I am a little confused and nervous about this API/ESI thing. Does that give access of all my account info, all characters information, and personal information ito a corporation or program that I allow access to it?
Right now I only have one character but if someone has access to it, will they see any new characters that I make? Will they be able to see all my assets? Will they have access to my personal information such as e-mail address and contact list? Can my account get hacked by sharing that?
The current version of the API, known as the ESI, give access to most of your character info to a program or other person you allow access to. That includes your assets, location, communication, contacts, kill history and skills and probably more. They also have ongoing access and can see what you do in the future if you don’t revoke access that is. You can restrict what info is shared, but if we are talking a corporation asking for access for security, they usually ask for it all.
They cannot get any info on your account or other characters. That was possible in a previous version of the API you might find referenced out there, but the ESI is based per character only and there is no way for them to see your other characters or account info. They won’t be able to “hack” or get your real email address unless you sent it in an evemail or something else really dumb.
They might be able to infer things looking at transactions or mails or something else on the character you shared with them, but otherwise the ESI is strictly per character now.
Thank you for the answer. I wasn’t sure and I was not as worried about another character as I was about personal information. I didn’t understand how it worked and was afraid it gave access to the entire account short of account payment information. I have never played a game where you had to give access before so I was quite concerned.
It is a little unique. I think the original purpose was to allow third party programs and sites to access the game data, and it is still used a lot for this reason, but it wasn’t long before it was repurposed by paranoid Eve players for security. Depending who you are you might consider that a little invasive, but at least it exposes no account or real-world information.