcraft screenshots contain hidden user data
[Engadget (#1)]: Blizzard may be hiding information in your screenshots, but it can’t hurt you
[Engadget (#2)]: World of Warcraft hiding information in screenshots
[Eric Diehl]: World of Warcraft and watermarking
[Examiner]: Blizzard caught watermarking Warcraft players
[GameBreaker’s Legendary]: Legendary (The World Of Warcraft Show) Ep93: Buff Wizards! (from 1h11m11s to 1h16m42s)
[GameGuyz]: Ownedcore: WOW Screenshots May Leak User Information
[GamePolitics]: Report: Blizzard Can Track WOW Users Through In-Game Screenshots
[Geek]: World of Warcraft players discover watermark embedded in screenshots
[Hacker News (Y Combinator)]: Blizzard is secretly watermarking WOW screenshots
[HotHardware]: World of Warcraft Screenshots Are Being Embedded With Hidden Watermarks
[Kotaku]: There’s More Information Than You Think Buried In Your World of Warcraft Screenshots (also here)
[LockerGnome]: Why is Blizzard Watermarking WoW Screenshots?
[MegaGames]: Breaking: Blizzard Hides User Info In WoW Screenshots
[MyGaming]: World of WarCraft screenshots contain user information?
[NBCnews]: ‘World of Warcraft’ Maker Secretly Watermarks Screenshots
[Neowin]: Blizzard watermarks WoW screenshots with player info
[PC Gamer]: World of Warcraft may secretly include your account name and server IP in screenshots
[PogoWasRight]: Activision Blizzard Secretly Watermarking World of Warcraft Users
[Press2Reset]: Watermark reveals user IDs and server IP addresses
[Softpedia]: Blizzard Caught Secretly Watermarking the Screenshots of WoW Players
[SticktWiddlers]: BREAKING: Activision Blizzard Secretly Watermarking World of Warcraft Users
[Techspot]: World of Warcraft secretly embeds user data in screenshots
[TheDailyBlink]: The Zapruder Screenshot
[TheMarySue]: Say Cheese: Blizzard Covertly Watermarking World of Warcraft Screenshots
[TheSixthAxis]: World Of Warcraft Screenshots Contain Your User ID In A Secret Watermark
[Tom’s Hardware]: Is Blizzard Secretly Watermarking World of Warcraft Users?
[TyphoonAndrew]: Screenshots and Tin Foil Hats
[VG24/7]: World of Warcraft screenshots taken in-game reportedly include user account names, server IP
[WoWpedia]: Changing the screenshot format
[WoWWiki]: Watermark controversy
In forums:
[Bruce Schneier]: Steganography in the Wild
[DISQUS (GameBreakerTV)]: Big Brother
[Facepunch]: Activision Blizzard Secretly Watermarking World of Warcraft Users
[MMO Champion]: Blizzard adding almost invisible watermarks on screenshots
[NeoGAF]: Blizzard secretly watermarking World of Warcraft screenshots with user data
[Reddit]: Activision Blizzard secretly watermarking World of Warcraft users.
[RockPaperShotgun]: Blizzard Secretly Watermarking WoW Screenshots (Presumably For Years)
[Slashdot]: Activision Blizzard Secretly Watermarking World of Warcraft Users
In academia:
[Vienna University of Technology & SBA Research]: Piec, M. and Rauber, A., (2014). Real-time screen watermarking using overlaying layer. [online], p. 1.
[University of Nebraska – Lincoln]: Sharp, A.T., (2017). The Discrete Spring Transform: An Innovative Steganographic Attack. [online], p. 8.
Extra:
[DiabloFans]: Watermark on diablo 3 ?
[OwnedCore]: Screenshot Watermark in Overwatch
