Game Design, Programming and running a one-man games business…

Customer data and the sony disaster

cliffski

Given that amazons hosting systems recently fell apart (who really knows why), and now we hear that sonys playstation network has leaked customer details, possibly including credit card information, to hackers I think it’s time to clarify something that I’m very pleased is the case.

When you buy a game from me, I don’t see your payment details. I never handle the payment, and I have no database with your payment information on it. Nor do I want one. It’s all handled by a third party, either BMTMicro or Fastspring. Both of them are US companies.

Positech can’t be hacked and broken into and put your payment details at risk, because I never even see them. A dedicated company that takes this stuff very seriously handles it.

But better than that, we don’t rely on one-click ordering or customer purchase accounts. Nobody can steal your positech account and take away your games. Nobody can prevent you from getting at your games, launching them or running them.

I bet there are a ton of people who are absolutely furious at sony right now. To be safe, they should all ask for new credit cards. There are 70 million accounts. This is like an entire country being victim to identity theft. Scary stuff.

6 thoughts on Customer data and the sony disaster

  1. Out of curiosity, has a third party like BMT or Fastspring ever been hacked? And do they keep payment info? I’m guessing they have to hang onto it for at least a brief period of time for the sake of processing.

    But maybe not and they can just send it to Visa (or whoever), get the response, handle it, and forget about the actual payment details.

    And in any event, since they’re so much more focused as businesses, I imagine they make far fewer mistakes like some of the stuff we’ve seen recently.

  2. I know they at least retain your e-mail address and a list of what you’ve purchased (along with the order number) because you can get them to send you the details, but I doubt they would keep anything else.

  3. For me, I foreswore Sony once they said that customers have no grounds to complain if they revoke features from their products after the warranty expires. Which is a shame, because their hardware, with the occasional misstep, is usually absolutely magnificent.

    As a general rule, I use prepay cards with game services, only partly for security, but mostly so that I can ensure that I’m only spending disposable income, and not tapping into any real money, and Paypal for PC things.

  5. “Unable to access your PSN account and play your games online? Buy this special Positech PSN Buster Game Pack and join 1000’s of players kicking the crap out of each other in space…”

  6. What Damian said.

    You really should be pitching some Sony and PSN related keyword ads. :-)

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