European Human Rights Watch Accuses Ubisoft of Illegally Collecting Player Data

The European Digital Rights Centre NOYB (None Of Your Business) has filed a formal complaint with Austria’s data protection authorities against the actions of French publisher and developer Ubisoft.

Image source: Steam (RaveN)

According to NOYB, Ubisoft is violating the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by forcing users to go online even when the game does not have any multiplayer features.

«”Imagine Mr. Monopoly sitting at your table watching you play a board game with your family and friends. Well, that’s the reality of video games,” NOYB noted.

Image source: NOYB

NOYB’s complaint is based on the experience of an unnamed user who was unable to launch the single-player prehistoric action game Far Cry Primal, which he purchased on Steam, while offline – he had to log into his Ubisoft account to start playing.

Ubisoft’s technical support explained this by the need to verify that the user owns a license for the game, but NOYB believes that in the case of the Steam version of Far Cry Primal, Steam itself can handle this.

In 10 minutes, the game sent 150 Ubisoft data packets, which contained more than just session information (Image source: Steam)

NOYB accuses Ubisoft of violating Article 6(1) of the GDPR by, firstly, collecting data unnecessarily and, secondly, failing to provide users with an explicit option to opt out of this collection.

The company is asking the Austrian authorities to force Ubisoft to comply with the GDPR and to impose a fine of up to €92 million (4% of Ubisoft’s turnover last year), “given the millions of users affected.”