Warning: *Privacy Not Included with this product
What would the world be like without Mario, Zelda, and Animal Crossing? Worse, for sure. Whether you play Mario Kart on the Nintendo Switch or on the cheaper Switch Lite, you're still going to have a good time. And we've always liked that Nintendo puts a lot of emphasis on easy-to-use parental controls. Which is why we were bummed to see that Nintendo made some changes to their privacy policy in recent years that earned them our *Privacy Not Included warning label. And we're sad to say, they still raise enough concerns for us to warn you that your privacy might not be smashing with Nintendo.
Je, jambo gani linaweza kutokea mambo yakienda mrama?
Oh Nintendo, you keep breaking our heart. We don’t want to give you our *Privacy Not Included warning label, we really don’t. You’ve been good at privacy in the past. But your privacy policy raises too many questions and red flags for us and that makes us sad. (But hey, thank you for making your privacy policy easy to find and read, we do appreciate that.)
Just because Nintendo is cute and lovable, doesn't mean we can give them a pass for their privacy yucks. First, Nintendo does collect a fair amount of personal information. Things like name, email address, postal address, phone number, date of birth, country of residence, language, gender, device and advertising identifiers and other unique personal or online identifiers, location (with your consent), health information (with your consent), and lots of information about how and when and what games you play.
Nintendo also says they can “receive information about you from other sources, including from other users of our services, and third-party services and organizations.” This worries us a bit because they say they can take this information they receive from third party sources and combine it with information they have about you and build an even bigger profile on you. And they say they can use that information to do things like offer you customized content, provide you with tailored advertising, and send you promotional materials from them or their affiliates and business partners (which could be a pretty good number of companies). So, Nintendo collects a good deal of personal information and says they can use and share that with third parties for targeted, interest-based advertising. None of this is great. Let’s try this again: we hope that Nintendo will stop collecting and combining information from third parties and that they’ll make ad targeting optional for all users.
Nintendo also says they can aggregate or de-identify the personal information they collect on you and then that new de-identified data is no longer subject to their privacy policy and they can do pretty much whatever they want with it. Which is a bit of a concern as it’s been found to be pretty easy to re-identify some personal data, especially with location data is collected.
That’s the bad news with Nintendo. Now onto some good news. They do say that they do not, and will not, sell your data. Too bad they say they do share it with third parties for advertising purposes. And they do a good job with parental controls on the Switch. So parents, make sure to set those up (here’s some help with that). We also want to point out that their privacy policy is easy to find and read and understand, we really appreciate that.
As for security, Nintendo did have a data breach back in 2020 where 300,000 accounts were compromised and attackers gained access to users' personal information, including date of birth and email addresses. That's not great. And early in 2022, Nintendo had to ask users to stop using their Wi-Fi USB Connector due to security concerns.
So what’s the worst that could happen with your Nintendo Switch? Well, if you don’t set up two-factor authentication (please do this!), it’s possible someone could hack into your Nintendo account and buy a bunch of games at your expense. That could be costly and you don’t want that headache. Here’s hoping you set-up 2FA, lock down your Nintendo privacy settings and opt-out of as much data collection as you can, so you can sit back and enjoy some Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, or Sonic with your friends.
Vidokezi vya kujilinda
- Check the Nintendo Switch privacy settings
- Enable two-factor authentication on your Nintendo Switch account
- Opt out of sharing your eShop data.
- Do not sign up with third-party accounts. Better just log in with email and strong password.
- Chose a strong password! You may use a password control tool like 1Password, KeePass etc
- Use your device privacy controls to limit access to your personal information via app (do not give access to your camera, microphone, images, location unless neccessary)
- Keep your app regularly updated
- Limit ad tracking via your device (eg on iPhone go to Privacy -> Advertising -> Limit ad tracking) and biggest ad networks (for Google, go to Google account and turn off ad personalization)
- Request your data be deleted once you stop using the app. Simply deleting an app from your device usually does not erase your personal data.
- When starting a sign-up, do not agree to tracking of your data if possible.
Unaweza kunichunguza?
Kamera
Kifaa: Ndiyo
Programu: Ndiyo
Kipaza sauti
Kifaa: Hapana
Programu: Ndiyo
Inafuatilia eneo
Kifaa: Ndiyo
Programu: Hapana
Unaweza kutumia nini kujisajili?
Barua pepe
Ndiyo
Simu
Hapana
Akaunti ya mhusika mwingine
Hapana
Kampuni inakusanya data gani?
Ya kibinafsi
Name, email address, postal address, phone number, date of birth, country of residence, language and gender; text, images, audio, video, your nickname and user icon, or other content that you create or is licensed to you; precise location (with consent)
Shirika linalohusiana
Health information such as the number of steps taken or distance walked
Kijamii
Je, kampuni inatumiaje data hii?
Unawezaje kudhibiti data yako?
Je, rekodi ya kampuni inayojulikana ya kulinda data ya watumiaji ni gani?
In March 2023, Nintendo took the Wii U versions of Mario Kart 8, and Splatoon offline as it attempts to fix a security issue “related to online play”.
In 2022, Nintendo had to ask users to stop using their Wi-Fi USB Connector due to security concerns.
In April 2020, 300,000 Nintendo accounts were compromised in a data breach that granted the attackers access to users' personal information, including date of birth and email addresses.
Taarifa ya Faragha ya Mtoto
Je, bidhaa hii inaweza kutumika nje ya mtandao?
Maelezo ya faragha yanayofaa watumiaji?
Nintendo has a privacy policy with fairly easy to read and understand language. They also provide easy to find links to submit privacy related requests.
Viungo vya taarifa za faragha
Je, bidhaa hii inakidhi Viwango vyetu vya Chini Zaidi vya Usalama?
Usimbaji fiche
Nenosiri thabiti
Masasisho ya usalama
Inashughulikia hatari
Sera ya faragha
Chunguza kwa Kina
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Learn how to Secure your Data on the Nintendo Switch: Here’s How to Sign OutRazzem
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Nintendo Takes Wii U Versions of Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon Offline Over Security IssuesIGN
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Recent updates for older Nintendo games were due to a major security vulnerabilityMy Nintendo News
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Splatoon & Mario Kart 8 Wii U taken offline due to security concernsMy Nintendo News
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How to Set Parental Controls on the Nintendo SwitchCommon Sense
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Nintendo wanted hacker's prison sentence to turn headsAxios
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Nintendo says account breach was even worse than it first thoughtDigital Trends
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Nintendo asks people to stop using Wi-Fi USB Connector due to security concernsNintendo Everything
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How to Manage PlayStation, Switch, and Xbox Privacy SettingsNew York Times
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Nintendo Switch: How to Turn Off Data Sharing via Google AnalyticsGadgets 360
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How to Stop Nintendo From Sharing Your eShop Data With Google AnalyticsLifehacker
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Nintendo now says 300,000 accounts breached by hackersTechCrunch
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Nintendo Breach: Now 300,000 Accounts AffectedInfosecurity Magazine
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Nintendo data breach reportedly caused by credential stuffingTechRepublic
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Nintendo 2FA: How to enable two-factor authentication on your Nintendo Switch accountGames Radar
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Open letter: Nintendo’s commitment to privacy on AR developmentsAccess Now
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The Nintendo Switch Camera: Where It Is and How Does It Work?Lifewire
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How to Boost Your Game Console’s SecurityLifehacker
Maoni
Una maoni? Tuambie.