Today I go from mild bemusement with the whole Sony Breach affair to being a victim as well. Apparently time itself cannot wrest your personal information from Sony's records. For five plus years I haven't had any business dealings with Sony, but alas that doesn't seem to have been long enough. I quit Star Wars Galaxies after their New Game Enhancement. I never went back for a free trial, or used any of their online services. I even opted out of being contacted by them. Never the less I got the email from them. Apparently the hackers have availed themselves of my information.

I would say at this moment I am feeling rather numb. Perhaps even a little giddy. It seems so damn surreal. Like it has to be some stupid mistake. Like this cannot really have happened to me. I mean I should be free and clear of all this. Nobody in their right mind would hold onto personal information of a past customer for five years. That should have been erased from their system years ago. Sony just seems to hoard information for no rational reason. That information couldn't possibly be of any use to them. Yet they still kept that information. 

Anyway it seems that their current customers aren't the only victims in this. When information that is well over five years old is still milling about in their system. Anyone who did business with Sony gaming in the past could still have their data in the system even if it is outdated. I know for the simple reason that I still use a email that is over five years old. What of people that changed their email over the years. Really it is sheer luck that I still have that email account. Some others might not be so lucky, and could be victims not even knowing that they are.

I thought others here should know about this in case like me you thought your information had lapsed out of their records. That probably isn't the case, and what of companies you might have gamed with that Sony acquired after you had stopped playing with them for that matter. I figure there may be a lot of people like me on these forums that do not know that their information was stolen. You might want to check into that if you haven't already.

Y'know, I bought stuff from the PS store with my CC 2 days before it got hacked and all my current info besides SS# is stored on there as well yet I'm yet to receive any such email . It's not like I'd really be bothered if I did receive one but it's just kinda funny.

Btw, hoarding info is not exclusive to sony, you'll be surprised how many places your info is hoarded as well. How long do you think the likes of Chain Pharmacies store your info ? I'm not even sure they have an expiry date till the individual's death is entered into the system. I also thought I had deleted my facebook profile like 2 years ago only to log in last month, due to some stuff I read on the internet, to find it was still there exactly as I left it. In this case, I actually deleted my profile and it's still there. In sony's case, you never asked for a deletion so they must be following whatever SOP they have concerning that.

5 years? That's not that long of a time. I don't know why you are so shocked they still have your info on their server. It probably costs them less than a penny to keep your info for 50 years. Yet it could be very valuable for them to have a list of people that played certain games in the past even if they haven't played them in 5 years. I bet if you ever signed up for a club card at a grocery store after only going there once 10 years ago they'll still have your info in their system. Same with any other company that you've ever signed up with. Rarely would a company clear out customer information unless their was a major reason to.  

only SoE got its stored credit card details taken whereas PSN is most likely in the clear. Sorry to hear about this TC, good luck!

sounds like a soe server as the soe servers that were hacked were four years old

btw, this is the internet, everything you do is saved lol

all mmos keep information. doesn't matter  if you're banned, quit, cancel, or deleted.

(1) I don't know any company that deletes user information (in hopes the user comes back and wants to start back up.)

(2) I don't know a credit card company that uses the same Expiration date/Secret number after 3-4 years. (Unless requested)

If you stop playing an MMO, it's common sense to go into your info and delete your personal data, but many people don't because of (1).

Even if you delete your information, good chance it exists on backups. It's pretty dumb to keep backups on public servers though, which Sony seems to have done.

Again. Just because others doing it wrong does not make it okay for Sony to do it wrong, too.

There's nothing wrong with keeping something you were given.