Ugh, utterly terrifying read on Ars:
All unconfirmed, but still.Sony has officially stated that anyone using hacked firmware or any sort of circumvention technology will have their console banned for life from the PlayStation Network, but how does the company know when such a console logs in? One person claims to have broken into the PlayStation Network, and what he has found is rather shocking. If his findings are accurate, your credit card information is being sent to Sony as an unencrypted text file, and Sony is watching every single thing you do with your system, keeping detailed records all the while.
"Sony is the biggest spy ever... they collect so much data. All connected devices return values sent to Sony's servers," the hacker said. He claims that Sony knows what controllers you're using, what USB devices are plugged in, what sort of television you're using—everything. Here's another section of the chat log:
user2: another funny function i found is regarding psn downloads
user2: its when a pkg game is requested from the store
user2: in the url itself you can define if you get the game free or not. requires some modification in hashes and so on tho
user3: ..
user2: is like
user8:
user3: my god
user2: drmff
That's not all: your credit card information is apparently being sent as an unencrypted text file. This is how the code is being sent to Sony:
creditCard.paymentMethodId=VISA&creditCard.holderName=Max&creditCard.cardNumber=45581234567812345678&creditCard.expireYear=2012&creditCard.expireMonth=2&creditCard.securityCode=214&creditCard.address.address1=example street%2024%20&creditCard.address.city=city1%20&creditCard.address.province=abc%20&creditCard.address.postalCode=12345%20
This information is allegedly being stored online and is updated every time you turn on your system. We've been receiving reports from various sources that e-mails are being sent to those with hacked firmware even before they log back into the PlayStation Network, which is even more evidence that Sony is grabbing information from your system just from being connected to your wireless network.