Investigating The Implementation of Data Protection Laws In Brazilian Game Companies: An Initial Study

By leveraging player data, game developers can improve the design, retain players, maximize revenue, and optimize features based on user feedback. However, this often occurs at the expense of player privacy. Recently, laws in Brazil and around the world, such as LGPD and GDPR, have been enacted to ensure the protection of personal data and to establish legal frameworks for organizations, including the digital gaming industry. However, we observed a lack of specific studies with companies or game development studios on how they address the protection of player data. This initial study investigates how small Brazilian companies in the sector approach issues privacy policies and regulatory compliance. We collected data from 06 (six) game development companies through an online survey. The results indicate that, although many companies are adapting to regulations, challenges remain in implementing effective privacy policies, understanding issues and legislation, and training teams. In addition, difficulties in managing personal data are evident, especially in multiplayer games and third-party tools such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms. These initial findings can assist academia and industry, and serve as a basis for future research.