🎮 Privacy in Online Gaming

How Your Data Becomes a Target on the Battlefield, and Why It Matters More Than Ever

Jun 09, 2025

I don’t think I’ve ever told you this, but I play video games. Sure, I’m from the Super Nintendo and Master System generation, but I still spend a few hours on my PS5 at home. The games I play the most are EA Soccer (football), Call of Duty, and Red Dead Redemption II. I rarely play anything else.

So there I was, playing EA Soccer in Seasons mode with my mighty Brentford squad from England (I usually go with lower-tier teams so I get matched against weaker opponents, otherwise, it’s just blowout losses). I ended up playing against someone from Argentina.

Unlike most people who use made-up nicknames, I use my real name, “marisonsouza.” That’s already led to a few laughs, with players messaging me on Instagram and LinkedIn after matches.

But this last time wasn’t quite as funny. The Argentine player started digging through my social media just to insult me because I didn’t let Boca Juniors touch the ball in our match. Okay, it was kind of funny. And that’s what made me want to write about privacy in online gaming.

Online games like Call of Duty, Counter-Strike, Minecraft, Fortnite, and others involve millions of players connected around the globe, and they generate massive amounts of personal data. These platforms collect user information and monitor player activity to enhance gameplay, ensure fairness, and monetize services. But this ecosystem also raises serious privacy concerns: How is player data used? Who has access to it? And what safeguards are in place (or missing) to protect users?

Personal Data Collection and Legal Protections

When signing up and playing, users often provide names, emails, birthdates, payment info, IP addresses, and extensive behavioral data. Companies use this information for account management, matchmaking, personalization, and targeted content or ads. With a $193 billion gaming industry and over 3 billion players worldwide, the scale, and value, of the data collected is enormous.

Several privacy laws around the world impose requirements on gaming companies to protect players:

GDPR (Europe): The EU's General Data Protection Regulation requires a legal basis (such as explicit consent) for collecting personal data and grants users rights like access, correction, and deletion. GDPR applies even to companies outside the EU if they process European players’ data. Online games must align their privacy policies and support user rights like data erasure.
LGPD (Brazil): Brazil’s General Data Protection Law follows similar principles. Game developers must clearly disclose what data is collected and why, obtain explicit consent, and ensure data security. Players (data subjects) have the right to access, correct, and delete their information.
COPPA (USA): The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act forbids collecting data from kids under 13 without parental consent. Regulators are increasingly active: in 2022, Epic Games (maker of Fortnite) was fined $275 million, the largest COPPA fine ever, for violating children's privacy. Epic also agreed to change its default settings to better protect young users and pay an additional $245 million in refunds over deceptive practices.

Despite these laws, challenges remain. Privacy policies are often long, complex, and difficult to understand.

I mean, if you just spent $50 on a game, waited for a 100GB download, and can’t wait to play, are you really going to stop and read a never-ending terms-of-use page?

Recent studies highlight the use of dark patterns in online games, design tricks that manipulate players into sharing more data than they intend. For example, some games incentivize linking social media accounts or revealing real identities with virtual rewards. This calls for tighter regulatory oversight and greater player awareness.

Children and Teen Privacy Concerns

Millions of children and teens play popular online games, which raises unique privacy and safety challenges. Young users often don’t fully understand the risks, and games don’t always protect them adequately.

I'm a 40-something gamer and I get lost with all the accept buttons, imagine the kids.

Collecting data from minors is especially sensitive. Some developers gather personal info (like names, photos, and even geolocation) from kids without proper parental consent. A study found that mobile games like Candy Crush and Call of Duty: Mobile collect up to 10 out of 16 types of personal data from kids, including names, emails, and even photos, making them some of the most invasive apps when it comes to child privacy.

Online interactions can also expose kids to unwanted contact. In the past, Fortnite and similar games had open voice chat by default, leading to harassment and unsafe situations. Regulatory pushback followed: as part of its settlement with the FTC, Epic was required to disable voice and text chats by default for younger players and implement stricter privacy settings. The FTC Chair criticized Epic’s “privacy-invasive default settings and deceptive interfaces that harmed kids and teens.”

Different regions take different approaches to youth gaming privacy. In Western countries, the focus is on protecting personal data through laws like COPPA and GDPR. But in China, the government has imposed stricter controls: since 2019, minors must log in using their real names and national ID, and are restricted to just 3 hours of playtime on weekends. Companies like Tencent even use facial recognition (“midnight patrol”) to catch kids trying to bypass curfews using adult accounts. While these measures target gaming addiction, they also raise serious questions about surveillance and state control over minors. The global debate continues on how to strike a balance between protecting youth and respecting their privacy.

