Retire Calling Cards to protect user privacy and safety
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Hopatunia Resident
Calling Cards are a legacy security loophole that fundamentally breaks user privacy. Linden Lab charges a premium price for a Name Change, which is marketed to residents as a way to get a fresh start and escape harassment or stalkers. However, keeping Calling Cards defeats the purpose of this paid service. Old cards in an abuser's inventory automatically update and link directly to the resident's new active profile. This allows stalkers to bypass the name change and continue tracking their victims against their will. Telling users to just create an alt account to escape harassment is unacceptable. Residents invest years of progress, achievements, and thousands of L$ in non-transferable skins, shapes, and inventory items. They should not be forced to abandon their entire digital life and financial investment just to feel safe when a simple system update could fix the issue. Since we already have a Friends List and modern search tools, Calling Cards are completely redundant. They cause inventory lag and compromise personal safety. It is time to retire this outdated feature completely to ensure true privacy and value for paying customers.
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Berry Velvet
I'm not supporting this but I'm glad you raised it - it's a useful discussion, Hopatunia, so thank you.
Anna Salyx
Calling cards are still a useful tool for communication between avatars that might not be friended. I always include one in a notecard when contacting a content creator for support, for example.
Removing calling cards would not solve the issues around stalker activities as a person who might engage in those activities will already have other methods to do so other than the calling card itself. Removing calling cards would only serve in complicating legitimate communication channels between non-friended avatars.
Not supported.
Naroc Resident
it is called block the fact is if a stalker wants to find you they will just make a copy of your UUID, user name and the UUID and user names of your known associates, this is a digital space you can block people who harass you and going to be honest if you feel that unsafe on a game that you basically ask for the one feature that allows contact with out friend request which lets you keep your online offline status private then maybe virtual reality is not for you, i have dealt with actual stalkers before now you just block them and every alt they come at you on eventually they will get bored also report them each time.
Rachel Dallas
Never in my life in sl have i seen a more pointless thread then this one. . Seriously??? with everything wrong and all in Sl and data breaches happening all over the place someone has to go off about Freaking Calling Cards??? sighs. 1st off half of users if not more then half have no clue about them let alone use them . Secondly stakers happen . you block them you can lock them out of your land ,,,,WHAT CAN THEY DO TO YOU????? its not like they can kidnap you!!!.... They should not be forced to abandon their entire digital life and financial investment just to feel safe .... let me ask you this, What exactly can they do that makes you feel in danger? grab there monitor and shake itwhile yelling at it ? SERIOUSLY CALLING CARDS???
Beatrice Voxel
The Calling Card isn't linked to names, it's linked to UUID's, which are not private.
Anyone can copy the UUID from your profile, and save it, and then later use it to look up your current name (changed or not).
Removing the Calling Card feature would break a lot of functionality beyond 'stalking' and would do nothing to address 'stalking'.
marxman1313 Resident
They are needed for business coordination and other situations where a transferable item, like a genuine calling or business card is perfect.
While I am not discrediting the problem that you are attempting to address they would need to be replaced with something better, live as to not completely break existing calling cards system (which I understand partially defeats the purpose of what you are trying to say) and not an outright retirement which I am guessing also suggests the deletion of the entire system.
That said part of the problem also seems to be the lack of extent LL is willing to go to to resolve issues like this, and the infinite amount of alt accounts someone can make exacerbates the issue.
AlettaMondragon Resident
marxman1313 Resident I think the devs don't understand what exactly happens with calling cards which makes them act very inconsistently, otherwise they would have fixed this long ago if it was an easy fix. It would be nice if they eliminated the issues like the cards duplicating, going into different folders instead of trash when you unfriend someone or someone removes you, and there's also the super weird thing when a card gets stuck and cannot be deleted. I use my calling card as a business card as well and it works perfectly. I also kept others' cards with the same idea in mind, but then I look them up in search or my conversation history instead if I have to, so to me calling cards seem to be useful only in one way.
The really weird thing about the "get rid of calling cards" suggestions whenever they come up again and again is that anyone's calling card can only be obtained by someone else if the person gives it out willingly by adding them as friend or gives the card directly, so if they don't like the idea of having their calling card in a former friend or random person's inventory, the very simple solution is that they shouldn't add people or give their card to anyone.
Linn Darkwatch
Totally disagree with this. Calling cards are the only way to find someone you've lost touch with who has changed their name. Also very useful when passing along contacts in a notecard for Group events, etc.
NaluriMurai Lust
I have to concur with others.
Your avatar's UUID is much like your Social Security number - you cannot change it, and anyone who knows it, can trace you. The only way you can truly fix this is by hiding on an alt.
More trouble than it's worth.
squidpaladin Resident
You'd have to abolish UUID's alongside it. Which isn't gonna happen. Also, name changes are not marketed as a tool to escape harassment, they're basically marketed as time-limited cosmetics.
Izzatooona Enthusiast
Your complaint is moot - the avatar's UUID is never going to change. If you do a UUID lookup with a small script that anyone can write or find free somewhere, you get the current avatar name. There is nothing you can do about this. Calling cards are a great way to ensure you can share your contact details without the need of friending people and bloating your friends list needlessly. Sorry, but that is a fact.
AlettaMondragon Resident
Izzatooona Enthusiast This! By the way, no script needed for a UUID lookup, even, you can open the resident selector (for example from an abuse report, add to ban list or share items panel) and enter the UUID on the appropriate tab there.
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