It seems the American and British spies are not content with simply tapping phones, hacking into computers or checking whether any radical Muslim is frequenting any porn site. According to the documents leaked by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, NSA and its British counterpart, the Government Communications Headquarters (or GCHQ) also regularly patrolled the virtual world of online gaming viz. World of Warcraft and Second Life, to collect gamers' chats and snoop on suspects.
Per the New York Times, which managed to get its hands on newly disclosed classified documents from The Guardian, the spy agencies believe that suspects eluded being tracked by using the virtual world of online gaming as safe communication channels, and, therefore, not to be outdone, NSA and GCHQ have also created virtual characters to infiltrate the virtual world and eve-drop on conversations of gamers and collect data and information that may come in handy.
According to a top secret NSA document, online games may look harmless but provide an excellent hiding place for terror suspects and other criminals, as the games draw tens of millions of people worldwide, allowing them to adopt virtual characters and roles and communicate with each other. While World of Warcraft allows gamers to join guilds, kill computer-generated monsters and dragons, and undertake conquests/missions, in Second Life, gamers could assume human avatars and socialize with one another in a virtual world. However, it appears that the agencies found little success in their exercise.
While Blizzard Entertainment, the maker of World of Warcraft, said it neither had any knowledge that the NSA or GCHQ or any intelligence agency were monitoring its gamers, nor were they given any permission to gather intelligence within the game.
Linden Labs, the developers of Second Life, refused requests for comment.
Both GCHQ and NSA refused to comment on the spying revelations but said they worked within a "strict policy and legal framework."
I'm a World of Warcraft fan but I think this is a good time for me to exit the virtual world once and for all.
