No, Once Human does not collect data from a passport or ID card, says NetEase

Once upon a time, a man does not collect particularly sensitive user data, including information from government-issued IDs, publisher NetEase says, following criticism and concerns from players following the survival game’s launch on Steam. NetEase’s privacy policy, which also applies to Once Human, states that information from government-issued IDs, such as passports, is collected by the game. In response, Once Human’s Steam rating quickly dropped to “mostly negative” due to a large number of player responses citing concerns about how the game handles personal data. NetEase now provides a statement explaining its privacy policy and clarifying that information from government-issued IDs is only requested in certain circumstances.

NetEase’s privacy policy, which applies to Once Human, includes a section titled “Personal Information We Collect.” In this section, the game developer provides a list of “personal information we collect from you (users of NetEase products and services).” This list identifies “government-issued identification, such as passport information, as required by applicable law for the purpose of age verification and correction of personal information” as part of the information NetEase collects from users. The privacy policy and this disclaimer also appear when you open the survival game.

In response to player concerns, NetEase and Starry Studio, the developer of Once Human, released a statement further explaining their policy regarding information from government-issued documents, as well as users’ social media accounts and other personal data.

“NetEase takes the privacy of our users’ data very seriously and adheres to data privacy principles such as data minimization, purpose limitation, and transparency,” the company says. “For example, we only collect government-issued IDs for the following reasons: when local law requires it (e.g., for a specific promotion), when the identity of a user’s parent needs to be verified in order to obtain consent for their child (if required by applicable child protection laws), or when a user wants to correct their age information (again, if such verification is required by law). In each case, the ID information is deleted immediately after the purpose for which it was collected is fulfilled.

“Similarly, we may ask our users for additional information, such as social media account usernames, names, and addresses, in user surveys in which users participate voluntarily. Users are free to provide as much information in these user surveys (as they wish), if they choose to respond to the survey at all.”

The privacy policies of other developers and publishers also, in some cases, cover the collection of data from government-issued documents. The privacy policies for Diablo 4, Overwatch 2, and World of Warcraft creator Blizzard, for example, state that “in some very rare, specific, and limited cases, we (Blizzard) may ask you to provide a partially obscured copy of a document or government-issued ID to verify your identity, location, and/or account ownership in order to fulfill our legal obligations.”

Similarly, the privacy policy of ZeniMax Media, parent company of Bethesda, creator of Skyrim and Starfield, states that “in limited circumstances, we (ZeniMax Media) may collect: social security number, driver’s license, precise geolocation, and personal health information about a consumer, which is aggregated and analyzed.”

At the time of writing, less than 24 hours after its release, Once Human’s overall Steam rating based on player feedback has risen to “mixed.” At its peak, the sandbox game attracted over 82,000 concurrent users to Valve’s platform.

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