As recently as seven years ago no one really thought about personal data privacy or how data collection would affect them, and even when Edward Snowden was making headlines, the focus was mainly on the governmental implications. Conversations centered around wiretaps or companies handing over browsing data to the government.
Fast forward to today and net neutrality is on most peoples’ minds. Whether it’s governmental regulations on memes, your smart speaker recording queries, or your phone tailoring ads based on conversations (and somehow picking up on your co-worker’s new hockey hobby), we’ve all encountered some level of data collection in our lives and it’s only natural for us to seek a way to protect our data. We’re players too, and we don’t believe you should have to worry about this type of data collection when you play your favorite game. This is why we’re working our hardest to remain at the forefront of data privacy by future-proofing how we protect player data as best we can in such an evolving arena.
What is Data Privacy?
We define data privacy as how we collect, handle, use, and destroy player data. Player data is anything we collect or glean from players in all of our game and web ecosystems. This includes identifying information, personalized information, or anything we could use for Riot’s business purposes.
In May of 2018, the EU enacted the GDPR, which is their revised, updated, and strengthened regulation for data privacy and consumer protection. Fortunately for all of us, many other countries and states are following suit. We’re dedicated to ensuring everyone’s data is kept safe.
Why it Matters
Imagine a world where everything you do is public knowledge. There is no privacy. No anonymity. Everyone in your contact list knows about every Google search you’ve ever made, every weird Wikipedia or YouTube rabbit hole you’ve ever fallen down. That’s a world without data privacy, and we’re trying to keep that in the pages of 1984.
The games industry is unique for the way in which it embraces change. Innovation is at our very heart, and data privacy is no different. As governments update regulations to match the changing technology, so too must our approach to protecting data. We’ll continue to work our hardest to set the bar for data privacy in games and lead the way for the rest of the industry.
Continued Efforts
The Data Privacy team works with Rioters from every region to make sure we meet our obligations. But we’re not stopping there. We want to take data privacy further because players deserve to be protected. Whenever we make any decisions around data, we like to think of how we would feel if it was ours.
We do this because it’s right for players, fellow Rioters, and everyone else. We’ll continue to push for better privacy, and we’ll continue to be vigilant.
