Uproar Ensues as ESA Doxx Over 2000 E3 Attendees

Every year, the E3 expo reveals a great deal of information all about what to expect over the coming year from the big-hitters of the gaming industry. This year though, the Entertainment Software Association has gone a step further by also revealing the personal information of every single press attendee. Thanks to stupidity of an astronomical proportion, the company placed a spreadsheet on its publicly available website detailing the full names, addresses and phone numbers of 2025 people who attended the event with a press pass.

The spreadsheet was spotted and exposed by independent gaming journalist Sophia Narwitz via her YouTube channel. After alerting the ESA about the spreadsheet being available on the site directly and via some industry colleagues, the page was removed, and she posted a YouTube video that detailed exactly what she had found after this.

At the time of the leak, The ESA had been made aware around a month prior and had not acted, with prompting from a more well-known journalist needed before they took the information off the site. The company has emailed attendees to apologise, stating that "a vulnerability was exploited".

To clarify: that vulnerability was the placing of a non-encrypted spreadsheet on a site open to the public rather than on the password-protected exhibitor portal where it was meant to be placed. Reaction from those affected has been understandably negative, with many calling for dissolution of the organisation, citing their organisation of the event and their stance on other controversial gaming topics such as their defence of loot boxes. The ESA has not itself made a formal statement.

The list contained many famous names including popular YouTube and Twitch personalities, journalists both large and small, and industry insiders. Although the page has since been taken down, the files have been obtained and are still being circulated across the internet, with many questioning their safety. Suggestions of class-action lawsuits and GDPR breach action has been mentioned and it's likely that the ESA will have some difficult questions to answer in the coming weeks.