It seems gamers also need to worry about governmental privacy breaches. According to some recent reveals, it turns out the NSA (National Security Agency) and GCHQ (UK Government Communications Headquarters) are employing people to play online games in order to gather information about players and their activities. All in the interest of combating global terrorism, of course.
In other words, if you thought that only your phone can be tapped or your e-mail can be read, guess again. Whenever chatting online with your guild-mates or party members, consider the possibility that Big Brother is watching.
So far, the targeted games seem to be limited to World of Warcraft and Second Life, as well as the Xbox Live platform. This however is no guarantee, as more games could potentially be supervised by governmental agencies. NSA officials stated that not only were online environments such as WoW a place for potential terrorists to meet and discuss privately, but they could also be used for transferring funds freely. We can assume that this statement was made in reference to currency selling in online games.
Regarding the news, Blizzard officials commented that “We are unaware of any surveillance taking place. If it was, it would have been done without our knowledge or permission.” Microsoft and Philip Rosedale, the founder of Second Life, have yet to comment on the issue.
A detailed article about this issue can be read on The Guardian’s page here, while the document elaborating these surveillance ops can be found here.
Are you concerned about the breach of privacy in online gaming?