By Jonathan Orr, Jonathan Harvey, and John Gladman

Several different mediums for personal interaction. Massive amounts of users. Abuse of the system is inevitable. Several cases resulted in death. Game developers such as Blizzard, incorporate spam into the purchase of their games.

Simulated economy that involves real life money. Avatars sometimes resemble actual user.

Sega DreamCast was the first to launch. Key details of personal information required to sign up for online service. We are now in the 7 th generation of gaming consoles. (Xbox 360 and PS3)

Steam Electronic Gaming Distribution Engine Creators of Half Life Won over 50 Game of the year awards. Valve games account for 80% of the PC online action market.

Benefits Content directly to users. Flexible billing. Ensured game version control. Anti Cheating, Anti Piracy. In-game instant messaging. Purchase and Download game instantaneously.

Other game developers are releasing their games on steam. 2K Games, THQ, id Software, Activision, and Strategy First. Over 10 million registered users giving up personal information. Includes credit card information.

The policy begins with “By using Valve's online sites and products, users agree that Valve may collect aggregate information, individual information, and personally identifiable information …Valve may share aggregate information and individual information with other parties” Several other misleading parts to the policy.

Not found within the policy. According to Dailytech “Valve's Steam content distribution system has apparently been hacked. The culprit allegedly got deep enough into the system to steal credit card information and financial information on Valve.”

Valve gives the option to Opt-Out??? “Valve gives users the option of discontinuing receipt of promotional communications from Valve. Instructions for discontinuing receipt of promotional communications from Valve will be provided in such subsequent communications to users” What about the personal information gathering?

VAC stands for Valve Anti-Cheat System. Regularly scans your files for edited configuration files. Are those the only files they scan? Always have to be logged on to steam, to play your games.

Filed for a patent that will convert and monitor the way that people play their video games. Main goal is to develop a Psychological profile on all users. Target Games Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing World of Warcraft Second Life

Tendencies Is the player Honest or Dishonest? Passive or Aggressive? Cautious or Risk Taker? Cooperative or Uncooperative? Dialog will also be gathered Are they literate, profane, blunt, quiet etc?

This aggregation of data will be aimed at providing the user a service of better in game target advertising. The marketing won’t only come from psychological hints. Game Duration Playing longer than 2 constant hours will get you advertisements for food and beverages. Explorative Gamers Vacation advertisements Verbal Gamers Cell phone Advertisements

If law enforcement requested the psychological profiles, Google would have no choice but to hand them over. Dale Clapperton, Chairman of Electronics Frontiers says, "Who knows, we may end up in a situation where the police come around and knock on your door because you're World of Warcraft character has been going on a bit of a killing spree lately."

Sexual Deviants Avatars aimed to look like animals or even child like engaging in sexual acts. Have to ask the question, could these psychological profiles lead us to real life sex offenders? Are they joking or are they serious? Does their in game behavior correlate with their real life behavior? According to Google it does. Does Law enforcement?

Online gaming communities contain massive amounts of personal data. Including personal interactions and now psychological profiles. Knowing exactly what info you are giving up is important. Although sometimes very hard to find.