Sony may monitor your PSN and community activity, share data with "affiliated companies"

Sony has updated its software usage terms for PSN to state that it can monitor your PSN activity, but has no commitment to do so. It may, however, track your PSN habits, monitor or delete your messages and pass the information on to affiliate companies in the name of online security.

You'll find the new legal document on the PlayStation UK site.

Section 14 is entitled" Are we monitoring PSN?" and reads as follows:

"Yes but we can't monitor all PSN activity and we make no commitment to do so. However, we reserve the right in our sole discretion to monitor and record any or all of your PSN activity and to remove any of your UGM at our sole discretion, without further notice to you.

"Your use of PSN and our community features may be recorded and collected by us or sent to us by other users as described in 13.1. Any information collected in this way, for example, your UGM, the content of your voice and text communications, video of your gameplay, the time and location of your activities, and your name, your PSN Online ID and IP address, may be used by us or our affiliated companies to enforce these Terms and the SEN Terms of Service, to comply with the law, to protect our rights and those of our licensors and users, and to protect the personal safety of our employees and users.

"This information may be passed to the police or other appropriate authorities. By accepting these Software Usage Terms, you expressly consent to this."

The start of the document also adds that all software you buy is,"licensed, not sold," and adds, "which means you acquire rights to use the Software, as described in these Terms, but you do not acquire ownership of the Software. If you do not comply with these Terms, we can terminate your Software Licence which means you will no longer have the right to use the Software."

While the documentation suggests that data can be monitored and passed on to affiliates, it does sound like this is only when you seem to be doing something dodgy or beyond the usage policy. Still, following on from Microsoft's DRM backlash, the wording could get some gamers upset.

The line about ownership of software is also interesting, given the debate around whether or not gamers actually own the content they buy in today's industry.

What do you think?

Via Polygon.