Linden Lab Official:Voice Chat Privacy
Have you ever wondered about the security of your voice communication in Second Life? This article contains information about the level of privacy in Second Life voice chat.
Security
Private calls
Private calls between two Residents are not encrypted. However, the call does not pass through any Linden Lab or Vivox servers; they are conducted on a peer-to-peer basis between the two computers involved. "Peer-to-peer" means that when you initiate a private voice call, your computer connects directly to the other computer for the purposes of voice communication.
Spatial voice chat
Spatial voice chat, meaning public voice chat with people who are near you inworld, is processed and mixed on servers maintained by Vivox. Linden Lab and Vivox do not monitor or log spatial chat conversations unless we are troubleshooting quality or technical performance issues.
We are currently working toward introducing an encryption option for all voice channels in order to ensure the privacy of all voice communication!
Privacy Options
Restrict voice to a parcel
If you own land, you may choose to restrict voice access to your parcel:
- While standing on your land, choose World > About Land.
- Click the Media tab of the About Land window.
- Check the Restrict Voice to this parcel checkbox.
When you restrict voice to your parcel, Residents who are standing on your land can only send and receive spatial voice chat from other Residents who are also on your land. Similarly, Residents who are outside the land parcel cannot communicate over spatial voice chat with Residents who are inside the land parcel. Private voice chat over IM and group voice chat are unaffected by parcel voice chat settings.
Region maturity and voice chat
Spatial voice chat on Adult Regions uses a different voice channel than chat on Mature and PG Regions. This means that a Resident in an Adult Region cannot hear voice chat from a Resident in a Mature or PG Region, and a Resident in a Mature or PG Region cannot hear voice chat from a Resident in an Adult Region. Text chat and private voice chat are unaffected by Region boundaries.