Things to Note About Zynga’s Terms of Service

Founded in April 2007, Zynga is an online video game developer based in San Francisco, California. It primarily focuses on social video game services played on mobile and social media platforms. In 2009, Zynga launched its best-known game FarmVille on Facebook and reached over 10 million daily active users in under six weeks. From there, Zynga launched several other popular games, including:

• CSR Racing 2
• Zynga Poker
• Words with Friends 2

At one point, Zynga had 30 million monthly active users with nearly 60 million games played at any given time. With such popularity and cozy relationship with Facebook and other social media platforms, it was only a matter of time before privacy concerns arose. Use DoNotPay's Analyze TOS product to help you protect your privacy and prevent account violations.

218 Million Words With Friends Accounts Compromised

In December 2019, The Verge reported that Zynga publicly admitted that at least 170 million users were exposed to a massive data breach. At the time, it was said to be the 10th largest hack of user information of all time. However, a big-name threat actor operating under the pseudonym "Gnosticplayers" not only claimed responsibility for the attack but threw shade on Zynga by claiming the breach actually affected 218 million "Draw Something" and "Words With Friends" users.

The Hacker News stated: "According to the hacker, the data breach affected all Android and iOS game players who installed and signed up for the Words With Friends game on and before 2nd September this year." The article explained that Gnosticplayers shared "sample data" showing the type of user information that was stolen. It included:

• User names
• Login IDs
• Zynga account IDs
• Email addresses
• Phone numbers if provided by users
• Facebook IDs if users connect their accounts
• Password reset tokens if users ever request one
• Salted SHA-1 passwords with hash

The 2019 data breach is not the only privacy issue Zynga has been embroiled in. Here are a few of the most notable controversies the online social game developer has been caught up in over the years.

The Zynga Hack Exposed More Than Game Account Information

In worst-case scenarios, it wasn't just the Zynga game accounts that were hacked. The data breach also included information that was more sensitive than even email addresses and Facebook accounts. Gnosticplayers reportedly sold 620 million user accounts stolen from 16 different websites on a popular dark web market called "Dream Market."

Zynga, Along With Facebook, Sent User Info to Marketers

In 2010, media outlets reported that Zynga was among 10 of Facebook's top games to have handed out user data like candy. At least three of those top 10 were developed and managed by Zynga. They included FarmVille, Mafia Wars, and FrontierVille. If that wasn't scandalous enough, Zynga and Facebook figured that it would be a great idea to also send users' Facebook friends' data to marketers as well.

Worse yet, the information provided to marketers consisted of Facebook user ID numbers, which allowed marketing firms access to more than your email address or the city you lived in. Facebook user ID numbers allow them to see users' personal information based on their privacy settings. That means that if your privacy settings were all but nonexistent, advertisers could see information that you thought no one else but you and Facebook could see.

Of course, the bulk of Facebook's income comes from advertising, so it makes perfect sense to sell any data that helps with analytics.

Knowing that targeted advertising helps in numerous ways — like helping us find a good restaurant nearby — we might even agree without needing to be bamboozled. But social media/tech companies want to collect as much data as they can without any friction. The solution: create TOS contracts that greatly increase the odds that nearly 100% of users click "Yes" before having an opportunity to consider the agreement.

DoNotPay Can Scan Zynga's TOS Pages To See if Your Privacy Is at Risk

You read that right! Not only that, but our Analyze TOS product will scan Zynga's TOS pages across hundreds of state and federal legislative sites across the U.S. If our automated system defects even a single violation, you could be awarded compensation. As privacy and data regulations become more stringent, the chances increase in your favor. But it requires some consistency because laws and regulations are changing constantly.

Terms and Conditions Are the Biggest Lies of the Tech Industry

That's coming from one of the leading online tech publications, TechCrunch. "You agree that you never read TERMS & CONDITIONS. Aren't we right?" TechCrunch blasts Apple for creating a TOS that is "notoriously wordy." After all, who in the world is actually going to read a 20,000-word legal document? Then it calls out Facebook for having a TOS with 5,000 fewer words — and then it broke the TOS into several parts.

"There is no incentive to make these documents shorter as you don't want your users to pay too much attention to your TERMS & CONDITIONS," the article sarcastically adds. And despite knowing this, if we were handed even a 5,000 word TOS tomorrow, we'd most likely skim over it. Hence, DoNotPay will make it easy for you. All you have to do is:

1. Go to the Analyze Terms and Services product on DoNotPay.

2. Enter the website domain you would like to scan.

3. Wait for DoNotPay to identify any legal violations on the website (it should only take a few seconds!) If there are violations, proceed to drafting a demand letter.

4. Enter how much you want to receive in compensation and the company name.

5. Enter your contact information so the company can contact you.

And that's it! DoNotPay will generate a demand letter on your behalf with every legal violation we identified that you can send to the company. If they don't comply with your demand for compensation, you can escalate the case to Small Claims Court using our Sue Now product. You can also scan these Terms of Service contracts using DoNotPay:

DoNotPay Can Help You Protect Your Rights

DoNotPay started out helping people take care of their parking tickets. Today, we help countless consumers fight for their rights. The Sixth Amendment of the Constitution not only guarantees the right to retain or appoint counsel, but also the right to represent oneself. Self-representation simply requires possessing adequate knowledge of the law.

But since you may not have the time, DoNotPay helps you handle legal matters on your own, and for a lot cheaper than hiring an attorney. Below are five ways we will help you fight for your rights:

1. Robocall Compensation
2. Fight Workplace Discrimination
3. Breach of Contract
4. File a Complaint Against Any Company
5. Standardized Legal Documents

If you have any questions about scanning terms of service or have a concern, please contact DoNotPay today!