We demand the removal of AOMSTATS and similar websites; that website only serves to harass players without consent

Age of Mythology: Retold Discussion
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A few days ago, in an AOMR match, I saw players (premade team) using AOMSTATS to dox users and harass them via the in game chat. I witnessed those users mocking and racially discriminating against a player; they were using the tool called AOMSTATS and other similar websites to obtain the player’s information, such as location, country, …

Are AOMR allowing a third-party website to reveal the location and private information of all players? What other data and private information does AOMSTATS hold? We demand the removal of those websites for harassers! And we demand that AOMR protect our data!

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If that’s true, the problem is far worse. Because aomstats gets that from the replay file, which means any random player you’re matched with against will have your info on their PC. This is a very illegal situation.

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Those types of sites (AOE2 has similar) are important sites especially for the pro scene and should be around. But players misusing that data like you say should be banned from multiplayer.

I’m also pretty sure it just shows country but nothing more detailed than that.

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Doxing, phishing and related activities are reasons enough to ban a player, I mean indefinitely

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Doxing and toxic behavior should be bananable. That has nothing to do with the website thou. Seems something happened to you.

You do know you can ask nicely in the website if you dont Want the info. They have a clear statement on that.

Btw you can do the same with the oficial game and its leaderboard, its not a problem that will dissapear if you remove the website.

Btw from all your simualtions and what not, would be good if you had a pic to acompany the report. Those players def should be banned.

Is only illegal if you didnt consent to it. And that branches out several things.

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We demand the removal of those websites

No, we don’t. Aom stats is an invaluable resource to the community. All the information it displays is public information like civs and strategies played in public online games, and country of your Steam or Xbox account (which is not private information in any online game that uses these online tools).

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Pretty sure your consent to Microsoft knowing the data, not other players.

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You should prob check those terms and conditions you clicked. Besides Microsoft theres steam, xbox, PSN, etc. The info about your contry is available to everyone with unless you do something additional to hide it.

Thank you. Its always weird this people that invoke a whole community when more likely than not is their alone idea.

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As with all things in this modern age, by playing the game, we consent to letting Microsoft getting our data and doing whatever it is they want with it, which in the case of AOE/AOM, is publicly releasing it. They do this for all the games.

It’s all in their game use agreements and hidden in fine print.

“Acceptance of Microsoft Services Agreement and Privacy Statement required to play”

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/servicesagreement

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/privacy/privacystatement

And this one governs what tools can be built:

For good or ill, this is how it is. What AOMstats is doing is completely legal and inline with Microsoft policies. The only way to stop this would be for MS to remove the public availability of all player stats and game records for the entire franchise, which would be severely detrimental to the AOE2, AOE3, AOE4, and AOM communities, or change the usage rules, which would effect the entire MS game library.
While I’m not a lawyer and definitely don’t know the intricacies of EU laws pertaining to this, I do know that MS has a private army of lawyers who will fight to the death to ensure the policies stay in put (so even if it were in violation of some law, it would never take effect) and that MS would be willing to burn obscene amounts of cash to ensure they can continue harvesting our data.

Please don’t take this as an endorsement of Microslop’s behavior (it’s not), but instead just a realist’s perspective.

The mechanism to deal with such abuse it to report them in-game and here: https://support.ageofempires.com/hc/en-us/articles/360047854711-How-do-I-report-a-player

But based on personal experience, I sincerely doubt EW will do anything with the reports.

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hahahahahahaha what

I liked you more when you’ve complained about Kronos rush. This thread is completely ridiculous.

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aomstats isn’t game content.

Anyways, the privacy statement link you mentioned says this about data sharing:

Reasons we share personal data

We share your personal data with your consent or to complete any transaction or provide any product you have requested or authorized. We also share data with Microsoft-controlled affiliates and subsidiaries; with vendors working on our behalf; when required by law or to respond to legal process; to protect our customers; to protect lives; to maintain the security of our products; and to protect the rights and property of Microsoft and its customers.

Please note that, as defined under certain U.S. state data privacy laws, “sharing” also relates to providing personal data to third parties for personalized advertising purposes. Please see the U.S. State Data Privacy section below and our U.S. State Data Privacy Laws Notice for more information.

aomstats is not an affiliate of Microsoft, nor is any other player that could potentially get sensitive data out of the replay files.

Technically aomstatus could get the country some other way, like by the IP that is uploading the replay files.
I haven’t bothered opening a replay to see if the country really is there, but keep in mind that the privacy policy you agree to does not let other players get access to your personal data, and any such infringement is illegal because the privacy policy establishes practices in accordance to the law in many countries.

