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Last Updated: 04-13-2021

The latest version of our Policies and Procedures document (which includes our Banning policy) can be found by clicking here.

 

BF4DB

Policies & Procedures
Version 1.3 - Feb 20, 2021

Changelog:

1.0 - 11/04/20 - Initial document

1.1 - 11/17/20 - Updated position descriptions

1.2 - 12/16/20 - Added Patreon conduct policy, support tiers, and tweaked video evidence requirements as well as the policy on external enhancers

1.3 - 02/20/21 - Removed support tiers, added staff teams. Tweaked Patron Code of Conduct. Tweaked BF4 Bans. 

Mission Statement

BF4DB’s mission is to provide a fair and impartial anti-cheat service dedicated to the identification and removal of hackers and cheaters from Battlefield 4 servers utilizing our Procon plugin.

Commitment to Players

BF4DB and it’s all-volunteer staff of Directors, Developers, Lead Administrator, Administrators, Moderators, Translators, and Auditors are committed to providing a professional, unbiased, and respectful service to all players. This service shall be rendered regardless of ban status, gender, age, nationality, orientation, or any other factor.

Commitment to Data Privacy

BF4DB is fully GDPR and CCPA compliant (our full Privacy Policy can be reviewed at BF4DB.com/privacy), and we utilize industry-standard security protocols and procedures on our website to preserve Personally Identifiable Information (or PII).

BF4DB’s Staff is obligated by this policy to keep any and all PII contained within our database strictly confidential, and shall not disseminate any information to parties not privy to such information. Our Staff also agrees to maintain strict confidentiality of any and all information regarding BF4DB’s inner-workings, proprietary software, tools, and code. Violations of the above are taken extremely seriously and will result in the immediate termination of the offending member of Staff.

You may request the deletion of all data pertaining to your website user account at any time in writing to [email protected] Additional information regarding this may be read in our Privacy Policy.

IPv4 and IPv6 connection logs are kept for operational security reasons and cannot be deleted. This is in accordance with GDPR. Soldier data is streamed from EA and cannot be removed either. You would need to make a data deletion request with them.

Conduct Policy

BF4DB has a strict conduct policy that is used across all platforms of communication that is owned and/or moderated by BF4DB, not including game servers running our plugin. Players utilizing our various platforms are required to adhere to this policy, or moderation actions will be enforced. For example, if someone on the website violates this policy, action may be taken as laid out in the “Website Bans” section. Similarly, violations on our Discord server will be moderated as laid out in the “Discord Bans” section. 

In short, the following is prohibited:

  1. Racism, discrimination, sexism, hate speech, and/or harassment of any kind.

  2. Sexually explicit, illicit, or otherwise obscene content of any kind.

  3. Political or religious discussions. 

  4. Spamming.

  5. Verbal abuse towards anyone, including arguing with staff about ban decisions.

Patron Conduct Policy

BF4DB offers certain perks to those who subscribe to our Patreon page. Those perks can be reviewed at BF4DB.com/patreon. Those who become Patrons will be screened prior to being granted access to proprietary tools. Screening may take up to 24 hours, and passing is a requirement to receive access to Patreon perks. Those who do not pass the screening process will be refunded, and blocked from Patreon. In order for screening to be complete, the user in question must claim all of their soldiers.

Players who are currently banned will not be granted access to Patreon perks, and will result in being refunded for their most recent purchase and blocked on Patreon.com. Individuals who attempt to circumvent this process by creating new account(s), will also be blocked. Players who are currently under investigation, but not yet banned, must have their account cleared prior to gaining access to their respective perks. 

Once a Patron, patrons are expected to adhere to the following guidelines. Violating these guidelines will result in the immediate and permanent termination of any and all Patreon subscriptions. No refund will be given.

  1. All information deemed sensitive in nature, including IP’s, may not be posted publicly or transmitted to other users who are not Patrons or BF4DB Staff.

  2. Sneak peek announcements and other patron-only media/information is to be kept confidential until publicly announced.

  3. Using information obtained from BF4DB systems to intimidate, stalk, harass, or otherwise attack specific players is prohibited.

Note: BF4DB reserves the right to restrict or revoke access to its tools and/or services at any time for any reason deemed appropriate.

BF4DB Staff

BF4DB uses several different positions to identify Staff and their access to our servers and services. The hierarchy and description of these are:

  • Directors: Directors are responsible for maintaining the overall smooth operation and functionality of all BF4DB services. Directors are also responsible for handling escalated appeals. 

  • Developers: Developers are responsible for the continued development of current systems, features, and tools as well as new ones. Developers do not hold banning privileges. Developers report to the Directors. 

  • Lead Administrator: The Lead Administrator oversees both Administrators and Moderators, ensures compliance with policies, and assists other departments as needed. The Lead Administrator reports to the Directors.

