Developer Riot Games, owned by Chinese giant Tencent, is to begin recording in-game chats in Valorant to combat “harassment” and make its games “safe and inclusive for everyone.”
Riot Games will test the in-game chat recording feature in just Valorant for now. However, its harassment policy change is supposed to apply to all of its games, including Teamfight Tactics, Wild Rift, and League of Legends.
The developer insists that it will listen to a recording only when a complaint is filed; it will not actively listen to all recordings. Though, that does mean it will store recordings of player conversations.
The only way gamers can make sure they won’t be recorded is by switching off the voice chat feature. But gamers who use third party apps for voice chats, such as Discord, need not worry about the policy change.
In a blog post announcing the new policy change, Riot said that because it values data privacy, “we believe we should collect the absolute minimum data to effectively run our games and continuously improve your experience.”
“When we collect data, we’ll be transparent, we’ll keep it for only as long as is necessary, and we’ll protect it as if it were our own,” the company added.
The feature will be beta tested in North America before it is rolled out to other regions and expanded to support different languages.
