Ubisoft Connect chat logs will be stored as encrypted text for a period of 3 months going forward according to an announcement about improvements to the service arriving in the coming weeks.
Much like Steam and Battle.net, Ubisoft runs its own social gaming service called Ubisoft Connect. Essentially, it serves as a unified service for all of your communication within the Ubisoft ecosystem. Now, a big update for this chat service is on the way — along with some details about how will it store your data.
How Ubisoft Connect Chat Logs Will Be Stored
Ubisoft Connect chat logs will be stored for a period of 3 months. You don't have to worry about someone casually snooping through them, though — Ubisoft also says that these chat logs will be encrypted.
"Chat logs are a key bit of information that can aid us in investigations, however this doesn’t mean they should exist forever," Ubisoft said in today's announcement "These logs are never decrypted unless it requires further investigation and in addition to that, moving forward we will only be storing that chat data for 3 months."
Social communication platforms can store their chat logs anywhere from a few hours to practically forever. Steam, for instance, says that its current chat system will let you see your own messages going back two weeks, although it's unclear how long these messages are stored server-side; its privacy statement doesn't mention exactly how long it might hold onto your Steam chat logs.
Discord, meanwhile, can store your messages pretty much forever for you to review; naturally, this means that authorized Discord staff would likely have similar access if they're required to investigate something. According to a Discord support page, it looks like the company will store all of your messages in perpetuity unless you delete them ( and it's unclear how long they might stick around after being "deleted").
Ubisoft spelling out how long Ubisoft Connect chat logs will be held is a good move in terms of transparency. That said, there may be some concerns about the security of your data; late last year, the Egregor ransomware group claims that it breached Ubisoft's servers and acquired confidential data including source code from one of the Watch Dogs games; it's unclear if any personal data was acquired in the breach.
For now, at least you'll know how long Ubisoft will be holding onto your chat logs if you use their services to communicate through text. We've reached out to Ubisoft, Discord, and Steam on this topic and will update this article when we receive a reply.
What do you think about Ubisoft Connect chat logs being stored for 3 months? Would you prefer that chat logs are not stored for so long (or not stored at all)? Let us know in the comments below!
