Riot Games will now record your Valorant voice comms in a bid to tackle toxicity cover image

Riot Games will now record your Valorant voice comms in a bid to tackle toxicity

Riot Games will update their Privacy Notice, allowing them to record game audio for any disruptive behavior in Valorant voice comms, alongside all other Riot Games titles.

Riot Games will update their Privacy Notice, allowing them to record game audio for any disruptive behavior in Valorant voice comms, alongside all other Riot Games titles.

Toxic in-game behavior is an ongoing issue for Riot Games’ various titles. With the video game publisher looking to branch out in genres, the in-game behavior needs changes to be made. As a result, a privacy notice update will be made across all of their current titles. 

What is the privacy update for Valorant voice comms?

Voice comms and audio can now be recorded by Riot Games staff to further examine toxic in-game behavior. 

Players can submit a report for disruptive or offensive behavior in Valorant voice comms. The relevant audio data will be stored in your account’s region. Here, Riot Games’ will evaluate the audio data to see if the behavior agreement is being violated. 

Once the data is available to the player in violation, the data will be deleted. This new privacy notice update will work similarly to text-based chat reports. Once the offensive behavior in question comes to a decision, the voice comms will be deleted. 

Privacy Update will become Riot-Wide Policy

Toxic behavior is an ongoing battle for Riot Games’ different titles. With their plans to enter multiple different genres of games, a privacy notice update is necessary. 

Picture via Riot Games.

Riot Games’s Privacy Notice is a Riot-Wide policy that will require all players to accept these terms in order to play. However, Riot Games’ are making it clear that their primary goal with updated voice comms is for Valorant.

“Even though the update gives us the ability to capture voice data, League, Wild Rift, and TFT currently have no plans to record player voice chat or expand the voice comms capabilities beyond party voice chat.” Riot Games states in the press release. “If our plans change, we’ll notify you first before we start collecting any additional data as we aspire to be as transparent as possible to any data collection.” They conclude.

The Privacy Notice Update is there to eliminate toxic behavior, but there needs to be a starting point. With so many players across different titles, Riot Games’ need to centralize their focus to see results. That being said, their plan to focus on Valorant’s voice comms is a start in the right direction.

Why this is important for Valorant Voice Comms

The new privacy notice updates allow Riot Games to analyze toxic behavior that previously could be avoided. Now, the only way to stop potentially being recorded will be to turn off voice comms.

“For Valorant, we recognize there is still work to be done when it comes to the issues surrounding player behavior.” Riot Games states.

Valorant is Riot Games’ first venture into the fps shooter category and made its debut in June 2020. Since that point, it has become one of Riot Games’ most popular titles, aside from League of Legends.

Valorant recently held the VCT NA qualifiers where <a href="https://esports.gg/news/valorant/nas-true-hope-sentinels-sweeps-version1-to-secure-na-challengers-finals-title/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sentinels and Version1 qualified </a>for the next stage in Iceland.
Valorant recently held the VCT NA qualifiers where Sentinels and Version1 qualified for the next stage in Iceland.

Like most fps shooters, Valorant utilizes a voice comm system in-game. While it is not mandatory to participate in comms, it is heavily recommended in order to win games. As a result, behavioral issues previously were avoidable in the game through Valorant Voice Comms.

The new privacy update to Valorant Voice Comms is a start on one of Riot Games’ new ventures past League of Legends. 

Riot Games will continue to provide updates on the new update to Valorant Voice Comms. For more information surrounding Riot Games and Valorant, make sure to stay updated with esports.gg.