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Nintendo Privacy

Nintendo Warns Switch 2 GameChat Users: 'Your Chat Is Recorded' (arstechnica.com) 68

Posted by BeauHD from the smile-you're-on-camera dept.
Ars Technica's Kyle Orland reports: Last month, ahead of the launch of the Switch 2 and its GameChat communication features, Nintendo updated its privacy policy to note that the company "may also monitor and record your video and audio interactions with other users." Now that the Switch 2 has officially launched, we have a clearer understanding of how the console handles audio and video recorded during GameChat sessions, as well as when that footage may be sent to Nintendo or shared with partners, including law enforcement. Before using GameChat on Switch 2 for the first time, you must consent to a set of GameChat Terms displayed on the system itself. These terms warn that chat content is "recorded and stored temporarily" both on your system and the system of those you chat with. But those stored recordings are only shared with Nintendo if a user reports a violation of Nintendo's Community Guidelines, the company writes.

That reporting feature lets a user "review a recording of the last three minutes of the latest three GameChat sessions" to highlight a particular section for review, suggesting that chat sessions are not being captured and stored in full. The terms also lay out that "these recordings are available only if the report is submitted within 24 hours," suggesting that recordings are deleted from local storage after a full day. If a report is submitted to Nintendo, the company warns that it "may disclose certain information to third parties, such as authorities, courts, lawyers, or subcontractors reviewing the reported chats." If you don't consent to the potential for such recording and sharing, you're prevented from using GameChat altogether.

Nintendo is extremely clear that the purpose of its recording and review system is "to protect GameChat users, especially minors" and "to support our ability to uphold our Community Guidelines." This kind of human moderator review of chats is pretty common in the gaming world and can even apply to voice recordings made by various smart home assistants. [...] Overall, the time-limited, local-unless-reported recordings Nintendo makes here seem like a minimal intrusion on the average GameChat user's privacy. Still, if you're paranoid about Nintendo potentially seeing and hearing what's going on in your living room, it's good to at least be aware of it.
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Nintendo Warns Switch 2 GameChat Users: 'Your Chat Is Recorded' More

Nintendo Warns Switch 2 GameChat Users: 'Your Chat Is Recorded'

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  • People have been lining up to buy the Switch 2. I really wish we'd push the concept of privacy and how it enhances your life vs using products that constantly mine your every move, thought, or indiscretion.

    • Re:Yet still (Score:5, Insightful)

      by viperidaenz ( 2515578 ) on Thursday June 05, 2025 @11:06PM (#65431026)

      Who is mining anything here? Local storage of an audio chat != data mining

    • GOOD. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by bussdriver ( 620565 ) on Friday June 06, 2025 @12:56AM (#65431050)

      Nintendo is handling the situation properly. If you want to nude chat or whatever keep that shit off children's toys and use your smart phone like an idiot adult with no grasp of the risks.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by s0nicfreak ( 615390 )
        1. Suggesting the reason people don't want to be recorded and potentially watched is that they're doing something inappropriate is some 1984 shit.

        2. You don't see the problem with children being recorded and potentially watched?

        • 1. Suggesting the reason people don't want to be recorded and potentially watched is that they're doing something inappropriate is some 1984 shit.

          You getting recorded picking your nose behind the Wendy's cash register must be embarrassing but that's not "1984 shit". If you can read, try the book sometime.

          2. You don't see the problem with children being recorded and potentially watched?

          I have a problem with children broadcasting anything precisely because you can't control what anyone does at the other end. Your argument is like saying Twitch shouldn't record streams because there might be children in them. As if the problematic people watching children are dependent on the integrated reporting functionality... they are, on it bein

          • Seems you're the one that can't read; I didn't say the act of recording itself was 1984 shit. I said Suggesting the reason people don't want to be recorded and potentially watched is that they're doing something inappropriate is some 1984 shit. And I've read the book.

            So you don't understand the difference between being behind the Wendy's cash register and having a video chat in your own home. Nor the difference between doing a Twitch stream and having a video chat. And also threw in some weird, out of l

        • 0) This is a child's toy. This is not the sole means of communication for everybody and I made that clear in the post. QED.

          1) Did you read 1984 as a student? Try it again as an adult. Especially don't forget the appendix, since those in a fiction books is because something huge was being critical is being missed to the point the author added it.

