Ubisoft faces a fine of up to 92 million euros due to the collection of player data
The Austrian organization noyb, which advocates for digital user privacy, has filed a complaint against Ubisoft with the Austrian regulator. It accused the company of violating the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Far Cry Primal
noyb reported that it is acting on behalf of a gamer who purchased Far Cry Primal on Steam. After purchasing, he found that although the game has no online features, it requires an internet connection and mandatory login to a Ubisoft account. It was revealed that Far Cry Primal actively collects his data, which is then sent to Google, Amazon, Datadog, and other third-party companies. By his estimate, within 10 minutes the game connected to external servers 150 times.
When the gamer contacted customer support, the company replied that internet access is only required to verify that the game's owner is attempting to launch it. Ubisoft explained other complaints with its license agreement and privacy policy.
Nevertheless, the noyb complaint emphasizes that Ubisoft does not ask players for permission to collect, process, and distribute data. It does all this by default.
noyb requests that the Austrian regulator oblige Ubisoft to delete illegally collected player information and change its data handling policy. The organization also wants Ubisoft to pay a fine of up to 4% of its annual turnover. Considering that its turnover in 2024 was 2.3 billion euros, the fine could reach 92 million euros.