Hello,

I have a serious concern regarding RPOL policy of stating one's actual age and birth date (month, day, year) in the request for access to games. This policy poses a legitimate risk for Identity Theft through social engineering.

ID theft is becoming a more frequent headline in the news: crimes committed under an ID theft victim's name, assets stolen from people's bank accounts, etc, etc... There are various ways a stolen ID can be misused, and the consequences to a victim can be grievous. It is a growing problem in the USA, and it has been spreading to other countries as well.

Have you heard of this problem?

If not, here are two interesting links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_theft
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/

Due to this concern, I am unwilling to give total strangers personal and private information. I would hope other rpol members are concerned as well. Not only are we providing information to the moderators of RPOL, but also to a countless number of anonymous GMs.

This is an accident waiting to happen.

I would appreciate that this policy is updated to protect RPOL users from this modern day risk. It would also protect RPOL itself from possible legal action. In several countries it is illegal to collect personal information without following certain protocol.

Bruc

(Sorry for posting here and not elsewhere. I am not sure where this belongs best.)

Hi Bruc,

First of all, concerns of this nature should be addressed via rMail, not in this forum, which is purely for matters related to the financing of this site.

Second, the requirement for an age statement for accessing Adult games is, as a minimum, "I am [xx] years old, and it is legal for me to access Adult content in my place of residence."

We do not require dates of birth, real names, real world locations, or any other information which could be used in identity theft.

GMs are, however, free to request further information (such as DoB) if they choose to do so, but players are likewise free to refuse to give such extra information.
This message was last edited by a moderator at 22:29, Tue 31 May 2011.

Thank you for such a quick response! Was hoping to hear age would suffice.

It only suffices, as BBR said, if the GM will accept that. GMs are allowed to request more than that, but you are equally allowed to then not play in their game.