Earlier today, Sony quietly released the latest firmware update for the PlayStation 4, the new 8.0 update. However, nowhere in the update notes did Sony mention a deeply troubling new policy: all users talking over Party Chat can have their voices recorded, so the company can police any potential offensive language.
The new warning is being spotted by users on PlayStation 4 trying to start up a Party Chat, where Sony notes “by participating in voice chats, you agree to your voice being recorded.” The company notes this is to “check if there have been genuine violations” of their Community Code of Conduct.
Furthermore, Sony notes that “voice chats in parties may be recorded and sent to us by other users,” suggesting even if users don’t verbally consent to being recorded, they can still be held liable for any potential Code of Conduct-breaking language.
This also means Sony is now allowing users to record users without their consent, so they can report them for perceived bad language, opening a whole new can of worms in our ongoing cancel culture-encouraging society.
Here’s the new notice users are getting when joining Party Chats for voice:
It’s also worth noting the new 8.0 update is causing many users to be unable to even view their friends list, with massive lag preventing them from loading it or simply not being able to view the list at all.
As this is the new policy for Party Chat on PS4, it’s likely this will be the norm on Sony’s upcoming console, the PlayStation 5, which presumably will include the same featureset for its online community access.
How do you feel about having all Party Chat voice recorded against your will? Sound off in the comments below!
