Watch Dogs 'Promotional Game' leaks users' e-mail addresses

[garyopa]

The Ubi hacking game behind real-life information leak?!



That's right, e-mails sent out by Watch Dogs viral marketing have leaked over 1,000 email addresses. Unfortunate blunder or an incredibly canny move?

Ubisoft kicked off a viral campaign for the upcoming open-world title Watch Dogs, encouraging fans to "sign-up for updates with their e-mail addresses" on its official website.

Well, this morning the campaign sent out an e-mail to everyone who'd signed up to this viral campaign, including thousands of user's e-mail addresses in the CC field!

According to IGN, it's not yet clear whether this is a rather unfortunate blunder or an incredibly canny move that's sure to get us all feeling nice and paranoid ahead of the title's release.

The emails were sent out in relation to the alternate reality game that Ubisoft has been running since E3, centred around the dotconnexion gallery we saw in Watch Dog's first demo.

The dotconnexion team sent out an email update today, only instead of putting all recipients in the BCC field, they were sent CC messages meaning the addresses were visible to all.

Here's the message that was sent:

Hi,

It is with great regret that we inform you that Joseph Demarco passed away in a tragic, yet unexplained accident. Being one of the most important philanthropists in the local digital art scene, his demise has left a deep void in the community. Out of respect for his friends and family, the dotconnexion exhibition will be cancelled.

Sincerely yours,

The dotconnexion Team
http://dotconnexion.com/

Some users reported that their versions of the message lacked the e-mail address information, but many others got them.

Could this be a brilliant piece of PR? You know, considering the game is centered on hacking and the management of your digital footprint?

It probably was a mistake...

We aren't sure whether this is a PR stunt or the result of human error, but the fact that only some people were affected suggests the latter. The emails were sent out in batches of 500 and whilst those at the start of the alphabet were affected, by the time the sender reached addresses beginning with I and M they seemed to have rectified the purported mistake.

What do you think?

NEWS SOURCE #1: Watch Dogs promotional game leaks users email addresses (via) IGN
NEWS SOURCE #2: Watch Dogs alternate reality game accidentally gives users a reason to worry about their-real world privacy (via) Kotaku

Our thanks to 'Gauss' for this news item!

[MadonnaProject]

this isn't such a big issue part from the fact the company should have been more careful.