But as a general advice, if you do not want data about you on the internet, you shouldn’t post it, and that includes replay files in a game. Personal data may unintentionally leak that way due to bugs in software or your own mishaps.

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MORE ASBESTOS! MORE ASBESTOS! MORE ASBESTOS!

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Per AOMstats

“Age of Mythology: Retold © Microsoft Corporation. aomstats.io was created under Microsoft’s ‘Game Content Usage Rules’ using assets from Age of Mythology: Retold, and it is not endorsed by or affiliated with Microsoft.”

Microsoft is providing all this data publicly, through the official AOE website, in game, and through the API, and regardless of whether or not AOM stats is affiliated with MS, they’re permitted to use the data within the usage rules, since it can be considered under the nebulous concept of “game content”. MS collecting data on users and publicly publishing those profiles falls under their vague statement:

“Microsoft uses the data we collect to provide you with rich, interactive experiences. In particular, we use data to:
-Provide our products, which includes updating, securing, and troubleshooting, as well as providing support. It also includes sharing data, when it is required to provide the service or carry out the transactions you request.
Improve and develop our products.
-Personalize our products and make recommendations.
-Advertise and market to you, which includes sending promotional communications, targeting advertising, and presenting you with relevant offers.”

They are pulling most of the data from the MS public API that has all this info. Steam, PS, Xbox, MS accounts all have country information; I’m assuming that’s where it’s ultimately pulled from (I have no insight to that), but it is present in the MS API that provides the data. Country information can be see in similar fan sites for AOE2, 3, and 4 that don’t take replay uploads. You can see it on FFP for AOE3 (Free Food Party) and AOE2 analytics (https://aoe2analytics.com/player/199325/, I’m using Hera’s account here since just about everyone knows he’s Canadian)

What the OP is complaining about is people pulling the sites to find information about country and unspecified personal details; unless OP clarifies what the other details are, I have to just ignore it for now. And, again, that country information is coming from Microsoft’s API. If they’re publishing data from uploaded recordings, that’s a different story, but with a quick (and nonexhaustive) perusal, I don’t see anything like that.

I’m not saying there aren’t problems here, it’s just that this is all above board as far as I can see (and I can certainly be wrong).

Yep…

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Not going into too many details, but there’s a difference between data at large and personal data. Microsoft should not be sharing personal data with the Internet and i doubt that they really are.

I can assure you that any public API from Microsoft will not contain personal data.

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Yes, if there is actually personal data being shared, then it is a concern. But the OP didn’t provide any examples of what details were being found in AOMstats beyond country, which is in the API dataset. If IP addresses and names or whatnot are being scraped and disclosed, that would be an entirely different story. @BornWinter52864 would need to provide some more information

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I have seen in live Twitch matches how some players (premade teams) use those websites to harass and mock the opponents against whom they are matched. They access those sites and ridicule the opponent’s personal image using racial discrimination, xenophobia, and mockery of the rival’s skill level. This harassment isn’t limited to the in game chat; it also happens on streaming platforms, which is deeply humiliating.

AOMR should not allow this to happen. Who knows what other personal data those websites might have? Do AOMR or AOE truly protect player data??

Regarding your question about more information: my nickname is random and I change it periodically. However, on one occasion, a player whom I don’t have added as a friend called me by my first name.

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WHICH twitch channel? Or did you already forget?

You’ve been ridiculing our intelligence for months, still here you are, nothing has been done about you and your troll posts ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Maybe you are one of them; that’s why you defend harassers so much. Read the code of conduct before asking. I’m not going to fall into your trap.

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I need more context here. What image? Do they actually have a picture of the person they got from somewhere? And are the insults based on the county listed and readily visible on AOMstats or is it more specific?

Unpleasant and mean, but unfortunately typical of online gaming, and seen throughout the franchise.

Ok, but do you have any proof or evidence this was from AOMStats? Or did they figure it out through outside means. It’s entirely possible to figure these things out (there’s no such thing as anonymity on the internet). I’m not being accusatory here, but serious charges require serious evidence, and if personal data is being scraped, it’s serious.

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For such a horrible detailed thing im surprised that you arent naming anything. No screen shots, no video. This coming from you, they guy that posts flawed simualtions for sport.

Im all for banning the people that are doing what you say, but knowing your history you might be making it up, like you do with most other complains.

Btw you gotta love that persistance of hatred of yours towards people that play with friends. Like anyone will believe the idea that is only people that play together that can have toxic behavior.

Ahh deflection, classic

Doubt it, the IP and location can be obtained from steam/xbox/PS and all the other platforms we engage in when ee open the game and play online.

Doubt its an aom specific (only possible from the game) issue let alone aomstats. Keeping in mind anyone can obtain the data aomstats does.

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