Sony has since come forward to clarify the feature in a new post, stating that Sony themselves will not be recording the voice chats of gamers, nor will all voice chats be recorded at all. Instead, gamers who are experiencing harassment or abuse over voice chat while they’re gaming have the option of reporting the other player, in which only the most recent five minutes are being recorded.

According to Sony, “Once the PS5 console launches, if a PS5 player needs to file a harassment report, they will be able to include up to a 40 second-long Voice Chat clip in their report — 20 seconds of the main conversation with the other player, plus an additional 10 seconds before and after the conversation selection. Only the most recent five minutes of a Voice Chat will be available for a player to use for this reporting function.”

Sony has since updated its blog to clarify what the feature actually does, and it seems to be more about moderation and dealing with harassers and toxic gamers rather than spying on users.

According to Sony, “Voice chat recording for moderation is a feature that will be available on PS5 when it launches, and will enable users to record their voice chats on PS5 and submit them for moderation review. The pop up you’re seeing on PS4 right now is to let you know that when you participate in a chat with a PS5 user (post-launch), they may submit those recordings from their PS5 console to SIE.”