Earlier this year Sony’s PlayStation Network was successfully hacked, leaving millions of users’ sensitive information potentially vulnerable.
Following the PSN breach, various other publishers reported having their forums and servers breached by hackers. As a result, people seem to be becoming more aware and concerned about the security which protects their data when it is stored online.
According to a recent survey run by Good Old Games, its customers are willing to put up with longer check out times if it means that their information is safer.
Of 18,768 respondents, 85 percent said they were happy with Good Old Games’ checkout procedure, which requires customers to enter their personal information each time they buy something. This means that their information is not saved on Good Old Games’ servers, and can not be compromised.
68 percent of respondents said that they would prefer if Good Old Games did not even give customers the option to store their information on the servers.
“We keep our users’ passwords encrypted more than once and stored securely, but the way we keep their financial information is even more secure than their passwords because we don’t have it,” said GoG head of marketing Trevor Longino in a conversation with Ars Technica.
“As a marketer, I understand the kind of desire that companies may have to store that data. But as history shows us, it is easier to find exploits and get into company databases than we’d like,” Longino said. “The people who designed the networks at Steam and at PSN are all very smart, they’re all experts in their fields; but when you design very large systems, they’re full of moving parts and sometimes gaps emerge in your protection from hacks.”