Chat Monitoring and Player Moderation

In competitive games, real-time voice and text chats are essential, but they’re also a breeding ground for toxicity, harassment, and hate speech. To tackle this, companies have started using proactive moderation tools, including AI, which brings its own privacy concerns.

Some games now monitor and even record voice chats in real time. In 2023, Activision rolled out an AI-powered moderation system called ToxMod in Call of Duty. It automatically analyzes voice chat, flags toxic behavior, and applies penalties based on the game’s Code of Conduct. This full-on surveillance of player audio sparked mixed reactions. On one hand, Activision reports a 50% drop in verbal abuse cases and improved player retention. On the other, users worry about privacy: now, even casual conversations with friends are being scanned by algorithms, raising concerns about how these recordings might be used or misused.

Is this gaming’s version of 1984?

Many gamers already take personal steps to protect their privacy. One study found that 59% of women hide their gender while gaming, using neutral usernames or avoiding voice chat, to avoid harassment. Some even pretend to be men to dodge sexist comments or unwanted messages. In general, players of all genders may avoid voice chat unless necessary, using anonymity as a defense. This shows that privacy from other players, the ability to control what you share with the community, is just as critical as privacy from the platform itself.

The moderation debate is far from settled. While safe communities are important, players worry about excessive censorship or AI misinterpreting conversations. Transparency in how these systems work, and the ability to opt out, are key demands from privacy advocates. Game companies must strike a balance between safety and surveillance, designing tools that reduce abuse without making players feel constantly watched.

Anti-Cheat and System-Level Privacy Intrusion

In competitive games, fairness is essential. To fight cheaters, companies deploy advanced anti-cheat systems. But the most effective tools are often the most invasive, running at deep system levels and raising serious privacy red flags.

A prime example is Vanguard, Riot Games’ anti-cheat system for Valorant. Launched in 2020, Vanguard installs a kernel-level driver that runs at system startup, before the game even launches, and stays active while your PC is on. While it helps detect sophisticated cheats, players were alarmed by its deep access. Vanguard can take full-screen screenshots (including unrelated apps like Discord) and monitor running processes. Many feared it might collect unrelated personal data, comparing it to spyware. The idea of a rootkit-like program running 24/7 triggered outrage, raising a critical question: is it acceptable to sacrifice everyone’s privacy to catch cheaters?

Riot argues that it's a necessary evil. And it seems to work: Vanguard has banned over 3.6 million cheaters, about one ban every 37 seconds. Riot says that's worth the trade-off. Other companies followed suit: Activision’s RICOCHET anti-cheat for Call of Duty: Warzone also runs as a kernel driver. To calm privacy concerns, Activision says the driver only runs while the game is active and shuts off when you exit. Still, many players remain skeptical. Riot had to go out of its way to reassure users that Vanguard wouldn’t spy on their data.

This reflects a bigger security-vs-privacy debate. Players want a cheat-free environment, but they’re uneasy installing software with deep system access. Security experts warn that if a kernel-level anti-cheat gets hacked, it could expose users to serious threats. Some advocate for less invasive approaches, like server-side behavior monitoring, over installing “rootkits” on players' machines. As the arms race between cheat developers and game companies escalates, finding the middle ground between fairness and privacy is becoming a central challenge for the industry.

Data Security and Privacy Breaches

Beyond how data is collected and used, gamers also face risks from data breaches and cyberattacks. The gaming industry, packed with personal data and financial transactions, has become a major target for hackers.

In 2019, Epic Games revealed that Fortnite suffered a breach that exposed data from 50,000 user accounts, including emails, usernames, passwords, and even linked credit card info. Worse, Epic delayed notifying users, leading to a lawsuit and criticism for lacking transparency. The incident showed how security failures can seriously impact both player privacy and company reputation.

Account theft is another rising threat. Competitive gaming accounts often contain valuable items (skins, in-game currency) and linked payment methods, making them highly valuable to criminals. A 2020 investigation uncovered a black market for stolen Fortnite accounts generating over $1.2 million annually. Some accounts sold for $200 or more, and rare skins pushed prices even higher. Hackers use technical exploits and social engineering (phishing, fake giveaways, etc.) to steal credentials. This highlights the need for strong protections like two-factor authentication, unique passwords, and skepticism toward shady links.

For companies, investing in cybersecurity and privacy best practices is no longer optional, it’s essential. In addition to encrypting data and detecting intrusions, companies must follow incident response protocols and notify users and authorities quickly in case of a breach, as required under laws like GDPR. Data leaks don’t just expose private info, they erode user trust and can lead to massive fines. In today’s competitive market, developers that prioritize data protection gain a clear reputation edge.

Privacy and security go hand in hand: keeping player data safe from external threats is a fundamental part of respecting their privacy.

🎮 Privacy in Online Gaming

How Your Data Becomes a Target on the Battlefield, and Why It Matters More Than Ever

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