Your Xbox Might Be Revealing Personal Info Without Your Permission

4
Last night Reddit user "nadiaface" received a strange heads up from a friend who said that their last name was showing up next to their GamerTag. "I thought it was weird," they said in their post, "because I have my settings to block from showing my real name." Sure enough, when they went to check, their full name was showing. Not only that, but everyone's full name was on display next to their tags. Streamers, friends, recent players, everyone.

"I went through my entire friend list and I know for a fact none of these people have ever showed their name before. We all go by nicknames and having your last name show is a HUGE BREACH in security. Why is this happening?" A follow-up post on ResetEra confirmed that it's not just users who are part of the Insider Alpha program. Many people, for no apparent reason, had their privacy options reverted to show their full names to everyone, and no one is sure why it happened. So how can you tell if your privacy settings have been tweaked?

You'll want to follow (this link) to review your Xbox privacy settings. After you log in, you'll see a long list of settings that you can adjust on the fly. About halfway down the page you'll settings for sharing your real name with everyone, with friends, or only to those whom you choose. It will look like this:



For the record, the image above was taken by me, and my privacy settings were not affected. It's worth noting, however, that I recently upgraded to an Xbox One X, and so all of my settings were very fresh.

Many users are reporting that, despite having their privacy settings ticked to only show their names to friends or friends of their choosing, it had been adjusted to show their real names to everyone. Obviously this has been unsettling for a lot of players, and some people are really upset. On the Reddit and ResetEra threads, you'll notice that people are labeling this as "doxxing," since Xbox has been sharing personal information against the wishes of its users.

Posted:
Related Forum: Xbox Forum

Source: http://comicbook.com/gaming/2018/03/01/xbox-showing-real-name-privacy-settings/

Comments

"Your Xbox Might Be Revealing Personal Info Without Your Permission" :: Login/Create an Account :: 21 comments

If you would like to post a comment please signin to your account or register for an account.

HobsPosted:

It happened to my friend today, his full name
Showed up

TomPosted:

Xbox Let me double check mine to make sure it's not revealing any personal information. Almost positive I have it turned off but going to look just in case.


TBH, i dont have much personal information on my console because I dont my account can be hacked in a second or like this, it can be shown to the community.

hootPosted:

Xbox Let me double check mine to make sure it's not revealing any personal information. Almost positive I have it turned off but going to look just in case.


Was it turned off? You don't want everything leaked. Bad people on Xbox

XboxPosted:

Let me double check mine to make sure it's not revealing any personal information. Almost positive I have it turned off but going to look just in case.

Mario350Posted:

oh so just like xbox 360 days nothing new here its also like the ps4 system where you can set to who can see blah

Ctag
Specialize Don't see this as a big deal to be honest, all my friends know my name lol


It's when randoms start finding out is the issue. People will start pulling IP's soon and just find out where you live.


they cant pull your ip without being in the same party as you lol and it doesnt matter if you disable these being in a party displays your ip anyways just like being in a game, people cant get your ip from being online or else i would have been ddosed every day and or some rando kid would be outside my house

hootPosted:

Specialize Don't see this as a big deal to be honest, all my friends know my name lol


It's when randoms start finding out is the issue. People will start pulling IP's soon and just find out where you live.

TTGPosted:

Don't see this as a big deal to be honest, all my friends know my name lol

TomPosted:

Rumors about this have been going around for years and now people are finally acting on this... I usually keep my name for those who I select as my favorite but never had any problems with newbies or followers being able to see my name. Like others have said, just someone stirring up some drama.

hootPosted:

You have to manually de-select the option when you add someone.

This being Microsoft doesn't surprise me.

ChatPosted:

I've added alot of people not once have I ran into this issue? I've got the option disabled & I deselect the option to show my real name to the person who I've added, probably a mistake on their side though..