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description: The Guardian obtained the latest files released by Edward Snowden on how the NSA and its UK sister agency GCHQ tried to spy on gamers.
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# NSA Reportedly Spying On Gamers And Virtual Worlds Too

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<!-- video src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6qu6V0w0.m3u8" -->
## Video: NSA Reportedly Spying On Gamers And Virtual Worlds Too

[Watch (HLS stream): NSA Reportedly Spying On Gamers And Virtual Worlds Too](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6qu6V0w0.m3u8) (1:58)

![NSA Reportedly Spying On Gamers And Virtual Worlds Too](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/6qu6V0w0/poster.jpg?width=720)

_Published 2013-12-09. The Guardian obtained the latest files released by Edward Snowden on how the NSA and its UK sister agency GCHQ tried to spy on gamers._


---

Jul 27, 2023 4:00 PM UTC

---

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[Snowden Offers Brazil Help Investigating U.S. Spying](/video/Y01qB1DK/)

### Snowden Offers Brazil Help Investigating U.S. Spying

---


## Transcript

>> The NSA called the environment, target rich. No, not the fantastic characters, the gamers and World of Warcraft's spent so many hours trying to hunt down, the targets the US government was most interested in with the gamers themselves. The Guardian obtained the latest files released by Edwin Snowden on how the NSA and its UK sister agency, GCHQ, tried to spy on gamers. It reports actual agents were even deployed in the virtual worlds like World of Warcraft and Second Life to conduct espionage on real world players so that or you cut down on level 5, or that rival guild of dwarves that caused you such headaches, well they could have been CIA, FBI or Pentagon operatives.

The online platform's revolutionized gaming with not only a basically never ending world of options to play in, but in the ability to network socially. Among the concerns the agency's brought up were the potential for gamers to communicate, recruit, and launder money.

>> That was at least the fear, but actually the money transactions in Second Life and World of Warcraft are one of the things that the companies monitored pretty closely because of the very concerns about of fraud.

>> The New York Times which collaborated with The Guardian and ProPublica reports, the document shows so many agents participated a deconfliction group was needed to avoid collisions. The document also notes there's no indication these methods successfully monitored or discovered any terrorist activity. Not surprising, according to one researcher who told ProPublica the games are built and operated by companies looking to make money. So the player's identity and activity is tracked. For terror groups looking to keep their communication secret, there are far more effective and easier ways to do so than putting on a troll avatar.

So for all you paranoid gamers who really did start wondering back in June whether this was actually happening, turns out you're not paranoid. For Time, I'm Cliff Judy.

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