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

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.

Yet still

[Virtucon]

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

[viperidaenz]

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

Re:

[SirSlud]

Have you taken apart everything in your home to ensure there are no recording devices embedded inside them? Get a grip, bro.

Re:

[FictionPimp]

First I thought, I'll just packet capture my whole house and find out. But then I realized they might have a cell modem inside the switch. So now I'm turning my house into a faraday cage.

GOOD.

[bussdriver]

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:

[s0nicfreak]

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?

Re:Yet still

[ToasterMonkey]

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.

Re:

[Shadow of Eternity]

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.

Re:

[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.

Re:

[Can'tNot]

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.

Re:

[s0nicfreak]

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

Re:

[registrations_suck]

You have no fucking concept of what EVIL actually is.

Nothing new under the sun here

[Powercntrl]

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

Re:

[Ilove_Noname]

... 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?

[OrangeTide]

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.

Re:

[viperidaenz]

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.

Re:

[geekmux]

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.

At least they're transparent about being invasive.

[Pierre Pants]

Can't say that about most of the privacy-violating tech giants.

Legality

[alvian]

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.

Re:

[Can'tNot]

This seems unlikely. If those laws applied in this context, Facebook / Google / etc. would be running afoul of them constantly. It seems more likely that those laws apply only narrowly.

Re:

[SuiteSisterMary]

I mean, clicking the 'I agree to use GameChat knowing that every time I use it, I'm going to be recorded' sounds an awful lot like 'giving consent.'

Re:

[SirSlud]

Yes, I'm sure Nintendo's lawyers have not considered the legality of their business practices in their largest market. *rolls eyes*

Re: Legality

[Holi]

According to the agreement, use of the app is consent.

Re:

[s0nicfreak]

The agreement is not the law. So we'll see how well that holds up, especially when many of the people "giving consent" will be children.

At least some kind of solution

[Togamika]

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.

Request deletion

[allo]

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

Re:

[Can'tNot]

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.

Re:

[Shadow of Eternity]

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

Re:

[damnbunni]

By the time the summons was served the recording would already have timed out and been deleted.

Folks getting weird on this

[DeplorableCodeMonkey]

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.

Re:

[Shadow of Eternity]

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

Someone tell them

[stealth_finger]

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.

This is not a problem

[nashv]

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.