Good Morning from my Robotics Lab! This is Shadow_8472, and today I am grudgingly migrating my Minecraft account. Let’s get started…
I’m heavily biased against Microsoft, so I’ve held out on migrating my Minecraft account to Xbox. I’d always planned on reviewing the terms of service -someday-, but with the announcement that the account migration period will close on September 19 of this year (2023), I discussed Minecraft’s tiny type with an acquaintance who works as a corporate lawyer. For a less abridged rant, see “Extended Opening” down below.
My biggest concern with agreeing to new terms of service is how Big Tech collects data for targeted advertising and other unsettling practices. Consumers rarely care about use agreement junk enough to consider alternative software, so big companies get away with vaguely worded permissions if and when someone sues. Microsoft is no different.
Data Collected
I’ve heard many fear gospels about Microsoft. These are the facts my acquaintance found in the tech giant’s terms:
Microsoft's privacy policy appears to be very generalized and very cliché for the most part. For the most part, it doesn't specify what information is collect at what specific junctures. Most privacy policies do not get that particularized.
You just know that generally they collect:
- Name and contact data
- Credentials
- Demographic data
- payment data
- subscription and licensing data
- interactions (e.g., device usage data; payment and account history; browse history; device, connectivity, and configuration data; error reports and performance data; troubleshooting and help data; bot usage data)
- interests and favorites
- content consumption data
- searches and commands
- voice data
- text, inking, and typing data
- images
- contacts and relationships
- social data
- location data
- other input (e.g., the buttons your press on an Xbox controller)
- content (e.g., files and communications sent/uploaded/received/created using MS software)
- video or recordings (if you attend MS events or go to their buildings)
- feedback and ratings
- traffic data
Microsoft is Sus
Almost immediately, I saw “text, inking, and typing data” and realized a key logger on your Windows machine may be perfectly within their rights. Anything made with Office is potential data for their machine per “content (e.g., files… created using MS software).” “Location data” can mean anything from knowing just your city to which park bench you rest on and when. Anything listed past “subscription and licensing data” except possibly “feedback and ratings” has at least something I could fret about – especially with interacting permissions: if they’re tracking the stranger who sad beside you on that bench, they might simulate your conversation based on your search histories and online shopping carts.
An Attempt at Devil’s Advocate
Every listed item is benign in its proper context. A single, do-everything terms of service agreement is less hassle to the masses with only basic computer skills. Inputs for an Xbox controller –for example– must be allowed for a Microsoft-hosted multiplayer game to function. Permission to collect the likes of “interactions,” “interests and favorites,” “voice data,” “images,” and “social data” are integral to smoothly operating a modern chat room network. “Content” is needed for working with cloud Office applications. While “Location data” may sound ominous, I speculate it can help when automatically choosing the best game server.
My Verdict
My threat model concerning having a Microsoft+Xbox account is unnecessary data collection. A lot of that is addressed simply by using Linux and minimizing contact with unrelated services. I furthermore see nothing wrong with giving misinformation for an online identity so long as motivation remains privacy as opposed to things like bypassing age restrictions. I can also take advantage of California Consumer Protection Act, which Microsoft supposedly extends to all US citizens, though we’ve never reached a living soul on their compliance hotline.
It can be taken further. Data never transmitted is data never collected. I don’t know what is in the vanilla Minecraft launcher, but in theory one could inspect the Internet packets it sends out. Even if compressed and encrypted, one can still tell how large they are, where they are going, and how frequently they are going there. I don’t have that skill set, but I can use the open source MultiMC as an alternative.
If there is one thing that made me more angry than forced migration when I heard about it, it is global chat moderation. Let an “incorrect” opinion slip, and Big Brother Microsoft might decide to ban me, even if I’m having a seemingly private discussion among adults on a server my own group owns. To be clear: this is only paranoia in terms of absolute certainty, but I believe it to be well-founded even if it’s a tad exaggerated. On the flip side, I have heard of a mod to disable this speech nanny, so going forward, I refuse to longplay on servers where this spyware is either enabled or allowed on clients, because I don’t feel safe otherwise.
My Proper Migration
I began migration and was immediately stomach churningly nauseated by the flowery language explaining the process AND THE EMPHASIS ON THAT STUPID CAPE! My migration did NOT go smoothly as my Mojang login was tied to a hacked Gmail account I lost irrecoverably around ten years ago. To be fair: I was able to switch it to an active email address by answering my security questions.
Once that was sorted, I got my migration code and went into Bitwarden to make a 128 character password and landed on a vague error page, “There’s a temporary problem.” A little research, and it would seem Microsoft accounts max out at 127 characters, but this still landed on the same page. Three later attempts doing the exact same thing allowed me another screen where I got as far as one of those rare alphanumeric “are-you-human?” tests.
Hours passed and I made at least a couple more failed attempts. I tried making a Microsoft account separately and it failed successfully such that the error page I landed on had an option to sign out (127 character password confirmed, but their error message erroneously cites disallowed characters). I blew a bunch of my patience wandering the same few help articles before finding my way back to the migration page. I fumbled around until I got a confirmation about completing my migration.
If there is one undisputed high point of my experience, it’s their prompt e-mail service – where other places might get back to you within 15 minutes on a good day, I never had to wait for an authentication code. If there was one undisputed low point (besides the cape), it would be the clashing mess that is the Microsoft account privacy panel. My inner Devil’s Advocate says it’s “modular to the point of ????,” while my skeptic says it’s either sloppy or intentionally designed to discourage all but the patient and/or paranoid from finding everything. In the end, I’m tired mentally, emotionally, and physically, but at least my account is not subject to deletion in just over a couple months.
Extended Opening
My Minecraft account predates the Mojang buyout. Microsoft has since broken promises such as never having microtransactions or interfering with the community. While continued development is generally a good sign, a number of design decisions keep narrowing the target demographic to younger audiences as opposed to maintaining cross-generational appeal. I refused to migrate to an Xbox account until now out of protest.
My distaste over the migration process stems from the migration announcement video. I found it very offensive when my biggest addressed concern came up to be met with the offer of a cape and the characters I had been identifying with started celebrating. When migration became mandatory on pain of not playing, I chose to not play until I understood the additional terms of service.
And I really tried a couple times between pleading with my family/group to join in my protest and find an alternate game. Everything was either too different and confusing or so close as to trip up someone or another’s Autism. Everyone else either felt the pull of/duty to other players more strongly than my calls of boycott. The most I ever got was a lone visitor on a couple different occasions.
Takeaway
The move-it-or-lose-it policy is another reason for me to hate Microsoft. They should have either been up front with the cutoff date or made provisions for an indefinite migration period. At the same time, I’m tired of carrying this bitterness. I am very thankful to my acquaintance for helping me face my fears. I still have a way to go before I seriously think about full-fledged forgiveness, but I do not see myself laying down my mistrust of them and similar companies who abuse their mono- or poliopolistic position to exploit the very people they have a moral duty to protect.
Final Question
This was a trying topic for me, but I still managed to find a patch of “enemy territory” I considered virtuous: the automated e-mail system didn’t leave me waiting for hours. What positive things have you noticed while dealing with a company you really don’t like?
