Sony has insisted the PlayStation 5 won’t actively monitor voice chat.
Sony's PlayStation 5
The tech giant has clarified the details surrounding the voice chat feature on the upcoming console, after they appeared to suggest that the console would record and monitor everything said through the console’s microphone.
Catherine Jensen, Sony Interactive Entertainment’s vice president for global consumer experience, said in a PlayStation Blog post: “We didn’t clearly communicate this feature or explain why we were introducing it, and we apologise for that.”
Users flagged the issue in a new update for the PlayStation 4, which led them to begin seeing notifications on the console regarding its party chat feature.
The notice, titled “About Party Safety”, read: “Please be aware that voice chats in parties may be recorded and sent to us by other users. By participating in voice chats, you agree to your voice being recorded. These recordings will be used only for safety and moderation purposes by PlayStation Safety.”
Sony later updated the blog post about the update to explain that the recording feature would only be available on the PlayStation 5 when it launches on November 12, leading to questions about Sony’s motives in recording voice chats.
The tech company has nw clarified the feature will allow users to submit the recordings to Sony for moderation purposes, and will only be used if someone submits a report about abusive players.
Jensen added in the blog post: “If a PS5 player needs to file a harassment report, they will be able to include up to a 40 second-long Voice Chat clip in their report - 20 seconds of the main conversation with the other player, plus an additional 10 seconds before and after the conversation selection. Only the most recent five minutes of a Voice Chat will be available for a player to use for this reporting function.”
Recording is enabled by default on PS5, and users won’t have the ability to disable it.
Jensen continued: “There won’t be an option to opt-out of this Voice Chat recording function because we want all users to feel safe when playing with others online, not just those who choose to enable it.”
However, she also emphasised that “this feature will not actively monitor or listen in on your conversations - ever.”