As someone who monetizes user data as my full-time job, I'm actually okay with giving Wizards my info.
At the risk of sounding like a jerk, the going rate for D&D customer data is... not very high. Your email address is worth, to me, somewhere between two and four cents, assuming you were even in my target demographic to begin with, and I doubt that very much... given how price sensitive so many users on this board are, I probably wouldn't pay more than half a cent for an email address of the average ENworlder
Anyway, I understand the market for TTRPGs is fairly small (although I do believe it's making a comeback), in aggregate, the data for all of D&D players using this app isn't going to be worth much. YES, their privacy policy permits them to share data with strategic partners for advertising purposes, as is common in businesses. Outside of that, they don't sell the data, not necessarily because they're good people, but because it's not even worth the effort to sell it to anyone that isn't a partner producing TTRPG products, which... surprise,
is actually the kind of stuff I'm actually interested in hearing about. Even so, I can personally attest that large companies (like the one that owns WotC and its data) are very careful about who they share their data with; they'll only do it if they stand to gain a lot of money from it, usually on a revshare basis, which would only happen if the users were buying a lot of whatever was being offered by the partner. For example, the company I'm with has it in our privacy policy that we
can sell your data, technically, but there's no way I would ever approve that; it's worth too much to me to sell to others who could end up competing with me. And like D&D data, it's so niche that it's not worth anything to most buyers.
So yeah, I guess I am the product. That sounds sinister except that if someone were to mail me deals on D&D minis, TTRPG products, etc I would be
thrilled to save money on that stuff. Based on how price sensitive so many forum-goers are, I'm guessing they would similarly welcome those kinds of deals.
They've got a decent, hassle-free opt-out system on their site, and corporate accountability to the suits as Hasbro - it's not worth the blowback to the larger company as a whole for them to do anything shady with the data, and there's really not a whole lot they could do except match it to customer orders, AL data, etc. and try to cross-sell you stuff. They aren't going to start sending viagra offers or breaking into your homes while you aren't there. They will, most likely, mine that data to figure out how to grow as a company. Are you sick and tired of Wizards releasing board games and video games and would rather they focus on their core product?
Take a survey and tell them.
The irony is that so many people here apparently have android devices when Google is, without a doubt, the BIGGEST repository of user data out there (and by far my best advertising partner).
Some argue that the reason TSR failed was because it didn't know anything about its customer base. What I see from Wizards is a lot of effort being invested into understanding their market and customers, far more than ever before. I'm okay with helping them achieve that goal.
As for the specifics of what the app collects, I can't remember; I think it got your name and maybe some other stuff. It doesn't collect location data, contacts, facebook info, etc though, I check for that stuff.
And yeah, there's a lot of advertising in it. I can see now why Wizards keeps their mouth shut about things. They literally gave you something brand new without any sort of promises and already people are complaining. It's the first issue of something you didn't even know about two days ago, relax. It's proof of concept. Don't like it? TAKE THE SURVEY IN THE APP THAT ASKS IF YOU LIKED IT.
If anything, I am increasingly convinced that MM & company know full-well what they're doing this edition, moreso than any of their predecessors. Just look at all the surveys they're doing on their site, in the app, etc, they are trying so hard to understand their customers and what they want. Then they release a post
discussing the results of the survey and what steps they are taking to address the issues. I say it's
about freaking time they got with the 21st century and started data mining like this. They are bringing much-needed business acumen to the table, and as a result, more and more people are bringing D&D back to the table (in my opinion). It's a great time to be a DM (or player).