  • Administrators: Administrators are primarily responsible for the expeditious and thorough review of all appeals posted on BF4DB.com or the BF4DB Discord server. Administrators also oversee the Moderators, and may assist with reports, bans, and other moderation duties. Administrators report to the Lead Administrator. 

  • Moderators: Moderators are responsible for processing new and existing player reports, as well as moderating the community from prohibited behaviors listed elsewhere in this document. Moderators report to the Lead Administrator. 

  • Translators: Translators are responsible for the translation of reports, appeals, posts, and anything else needed. Translators do not hold banning privileges. Translators report to the Administrators. 

  • Auditors: Auditors are assigned tasks by the Directors or Administrators and learn the inner workings of BF4DB as well as cheat detection. Auditors are also responsible for auditing bans for missing information, transcripts, or other pertinent data. Interns do not hold banning powers, however may change verdicts at the express direction of a Director or Administrator (if an appeal transcript and/or additional evidence needs to be added, etc.). Auditors report to the Administrators. 

Prior to onboarding new staff, regardless of position, an extensive and thorough background check is completed. They are also required to read and accept the terms of their position, including the confidentiality mentioned in the “Commitment to Data Privacy” section.

Staff members work on a volunteer basis and receive no compensation for their services, monetary or otherwise. 

To prevent a conflict of interest, staff members may not hold a staff position at any other third-party anti-cheat service concurrently with their service at BF4DB.

BF4DB holds its staff to a high standard. If any evidence of misconduct (including violations of any section of this document or cheating, hacking, glitching, etc.) is obtained, it should be emailed to [email protected] for evaluation. We take all accusations seriously and will be fully investigated.

How BF4DB Works

BF4DB is owned and operated by Consortium Analytics LLC, and is in no way, shape, or form affiliated with EA, DICE, Evenbalance, or Punkbuster. All copyrights and trademarks belong to their respective owners.

BF4DB curates a banlist of hackers, cheaters, glitchers, and those who use external hardware or software that gives players an unfair advantage. That banlist is then used by server owners on their server through the use of our free Procon plugin to exclude those players from playing on that server.

Apart from servers explicitly advertised as being owned and operated by BF4DB, BF4DB does not have any operational control over them, and has no say over how they are administered. Therefore, we are not responsible for players losing access to game servers if their account is banned. Banned players may still play multiplayer matches. The available options include:

  • Playing on servers not running our plugin. 

  • Playing on servers running on Official mode.

  • Playing on servers that have whitelisted the player in question. 

Note: Purchasing a new account may result in a Linked Account ban. Please see “Linked Accounts”.

The plugin allows for two-way data transfer between the server and our service. Player data that is available through Procon including EA_GUID, PB_GUID, Soldier Name, IPv4, and connection date/time are streamed to our service. Additional player data including (but not limited to) weapon and vehicle statistics are streamed from Battlelog. The plugin fetches the player state (unbanned or banned and reason) and sends that back to the server. If the player is banned, a kick is initiated against the player. 

BF4DB’s plugin will only initiate a kick on servers running in the Ranked mode. Servers running in the Official mode will continue to stream player information, but kicks can not be carried out. This is a limitation imposed by EA.

Battlefield 4 Bans

Bans are issued to players that have been reported, investigated, and confirmed by our Staff. Reports may consist of a combination of things such as statistical evidence, gameplay footage, links to other third-party sites (PBBans, GGC, etc.), or links to other players.

  • Statistical Evidence: Game statistics are contained within Battle Reports, and can be analyzed to determine certain cheats such as aimbot, damage mod, and magic bullet. One single metric may not be a direct indicator, however coupled with other metrics may be an indicator of one or more of the above types of cheats. Statistics that can be used include accuracy (ACC), Damage (DMG), Headshot Kill Ratio (HSKR), number of spotting ribbons, missing weapon kills, illegal weapons (those that are not normally available on that mode/map), or FairFight resets.

  • Gameplay Footage: Video evidence should be 1-2 minutes in length to provide context, unless the cheating is blatantly obvious. Footage must also have a minimum resolution of 720p at 60fps. We may ask for additional footage if the video is edited, incomplete, or part of a montage. For copyright reasons, please do not add any music to the video, or it will need to be stripped. For videos that require audio to determine the use of cheats, this would invalidate the video. 

  • Third-Party Sites: Evidence from other third-party sites may be presented, however it may not meet our standard of evidence required to issue a ban. In the event that the  evidence submitted is a Punkbuster Violation streamed to another service, it may only be used as supplemental evidence unless the violation in question was issued prior to February 1st, 2018.

  • Linked Accounts: BF4DB issues bans to players, not just the account. Therefore, any account that can be positively linked to a banned account will also be banned. An account that has close or overlapping connections with another account sharing the same IP address will be considered linked. Multiple accounts using the same Gravatar address will be considered on a case-by-case basis. 

