NGO files complaint against Ubisoft for data protection concerns and forcing “always online” connections

Privacy non-profit organization NOYB – European Center for Digital Rights has taken up a player’s case against Ubisoft, alleging its data collection practices have “no valid legal basis.”

The complainant also takes issue with the fact Far Cry Primal could not be played offline or without setting up, and logging into, an Ubisoft account, stating they were “astonished that it was impossible to play a single-player game, offering no online functionalities” without an internet connection.

As spotted by Eurogamer, the complainant, described as “tech-savvy,” examined “what kind of data packages were being sent to [Ubisoft] when playing the game.”

“So they started the game again and had it running for about 10 minutes,” the paperwork stated. “They discovered that 150 unique DNS packages (queries and responses) were sent during this time and they identified 56 requests to initiate a connection between the complainants computer and external servers.” Google, Amazon, and Datadog are reportedly some of the “recipients of the complainant’s data.”

When pressed by the player on “what’s in these packets,” Ubisoft told them “the data sent when launching one of games [sic] is an ownership check on [its] servers to validate that the player’s account owns the game they’re trying to launch.”

NOYB asserts Ubisoft failed to explain what the data collection was for or why “data packets are sent back and forth between the player and, for example, Google servers.”

The lawsuit suggests Ubisoft should be fined given “millions of users are affected by [its data] practices,” and asks for a general order to be applied to compel Ubisoft to comply with the European GDPR, comparing Ubisoft’s data collecting to digital “trespassing.”

“If you want to enter someone’s home, you should be invited, otherwise you’re trespassing,” NOYB opined. “If the behaviour is illegal in the physical sphere, it should be illegal in the digital one as well. There is no reason to apply a different standard.”

Earlier this month, Ubisoft responded to a California class action lawsuit around the shutdown of 2014 racing game The Crew, filing a motion to dismiss the case.