Riot will retain and review voice chat clips as part of Valorant's reporting tools

Riot Games has made a change to its Privacy Notice that allows it to record clips from Valorant's in-game voice communication, a change it says was made in order to better handle reports of disruptive behavior over voice channels in the future.

Specifically, the change gives Riot the go-ahead "to record and evaluate voice comms when a report for disruptive behavior is submitted," a similar pitch to PlayStation's somewhat controversial system-wide voice chat reporting tool that launched last year.

Likely aiming to get ahead of a potential controversy itself, Riot shared a FAQ alongside the change to explain why it wants to start recording voice conversations and clarify when it will or won't listen in on those chats.

"Disruptive behavior on voice comms is a huge pain point for a lot of players," explains the team. "And we believe one of the ways to combat it is by providing quick and accurate ways to report abuse or harassment so we know when to take action. We also need clear evidence to verify violations of behavioral policies before we take action and to help us share with players on why a particular behavior may have resulted in a penalty."

Riot reiterates several times throughout the post that it will only save recordings of conversations when a report is filed against a player in voice chat. It notes that Riot devs won't actively monitor in-game voice comms, and data will be kept for only as long as necessary to review and rule on a report of harassment, hate speech, or otherwise disruptive behavior.

While the Privacy Notice update lays the groundwork for voice evaluation, Riot notes that the feature is only planned for Valorant at this time and, even so, won't launch right away. Instead, Riot says the feature is currently under development but adds that it plans to explain more about the feature before it shows up in the live game.