  • Circumstantial Evidence: Evidence outside the scope of BF4 such as bans on other games, accounts on cheat sites, VAC bans, or any other circumstantial evidence (including geolocation of IP addresses) are to be considered supplemental evidence only, and may not be used for the basis of a ban on its own.

In addition to the above, bans will also be issued for the following:

  • FairFight resets.  

  • The use of game breaking glitches that give the player an unfair advantage. 

  • Illegal weapons/kits. Unless it can be shown that the player in question knowingly used this to gain an advantage despite knowing it is a bannable offense, these may be successfully appealed once. 

  • Gameplay enhancers such as crosshair overlays or other hardware/software designed to give players an unfair advantage. Unless it can be shown that the player in question knowingly used this to gain an advantage despite knowing it is a bannable offense (such as using it on Hardcode mode), these may be successfully appealed once.

  • Map glitching deemed “game breaking”. Those who do this unknowingly (for example, spawning on a glitched squad mate) may appeal successfully once. Those who demonstrate abuse will not be approved. 

  • Website or server crashing and/or DDoS attacks. These are felonies and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and may not be appealed. These are evaluated on a case-by-case basis. 

Website Bans

Website bans will be issued to players deemed disruptive at the discretion of the Directors, Administrators, or Moderators. Bans will also be issued to those found in violation of our Conduct policy, listed elsewhere in this document. 

Disruptive behavior may include posting excessive false reports, posting in other players appeals, spamming appeals or other sections of the forums, impersonating staff, attempting to defraud other players, framing other players, threatening to disrupt service, or maliciously using data obtained from our service. This list merely contains examples and is not exhaustive.

BF4DB may utilize various temporary bans prior to enforcing a permanent ban. These consist of:

  • 24 Hour Temporary Ban

  • 7 Day Temporary Ban

  • 30 Day Temporary Ban

  • Permanent Ban

Website bans, once permanent, may not be appealed.

Discord Bans

Discord bans will be issued to players deemed disruptive at the discretion of the Directors, Administrators, or Moderators. Bans will also be issued to those found in violation of our Conduct policy, listed elsewhere in this document. 

Disruptive behavior may include spamming appeals or other sections of the Discord server, impersonating staff, attempting to defraud other players, framing other players, threatening to disrupt service, or maliciously using data obtained from our service. This list merely contains examples and is not exhaustive. 

The BF4DB Discord server utilizes a three warning system. A permanent ban will be issued in conjunction with the third warning. Moderators, Administrators, and/or Directors may also use mute, kick, or ban commands if deemed necessary, in lieu or in addition to warnings.

Discord bans, once permanent, may not be appealed.

Appeals

Players are entitled to one (1) appeal per ban per account, unless a significant policy change is made regarding a specific ban type. Those affected by that policy change may submit another appeal. Players banned for DDoS attacks may not appeal their bans.

Abusing the ban appeal system by submitting more than one appeal may result in your website account being banned, per the “Website Bans” section above.

Players may appeal on our website, or on Discord. Instructions for how to submit an appeal can be found on our forums. Appeals may not be submitted via social media or email.

BF4DB currently supports appeals in English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, and Italian. All other appeals must be in English, or we will be unable to assist. We apologize for the inconvenience and we are expanding the number of supported languages as much as we can.

Prior to submitting a ban appeal, you must claim all of your soldiers, not just the one you’re appealing for. We will be able to see other accounts that are linked to yours, and those will need to be claimed prior to handling your ban appeal. Instructions on how to claim soldiers can be found on our forums. We require soldiers to be claimed so we know we are speaking to the owner of the account.

Ban appeals may only be processed by the Appeals team. The staff member responsible for issuing a ban may not handle that accounts’ appeal, and may only provide evidence used and supplemental information to the member of staff handling the appeal if requested. Additionally, if a member of staff has a personal connection with the appealing player, or is biased one way or another against the player, they shall not process the appeal.

If an appeal is denied, the appeal may be escalated by submitting a new appeal and indicating the desire to have it escalated. Escalated appeals are handled by the Directors exclusively. If a Director was involved in the original ban or appeal, that Director will be excluded from the escalated appeal. Once an escalated appeal has been closed, there are no other avenues of appeal available. 

During the course of an appeal, if an account is determined to have been compromised and used to cheat during that time, we will mark that account as a “Hacked Account”, and will not ban any new accounts purchased by the user. However, due to the fact that the original account was used to cheat with, the ban will remain.

BF4DB does not accept bribes (financial or otherwise) in exchange for the expedition of any report or the outcome of any appeal. Those who subscribe to our Patreon receive prioritized reports as part of their perks so users are encouraged to read more about what we offer to Patrons at bf4db.com/patreon if that is of interest to them.

Policy Changes

BF4DB reserves the right to make modifications to these policies and procedures at any time, with or without public notice. Any changes will be notated at the top of the document.

Latest Bans