In an attempt to keep VALORANT as safe and inclusive as possible, Riot Games is updating its Privacy Notice to include the recording of players’ voice comms.
While the Privacy Notice is a Riot-wide policy spanning all their games, VALORANT will be the only available game that plans to utilize the ability to record voice data and review it.
The developers already implemented harsher penalties for text-based abuse in their game in patch 2.05 but are now adding voice comms.
Riot explained that they will not be actively listening to the players over voice and that they’d only potentially listen to and review voice logs when disruptive behavior is reported, meaning the potential recording would only start after Riot received a complaint.
They also stated they would only keep the logs as long as needed to aid in their investigations.
We’re committed to making our games better for everyone who plays them. This is another step toward tackling disruptive behavior across the board, starting with @PlayVALORANT. Stay tuned for more from our Central Player Dynamics team! https://t.co/wD6vErtlzo
— Riot Games (@riotgames) April 30, 2021
This news raised questions about how Riot capturing your voice comms would stack up against the European GDPR. That law protects European citizens from private companies gathering and storing private data.
Because players use “Riot owned” voice comms channels, the company believes it is within their right to change their Privacy Notice to include these changes.
When asked about GDPR compliance, Riot had the following to say:
“GDPR and similar data privacy regulations have been a part of our planning since the beginning. We’ve worked with our privacy and compliance experts every step of the way including working with people with GDPR-specific expertise.”
“There are rights provided by GDPR, such as the right to review personal data. Once we are collecting audio data, the existing processes that players can use to request their personal data will also include voice data that we are storing (at the time the request is processed). If (after the system is implemented in your region) you’d like to check us on this, please do.”
