Privacy Is the Price: Player Views and Technical Evaluation of Data Practices in Online Games

Abstract

Online games engage players in sharing their personal data with the games themselves and other players, which can pose security, privacy, and integrity risks to players. This paper presents an analysis of data practices in 21 online games and a qualitative interview study (N=20) that explores players' views on sharing their data in online games. Our results show that players' willingness to share personal information is contextual and related to game settings and game design elements. Our findings also highlight players' misconceptions and concerns surrounding data collection in games, and approaches to mitigate these concerns. Finally, this work identifies questionable design practices with online games and suggests design implications that will increase transparency and player control over data sharing.