Riot Games To Record In-Game VALORANT Voice Communications

On April 30th, esports giant Riot Games told gamers they were updating their privacy policy. As part of this new privacy notice, users that agree to Riot Games’ policies give the company permission to record and evaluate VALORANT voice communications when reports of disruptive actions are submitted. This comes as part of an effort to moderate toxic behavior in the gaming community.

“We know reducing disruptive behavior is a complex problem that will require a long-term investment and many different approaches to address—particularly in terms of voice comms,” it says in a post on the Riot Games website. “There’s still work to be done on this longer journey but we’re committed to providing the social experiences that players deserve when they play our games. We’re exploring other approaches that we believe will improve in-game experiences and we’ll share an update about our plans in the coming months, but we believe that the ability to act on reports of disruptive voice comms is one of the first steps toward a community where we can all play together safely.”

Another update by Riot Games indicates is updating its Terms of Service and adding anti-cheating software. Furthermore, the organization will also be integrating a new refund policy that applies to all games across all regions.

Riot Games is an American video game publisher headquartered in California that was founded in 2006. Some of the company’s most famous titles include VALORANT and the League of Legends series.

The Profit‘s Take:

This is a headline that should scare gamers. While Riot claims they are recording voice communications for the purposes of weeding out toxic players, it’s far more likely they are doing this to collect data that they can later use or sell. Given Riot’s Chinese ownership, this is doubly worrisome, as policing of what can be done with the data is that much more difficult. I hope that other games do not follow suit, as tempting as it may be, but Riot is unfortunately setting a bad precedent here.

(All information was provided by Polygon, Riot Games, and Google)