Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail’s Lazy Stalking Block Exposes Player Data Through Exploited Mods

When Final Fantasy 14 released its highly anticipated Dawntrail expansion, the community was excited to see the new and improved blacklist feature, which was aimed at tackling the game’s long history of harassment and stalking issues. It promised stronger control over who players could interact with, blocking unwanted interactions.

Players recently learned the new blacklist system has been breached. | Image Credit: Square Enix

However, in an unexpected turn of events, this very system, designed to improve players’ experience inadvertently opened the door to a new privacy nightmare. The door would be exploited by a mod called PlayerScope, which turned the blacklist’s good intentions into a tool for exploitation and harassment.

Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail‘s Blacklist update led to massive privacy violations

The new blacklist feature introduced with Dawntrail in Final Fantasy 14 was designed to address years of social issues in the game. The feature introduced a unique account ID system that allowed players to block not just a specific character, but also any associated alts with it.

This means once someone gets blacklisted, all of their characters would be hidden (including alts), essentially erasing them from the targeted player’s social interactions.

This seemed like a huge step forward at first, as it ensured that players could enjoy the game without worrying about persistent stalkers following them across multiple characters.

However, this updated system unintentionally opened up a backdoor that was exploited by a mod, PlayerScope. It took advantage of the account ID system, allowing players to search for any character’s name and access detailed information about their entire account, including alt characters, and more.

The mod works by scraping the account ID and uploading it to a server, which can then be accessed by any other user with the plugin installed.

This means that the mod allows stalkers to easily bypass the blacklist, tracking players ID without their consent. Naturally, this revelation has caused an uproar within the FF14 community.

To make matters worse, players must actively opt out of the plugin by providing their personal character and server information to a complete stranger, further violating their privacy. This opt-out process also doesn’t seem right, either.

This has led to widespread concern about how easy it has become for bad people to exploit the game’s systems, and how little players can do to protect themselves from these privacy invasions.

Developers must step up: Data breach is a serious issue

The developer needs to take the necessary actions and precautions to keep player data safe. | Image Credit: Square Enix

Square Enix needs to step up its efforts and dedicate some time to protecting player privacy, as the current situation with PlayerScope highlights a significant flaw in its design. The very account ID system, which was intended to improve social interaction, has become an open invitation for privacy violations.

If players are expected to trust that their personal data remains secure, Square Enix must take extra precautions to ensure that players’ data cannot be easily accessed by mods or any other third-party tools.

Even though not officially allowed, mods are a widespread phenomenon in Final Fantasy 14, and the developers should have anticipated the potential for such exploits. Privacy breaches are a major concern in today’s gaming world, and hopefully, developers treat the issue with the seriousness it deserves.

What was meant to be a groundbreaking update to improve Final Fantasy 14‘s social environment and make it safer than ever, has unintentionally become a new source of harassment and privacy invasion.

In the end, without stronger safeguards, Final Fantasy 14 risks further eroding the trust of its player base and undermining the very protections that were supposed to make the game a safer space.