South Korean Krafton Inc has chalked up recent allegations about data being sent to servers in China to “third party solutions”. “Similar to other global mobile games and apps, Battlegrounds Mobile India also uses third party solutions to provide unique game features,” the company said in a statement. “In the process of using these solutions, some game data was shared to third parties. Battleground Mobile India’s privacy policy fully discloses that the app may transfer some user data, with users’ consent to the privacy policy and choosing to migrate their accounts. No data has been shared in violation of the privacy policy,” the statement adds.
Media reports yesterday alleged that data from the Android version of the company’s new game was flowing through servers owned by Chinese Tencent Corporation. The report began after several users used automated tools to find what servers the game interacts with. They found that some of these servers were owned by Tencent-run Proxima Beta in Hong Kong, and China Mobile Communications in Beijing.
This led many to accuse the company of violating its own terms of service, which state that personal information of players will be stored and processed in India and Singapore only. However, it was never determined whether the data being sent to Chinese servers was sensitive user data. “Krafton is implementing the industry’s toughest standards for data security and is working to overcome any shortcomings throughout the Early Access testing period, for the official launch of Battlegrounds Mobile India,” the company said in its statement.
Allegations like this could still be detrimental to the company’s India operations though. Battlegrounds Mobile India is a replacement for PUBG Mobile, the viral battle royale game which was banned by the Indian government last year, as part of its crackdown on over 200 Chinese apps. The game was run in India by Chinese Tencent at the time.
Krafton Inc has since stripped the Chinese company off its license for India, and taken over operations itself. It had also announced plans to invest $100 million to set up an office in India, hire employees and work with the country’s e-sports sector.
The new game has already faced pushback too. In May, Arunachal MLA, Ninong Ering, had written a letter to the Prime Minister, accusing Krafton of trying to “sidestep” Indian laws and of deceiving the government. The letter also alleged that the top management of Krafton’s India operations constituted of ex-Tencent employees.
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