member since 1 Feb 2026 22:19
This is not an excuse. I was adding nuance to the claim made in the title. I also don’t disagree that Bethesda is ultimately responsible for the contractors it hires, and if Tracer made an erroneous DMCA request, Bethesda should take responsibility for correcting it. However, given Bethesda’s previous treatment of similar projects like Daggerfall Unity and OpenMW, I think a simple error is a more plausible explanation than the company being a copyright troll or an intentional action by Bethesda.
As per the reddit post it’s Tracer, a copyright enforcement company working on behalf of Zenimax and Bethesda, not Bethesda directly. I would be surprised if this was intentional because there is nothing but bad PR to gain. It’s probably just a false positive.
As per the article, it is by itself not a new technology. Meta has been using this for years and is standard in the industry. So I’d wager most respectable browsers would have tracking prevention that stops this.
What is new, and what this article talks about, is that ChatGPT can attach your browsing habits to things you’ve shared with ChatGPT itself. As in, possibly very private details about you and your life.