News Once Human's Data Privacy Problem Is The Norm, Not The Exception

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You may have heard about NetEase's eagerly awaited free to play open world survival game Once Human, which launched last week. You may also have heard about its controversial seasonal wipes, the backlash over its paid cosmetics, and its (now changed) policy of players not being able to switch servers or create more than one character per account. Our own Harry Alston says the game is pretty good in his review-in-progress, but all in all the game has opened to a Mixed review rating on Steam.

At the time of writing, about a third of Once Human's 23,539 Steam reviews are negative. Players are highlighting a number of issues, including seasonal wipes, poor optimization, lack of difficulty in non-PVP servers, and not being able to join servers. There are also a lot of reviews saying that Once Human's Terms of Service are too invasive.

Is NetEase Stealing Your Data?

If you read through the Terms of Service, you'll find that the policy says the developers may collect "first and last name, title, prefix, email address, telephone number, (instant) messaging account, postal address, date of birth, age, gender, country/region, and government-issued ID, such as passport information". The privacy policy also says that NetEase can collect location information from your IP address and Wi-Fi connection. This is a lot of information to take from players.

The developers' (NetEase subsidiary Starry Studios) statement in the game's official Discord server says that the company only collects government-issued IDs when necessary, such as if a player's parent has to be verified to allow their child to play, or if a player changes their age information. The developers claim that the information is deleted immediately once it's been used for its intended purpose. NetEase also says that social media information is given to the company voluntarily through user surveys, and that players won't have to provide that information if they don't want to.

A post on the game's Steam page also says that the developers will "only use personal data if we have a legitimate legal basis" and "will only use your data lawfully and reasonably and in accordance with local legal compliance requirements".

So, to answer the question: it's hard to say! Starry Studios insists it's not, and you'll just have to take its word for it.

Most Services Have Dodgy Privacy Policies

I'm a little surprised there's been so much backlash to Once Human's ToS, because almost everything on the internet has some weird, shady stuff hidden in that document that nobody ever reads. As pointed out by PCGamesN, you'll find similar clauses in the privacy policies of Blizzard's Diablo 4, Overwatch 2, and World of Warcraft, and ZeniMax Media's policy as well.

If you're up in arms over Once Human's privacy issues, I urge you to read the ToS of any service you use, from subscription services to social media terms and conditions. When you use anything online, you've agreed to having your information collected to varying degrees. Almost every company is taking your information, and in many cases, selling it to advertisers. That's what the modern internet is, unfortunately.

There is nothing special about Once Human's privacy policies, but that doesn't mean players don't have a right to be upset about it: in general, companies taking your information and not having full transparency and accountability as to how that data is used is a bad thing. But this isn't a NetEase problem, it's indicative of the wider ethical issues around what it means to be a person who, unless you live entirely off the grid, has to use the internet to do things.

Pro tip: if this revelation has made you want to be more informed about how companies are collecting and using your data, I've been using the Terms of Service Didn't Read browser extension for years now. If you're going to give everybody access to your data, you might as well be informed about what exactly you're consenting to.