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US and UK agents monitor gamers
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American and British intelligence operations have been spying on gamers across the world, media outlets reported, saying that the world’s most powerful espionage agencies sent undercover agents into virtual universes to monitor activity in online fantasy games such as “World of Warcraft.”
Stories carried on Monday by The New York Times, the Guardian, and ProPublica said US and UK spies have spent years trawling online games for terrorists or informants. The stories, based on documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, offer an unusual take on America’s world-spanning surveillance campaign, suggesting that even the fantasy worlds popular with children, teens, and escapists of all ages aren’t beyond the attention of the NSA and its British counterpart, GCHQ.
Virtual universes like “World of Warcraft” can be massively popular, drawing in millions of players who log months’ worth of real-world time competing with other players for online glory, virtual treasure, and magical loot. At its height, “World of Warcraft” boasted some 12 million paying subscribers, more than the population of Greece. Other virtual worlds, like Linden Labs’ “Second Life” or the various games hosted by Microsoft’s Xbox, home to the popular science fiction-themed “Halo,” lost millions more.
Spy agencies have long worried that such games serve as a good cover for terrorists or other evildoers who could use in-game messaging systems to swap information. In one of the documents cited on Monday by media outlets, the NSA warned that the games could give intelligence targets a place to “hide in plain sight.”
Linden Labs and Microsoft Inc did not return messages seeking comment. In a statement, Blizzard Entertainment said that it is “unaware of any surveillance taking place. If it was, it would have been done without our knowledge or permission.”
Microsoft issued a similar statement, saying it is “not aware of any surveillance activity. If it has occurred as reported, it certainly wasn’t done with our consent.”
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