Shortly after the Paris attacks last Friday the 13th, local officials have been trying to crack down on the suspects through various operations on suspected terrorist bases. In one of the bases, there was a report that a PlayStation 4 was seized and officials are speculating that it might have been used as a tool for communicating.
Jan Jambon, Belgian federal home affairs minister, warned about the growing popularity of the PS4 among terror networks and its use as a means to plan and coordinate attacks. After ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack on Paris, leaving 129 people dead and 300 injured, the viability of using the PS4 console as a substitute for vulnerable avenues like phone calls and emails is now under the microscope.
In 2013, there was a growing concern over privacy issues with the use of then upcoming PS4 and the Xbox One. The EFF even made statements in an NBC interview regarding the console's ability to snoop into people's homes through its audio and video sensors. Now, it seems, the opposite is what concerns officials. An article from Forbes, from the same year, assured users that Sony gives the users full control of what they share, making each interaction with a game or another player as secure as the technology allows it.
If you're a PS4 user, you know there are a number of ways you can communicate with another player. You can send a message through the network, use voice chat or use a specific game to exchange information. We know that online games have some form of immunity over regular means of communication, as seen in the leaked documents by Edward Snowden in 2013, revealing that the NSA embedded agents in WoW to see if its being used by terrorists. Whether they made provisions to tap into online games until that time, we may never know.
It seems that for every inch of privacy issue we win, we also lose in some form. The question of whether these gaming networks will be a focal point of debate between the NSA and the privacy advocate groups like the EFF might unfold within the next few days. How will this affect gaming in general? Let's hear your thoughts in the comments section!
