They feel uncomfortable and having their voice in possible recordings that will be stored for a temporary time period.
The people who say this is dystopian and scary seem to be forgetting that there is absolutely no monetary or political value in a gaming company temporary storing voice recordings of what is mostly players shouting at their teammates to group up.
I want to use a public Overwatch chat to discuss intimate details about my relationship/finances/health records and I’m concerned that Blizzard will risk being fined 20% of their revenue to breach GDPR and sell this extremely inconsequential information to a company that will then somehow screw me out of my exceptionally promising future changing the stickers of expired food at my local supermarket.
I suppose that’s kinda fair, though I don’t see why they’d be using voice chat at all. Anyone could be recording them 
Also to everyone else in this thread, you guys do know that you can request to see the data Blizz have on you and even request for them to delete it, yeah? (I actually recommend having a look if you haven’t already, it’s pretty damn interesting)
https://us.battle.net/support/en/help/product/services/1327
I mean, that doesn’t make any sense, lol. When you say something to me, that is being heard for a temporary time period.
If you are so creeped out by someone hearing what you said, then don’t say anything at all?
My experience was so bad in competitive seasons 1-5 that I turned it off indefinitely. It’s meant for callouts. Almost every match was full of people being bossy, complaining, tilting, or literally screaming at their teammates. There was near zero positivity in any match.
Its not if they inform you and you give consent in the TOS.
Don’t talk crap in chat kids, and you have nothing to worry about.
It’s not great but what other option is there to moderate a voice chat? It’s pretty much every game someone is saying horrid things even to the point where I just never join. It has become a competitive advantage to not have your team in vc so people can focus.
“Hey guys, reaper might be flanking. Guys, there’s a reaper in the back line. OH GOD REAPER IS ****** ON ME. GUYS REAPER. ****** GOD REAPER. YOU GUYS ***** **** ** *****. MAYBE IF THIS ***** **** WIDOW WOULD SWITCH LIKE I TOLD HER TO TEN MINUTES AGO. LEARN HOW TO PLAY YOU ***** *****S. I GUESS WE LOSE. MY MAIN IS A GM LOLOL. GOOD LUCK IN BRONZE YOU *****.”
The competitive overwatch experience.
I don’t join VC just to avoid getting hate-crimed cuz:
It’s truly shocking how horrid VC can be for so many players. 
It is important to remember that anytime you use someone else’s app, every single one of your actions is probably being captured and recorded in some way (a human is not necessarily involved and generally will only access compiled data via dashboards in most cases). It being voice is no different from capturing your clicks or your hero choices etc… They’re just actions within their app.
This is the age we live in.
It wouldn’t be illegal if you have to read and agree to the ToS. It’s not secretive if they’re adding that information to the contract you clicked “yes” to.
Yeah, I said it’s probably in the EULA. 
Missed that tidbit, sry.
The only difference between EULA’s is that EU and NA wouldn’t really have the same one. EU has some tricky privacy laws, but I’m sure it’s legal under certain circumstances.
Good. Toxic players should be as uncomfortable to be toxic online as they would be in real life.
Yeah, it’s pretty absurd. Just use Discord or something I guess.
Irdg why some of y’all are acting like this is a problem. They already have text chat… what’s the difference? I promise you your voice is not that special.
Only thing is idk if I trust it to translate what people are saying into text correctly.
They don’t need permission, it’s implicit in the acceptance of launching the game (and by extension accepting the amended terms of service). Have fun trying to litigate “they told me that I would be recorded if I played their game, and they recorded me while playing their game!”.
As I recall, they only use the transcription service when someone actually files a report. It’s like grabbing a twitch clip and then transcribing whatever was said so someone can review just how many times you can say the N word in 30 seconds.
Not a secret when they literally tell you they’re doing it, and you consent by launching the game. You think they would just go out and leave themselves wide open to a slam-dunk lawsuit against them, especially given the last 18 months?
Yeah, this. Transcription services are like, ok if you have a totally neutral Nebraska accent, but have fun trying to translate some of the thicker dialects or ESL players.
Under the federal Wiretap Act, it is illegal for any person to secretly record an oral, telephonic, or electronic communication that other parties to the communication reasonably expect to be private.
The players ( You ) Agree to the voice chat terms when you join voice chat.
If you don’t want your voice recorded … Don’t join VC.
It’s not rocket science. You can still communicate with your team with pings / ingame voice lines. Honestly some people are so dramatic.
I’m not dramatic, I just think it’s LITERALLY 1984 and that big brother is taking over the world.
I’m joke pls no kill 
Fairly certain this is the whole part of checking the box for an updated user agreement.
Furthermore… When you use the in game voice chat. Not they toggle on your mic and you never realize it.
Seems like it has 3 breakdowns.