          1A) This reeks of over simplification or rationalization by a perv... ;-)
          1B) One can't even begin to seriously protect ch

          • This is a child's toy.

            Yes, I saw that you said that. My response was based on you saying that.

            One can't even begin to seriously protect children without supervision.

            Yes, but we don't entrust that supervision to random, unknown people for a reason.

            We all know children are not properly supervised when around random men online.

            So how can random men online be the supervision?

            Life guards are big brother! Police at large gatherings are big brother! Hall monitors are big brother!

            I didn't say the act of record

          • Also put cloud in the name, sure, that'll make everyone feel better. Just look at another child's toy, CloudPets. And that was only audio recordings. If something like that happens with these video recordings (because we all know Nintendo isn't immune to data breaches) it'll just be the parents' fault for buying the camera and letting their kid use "cloud chat" in the first place. Even if they weren't aware of the risks because people are afraid to talk about it since everyone that tries is accused of being

    • Re:Yet still (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ToasterMonkey ( 467067 ) on Friday June 06, 2025 @01:49AM (#65431102) Homepage

      People have been lining up to buy the Switch 2. I really wish we'd push the concept of privacy and how it enhances your life vs using products that constantly mine your every move, thought, or indiscretion.

      There's absolutely no reason for you to have complete privacy with some random kid on the internet, and they have every right to relay what you say to them to responsible adults. It's no different than you emailing someone and them forwarding it to authorities.

      Frankly, the weird internet libertarian flavor of privacy when it protects you at the expense of someone else that always overlaps with the weird flavor of free speech that protects you at the expense of someone else "if you didn't want it to be made public you shouldn't have shared it with anyone" can eat rotted dick.

      If you're the asshole and you don't want it to be made public then don't share it, and if someone shares intimate information with you in confidence, don't be the asshole and share it. Privacy and speech have reasonable limits. It's not rocket surgery.

      • What's weird and creepy are people who don't think the problem is parents letting their children talk to random strangers on the internet.

        • What's weird and creepy are people who don't think the problem is parents letting their children talk to random strangers on the internet.

          Nintendo has excellent parental controls and that feature specifically can be disabled with a checkbox in the app. That's the first layer of defense. The next layer is being able to report abuse after it has happened.

          Going to level with you dude, I have standards for putting someone on my red dot list here. There's some 45 to 47 items on this checklist I use, and all it means is I should read into what they have to say very closely and take my time responding. That's my personal way of supporting a diversit

          • When the red dots show up making bad faith arguments for "children's privacy", it's hard not to make connections, know what I mean?

            Yeah I know exactly what you mean. It's really hard for me to think anyone taking a pro-spyware position based on defending exposing kids to unsupervised randos on the internet is acting in good faith. Especially when they then try to imply anyone taking the position that neither spyware nor exposing kids to unsupervised randos on the internet are good things is a pedophile.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I was interested in the Switch 2 until I learned they can remotely brick the device if they don't like the way you play with it.

      Protecting your IP is one thing. Bricking the device for running Indy games is just evil.

      • until I learned they can remotely brick the device if they don't like the way you play with it

        You did not learn that. You took another story about language in the EULA disclaiming that Nintendo's system updates might brick a hacked console, and you applied some of the weird Nintendo hate that's been floating around social media. Your conclusion: Big N is coming to eat your baby.

        The other console makers do the same thing of course, because no one is going to offer any guarantees for a hacked console, but... ::crickets::

        I really don't understand the Nintendo hate. It's just so dumb.

        • You have to hack a console to add mods to games and to play homebrew games (the specific type of indie games #65431106 is refering to). So yes, they are reserving the right to brick a console if they don't like the way you play with it.

          There's a big difference between just doing it, and having the user agree to it. Without the user agreeing, it can be argued that it's not legal to brick a hacked console - and in some places, it just flat out is illegal.

          Previously Nintendo just banned hacked consoles f

      • You have no fucking concept of what EVIL actually is.

