Ben Parfitt reports:
As the industry continues to come to terms with the wider implications of the PSN breach, Nintendo has contacted Club Nintendo members about the introduction of a new privacy policy.
As part of it, the company asks permission to gather information from users. Users who don’t check or agree to the new policy will from May 31st be unable to spend any Stars in their personal Stars Catalogue and their membership will be cancelled.
Read more on MCV.
At first I thought I must have misunderstood – would Nintendo really cancel accounts if people declined to share their information? Seems like they will, though. As another site reports, here’s what the email to users said:
Please review our new Privacy Policy by logging into your Club Nintendo account. Once you have read the information displayed upon logging in, please use the appropriate buttons to either ACCEPT or DECLINE this new Privacy Policy.
Please note that if we haven’t received your answer by 31st May, 2011, or if you choose to DECLINE our new Privacy Policy, you will from that day onwards no longer be able to use your Stars in the Stars Catalogue, as we will be forced to deactivate your Club Nintendo membership. No matter what you decide, you can still use your Stars and enjoy all the other benefits of Club Nintendo membership until 31st May, 2011.
So Nintendo has seemingly implemented an “opt-in or fuck off, bugger!” privacy policy. We’ll see how that works out for them.