Nintendo in stony-silence shocker. Not.

As I predicted to myself some days ago, Nintendo would likely skip my email regarding third party web-bug vendors in favour of telling people about the latest hot game hitting the stores soon - and sure enough, that's what seems to have happened.

I sent them the same mail on two seperate occasions, but a dazzling zero replies was all I got for my efforts. I managed to get a letter from America in the post in the same time it has taken me to be totally ignored by Nintendo's apparently non-existent "privacy-related questions" department.

For posterity, this is the missive that seems to have sent Mario diving for the nearest U-bend, though it's a safe bet his pipes won't be clogged up by bugs of the kind we're talking about:

"Hi there - with regard to the below -

"From time to time, we may permit vendors to place Web beacons on our sites or in e-mails sent on our behalf. Web beacons used by our vendors collect the same types of information and are treated in the same manner as specified above."

Although you mention that the vendors will use the web bugs in the same fashion as yourselves, should you not mention exactly what companies these vendors are (or have been), as I maintain an IP address is personal information, even though your policy says it isn't - if you're on DSL with a fixed IP then of course its personally identifiable, and the customer really should know who you're selling or giving your information to.

What I want to know is, who are these third party vendors? Whilst I appreciate you cannot keep an up to date list of them on your site at all times, you should be willing to give a few examples of who these people are."

Sad to say, I played the waiting game and lost. But could there ever be any outcome? Strange how Nintendo continually promise (yet fail to deliver answers) regarding these issues with concerned individuals, who have to balance privacy worries with the pressure of simply letting their damn kids use an online games service.

Without selling them down the river to Corporates-R-Us, of course.

If an answer ever reaches me, no doubt it'll be illegible due to being flushed down too many plugholes and washed away in a muddy stink of questions happily left unanswered.

I always preferred Playstation anyway.