  • One of the big contributing factors to Discord's popularity even with console gamers is so that you aren't risking your console's account for shit-talking another player. It really only makes sense to use a console's built-in chat feature if you know for sure you'll be able to watch your mouth. That becomes even more ironic with games such as the GTA series, where the NPCs are dropping f-bombs left and right, but if you tell another player "Go fuck your momma, you fucking cuntbag!" and they report you out

    • ... You are so far from the truth it hurts. The only reason discord is as big as it is, is because they were the first to market with an in-browser next to no setup required voice chat. Team speak, Ventrilo, Mumble, etc. All offered better platforms with more features but you had to pay for them and unless you wanted to pay again you had to host the server and configure the appropriate connection requirements. All this to say we have been using shittier and shittier products is the name of convenience/

  • Remember in the old days? (Score:3)

    by OrangeTide ( 124937 ) on Thursday June 05, 2025 @10:33PM (#65430996) Homepage Journal

    That if a grown adult were caught tape recording children that the ex-Army school janitor would show them the way outside, hitting every door frame and drinking fountain on the way.

    • Good thing Nintendo aren't saving these recordings on their servers then. They're stored locally on each device.

      If grown adults are grooming kids on GameChat, I'd hope an ex-Army school janitor shows up at their door.

    • That if a grown adult were caught tape recording children that the ex-Army school janitor would show them the way outside, hitting every door frame and drinking fountain on the way.

      (21st Century Marketing) "So, the app is free to use, but that technically means You are the Produ.."

      (John/Jane Product) "Got it, downloaded. Oh sorry, did you say something after 'free'?"

      Yeah. I do remember the old days when people didn't give their privacy away, while society shames those for wanting to save what's left of it.

  • Can't say that about most of the privacy-violating tech giants.
  • This could be illegal in certain US states. In some states, all parties involved in the recording have to give consent. Just because you gave them consent a week ago doesn't mean Nintendo has the right to record them without new consent in the future.
  • Nintendo is the adult in the room here, and can't be blamed for trying to find a solution. Moreover, it sounds like a pretty good one.

  • Everyone who's eligible (EU citizens) should then regularly request deletion under their GDPR rights. Make privacy invasion costly for them.

    • It seems unlikely that you would be able to do this. You would need to know the identity of the person on the other end of the conversation in order to request them to remove the data, and you generally do not. Nintendo can identify them, but they wouldn't be able to disclose that information without a court order. So that's a multi-step legal process to get someone to remove data that's only being temporarily stored in the first place.

      • "Not my problem. I don't care who the other guy is. I want anything pertaining to me deleted."

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by allo ( 1728082 )

        Why would I care about the other person? I care about the service logging. The other person is the intended recipient. Or am I misunderstanding you?

        • There are two logs of your conversation. One is on your console, the other is on the other person's console. If you want to remove the remote log then you need to give notice to the other person. The only way that anyone else would have these logs is if you or the other person sends them to another party. It says this right in the summary there.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by allo ( 1728082 )

            I don't think GDPR really covers the local log of the recipient, if we talk about local storage like when you fetch your Mails with POP3 (i.e. everything is now only on your PC). But if it is kept (only) on the server like Discord does, the other person also loses access.

  • Folks getting weird on this (Score:3)

    by DeplorableCodeMonkey ( 4828467 ) on Friday June 06, 2025 @09:32AM (#65431548)

    Nintendo is extremely clear that the purpose of its recording and review system is "to protect GameChat users, especially minors

    A significant portion of their user base are minors and parents of minors. This isn't Microsoft pulling this on an audience that is mainly 18+. Nintendo is stopping just short of dunking on Roblox here. It's a "very Japanese" warning: predators, go somewhere else because we are prepared to aggressively help parents report you to law enforcement.

    • No, it's a very corporate feudalist tactic: Use women and/or children as an excuse to engage in dystopian behavior.

      • Use women and/or children as an excuse

        I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt here...

        Roblox and Nintendo have very similar markets. The former has had very public examples of sex offenders crawling all over its platform targeting minors. It's not a "feudalistic tactic" for Nintendo here. It's literally their legal department looking at a quasi-competitor and going "awww helll nah" and sending some requirements to the engineers to make it easy for parents to signal Uncle Sam's party van through Ninten

  • Someone tell nintendo voice chat isn't new and we've been doing it for ages. Oh and no one else makes it so you need your phone. Well, apart from when you want to phone someone of course.

  • 1. The morons who aren't doing anything illegal but are Nintendo for compromised privacy deserve to be recorded and screwed.
    2. The criminals who are doing illegal and evil things on a platform with kids on it also deserve to be recorded and screwed.

    Sane people who have no interest in illegality and want to protect their privacy should simply vote with their wallet.

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