While it’s true that “no one is perfect,” you can often gauge just how “good or bad” someone is by their actions and how they respond to potential controversy. In the case of certain game developers, there have been controversies about microtransactions, workplace crunch, diversity issues, and more. In the case of Roblox, though, the biggest controversy that they continue to deal with is the accusations of its universe not being safe for kids. We’ve reported about how this actually is true on certain levels and how the dev team has “made improvements” with its safety protocols to help ensure parents that their kids will be safe. However, a new lawsuit calls that into question in a unique way.
As noted by Top Class Actions, a new massive lawsuit has been filed in California by two parents of a Roblox player, who happens to be 12, and the accusation that they’re making is that the game actually tracks their son without consent. In other words, the game and its team are violating privacy laws, which is not a good thing if true. In one part of the lawsuit, it explains:
“Had they known the truth that Roblox would effectively spy on their child’s activities and identity for profit, they would not have allowed their child to use the platform.
Without getting too deep into the weeds, the lawsuit claims that the game uses multiple methods to track gamers, especially underage gamers, via things like audio tracking, IP address tracking, logging a person’s keystrokes when they type, and so on. All of these are apparently meant to make a “web of tracking” so that the game knows where every player goes and what they do, and that can be exploited.
A key thing to note here is that while the parents of the player are the ones filing the lawsuit and seeking immediate amends, they are also asking the parents of other players to join in the lawsuit so that the game can be properly punished. Just as important, they’re asking for any data that was collected on the game about their children to be immediately erased.
These are serious allegations, and no one in the gaming space wants their information tracked for anything other than gaming-specific events. Sometimes, a game DOES need to track you in the game, but not all the time. While the dev team hasn’t responded to this particular lawsuit just yet, it might only be a matter of time before they’re forced to.
