Details on new voice chat functionality coming to PS5

This is how things begin, small and unintrusive then evolve to become more intrusive and more expansive in future iterations until we get to the point where the entirety of a conversation is recorded and stored and can be submitted to third-parties for any use. Not worried about that but I have other concerns. It sounds like the person can listen and playback the 5 min to select the 20 seconds they desire? The problem is people can abuse this and playback only to copy the recordings for other purposes. I have been in parties where someone forgot to mute a mic and you hear personal information or private, now anyone in that party can click report and playback the chat to capture the info they otherwise would be unable to do. Just thinking about this possibility makes me really reconsider PSN parties, the idea that everything I say is being recorded and that any participant can play it back for any purpose is troubling. This sounds more like a solution in search of a problem. Avoid parties with unknown people or if things begin to escalate, make an exit. That’s what I do, I leave rather than start arguing. I also IGNORE party invites from people that I just defeated in a PvP game or even my own team if we lost because I know what to expect: nasty, hateful, profane, and vile remarks. No thanks. I guess now that will be less of an issue or will it? People will just create new accts and still curse you out via message or voice to circumvent getting banned. Now what? People need to link their social security numbers to a PSN to authenticate? I think players need education and guides (avoid random parties, strangers, etc), this feels like policing and I don’t think it will achieve much because the current text message reporting never works. All that happens is the text get deleted by SIE Moderation and zero to the offending user. Mods make mistakes, it happens with username bans and text bans but in those cases you’re armed with evidence to challenge and overturn the ban but with voice reporting? No evidence, you’re at the mercy of the decision making mod and can’t prove your case. So let’s hope the mods are thorough as they claim to be and actually uphold the policies. The other issue is torment and teasing, one of my friends has a voice problem and often when he joins strangers they comment on his voice and some laugh, he’s worried people will record him for bad reasons (now that it’s so easy) and is paranoid of that. He doesn’t talk in any in-game chats because these can easily be recorded via DVR whereas parties require an opt-in.

Imo this is a bad idea for PS5 and it introduces more problems than it purports to remedy and will be easy to circumvent by repeat offenders via the creation of new accounts for the sole purpose of causing problems, among other methods.

Now on to my suggestion. What about reintroducing private parties? And limiting voice recording to public parties so people have an option. Don’t join private parties with people you don’t know could be the educational reference for players and public parties can be recorded and are a “safe” space for people grouping up with randoms. That way people can decide. Or just don’t allow any playback and limit it to the last 40s of chat after someone hits the button to initiate the reporting process. Imo ppl shouldn’t be in a party for five minutes after something nasty was said to them anyway. Hit report as soon as the nastiness begins and submit it. Imo the playback will be the biggest issue and 5 minutes is too generous. Final idea, what about allowing opt-out and giving a warning to people before they join a chat that “A participant in this chat has opted-out of voice recording” so that user is informed and can make a choice. People that usually get hate will be on alert and just not join the chat.

Tl;dr bad idea, feels unsettling, need opt-out with warning to users that join, limit recording to public parties, 5 min very generous recording time, and/or no playback of audio to avoid abuse for other purposes.