A privacy data review by VPNoverview, a website dedicated to privacy, cybersecurity, and internet freedom, has determined Xbox as the worst offender in gaming privacy policies. While the study doesn't solely focus on gaming companies, VPNoverview has separated a list of four companies, comparing the most egregious privacy policies in gaming.
VPNoverview is a website first launched to inform about VPN services in the Dutch market. It has since grown to become a hub of information with a team of cybersecurity and privacy professionals working to provide information on topics including online security, internet freedom, privacy, and VPN. VPN is a network tool that can be used to enjoy games or other entertainment with improved privacy and security.
The study focused on determining which companies offer the worst and hardest-to-read privacy policies. With billions of people owning gaming consoles, accepting legally binding documents to access games is an important and largely overlooked aspect of gaming. Gaming services can be hacked like any other and user information could be compromised. VPNoverview's review consisted of measuring the readability and length of the policy and ranking them in five categories: reading level, difficulty, words per sentence, syllables per word, and overall readability score.
The worst overall score was awarded to Xbox with 26.1 points, followed up by Nintendo fairly close with 26.7. The other two contestants, Wizards of the Coast and PlayStation, third and fourth respectively, managed much better with scores. Unlike the other three, Wizards of the Coast is known first and foremost for its tabletop and card games but also owns video game production, like the horror game studio Skeleton Key.
To give a sense of scope on the scores in a larger picture, VPNoverview has also listed twenty of the worst companies across businesses in which the range of points was from 2.83 to 27.01. While Xbox and Nintendo did fit just inside the overall bottom 20, they managed fairly well compared to some other entertainment brands. Netflix was worse than either of them with a score of 23.72 and the worst of them all was Disney with an abysmal 2.83. While it isn't included as a gaming company on the list, Disney is also involved in releasing games. Compared to these atrocious privacy scores, PlayStation's 33.93 doesn't look that bad anymore, which is reflected in the overall standing of 57th out of 100.
VPNoverview also gave key issues about each policy. With Xbox, the reviewers wondered why the console is suitable for 7-year-olds if the policy requires over 26 minutes of reading at the College Grad level. Nintendo's activity tracking was of concern, which could be due to AR games like Pikmin Bloom and Pokemon GO. For Wizards of the Coast, the separating factor was audio data collection, and while PlayStation's policy was considered "fairly solid," it still raised some general privacy concerns.
Source: VPNoverview