Study Finds: Online Games are Collecting Gamers’ Data Using Dark Designs

A recent study conducted by researchers, at Aalto University Department of Science, has revealed a dark design pattern in online games in the privacy policies and regulations which could be used in a dubious data collection tactic of online gamers. In order to enhance privacy in online games, the study also provides design guidelines for game producers and risk mitigation techniques for users.

There are about three billion gamers worldwide, and the gaming industry is worth $193 billion, almost twice as much as the combined value of the music and film industries.

Janne Lindqvist, associate professor of computer science at alto noted, “We had two supporting lines of inquiry in this study: what players think about games, and what games are really up to with respect to privacy.’

The study’s authors were astonished by how complex the concerns of gamers were.

“For example, participants said that, to protect their privacy, they would avoid using voice chat in games unless it was absolutely necessary. Our game analysis revealed that some games try to nudge people to reveal their online identities by offering things like virtual rewards,” said Lindqvist in a report published in the journal Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction.

The authors found examples of games that used “dark design,” or interface decisions that coerce users into taking actions they otherwise would not. These might make it easier to gather player data, motivate us

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