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Twitch testing peer-to-peer technology in South Korea: Recently Twitch began its testing for peer-to-peer technology on 29th July for delivering source quality streams in South Korea as a measure to decrease their cost of operations in the country.
Although the change is supposed to impact only the source quality streams, there are still other drawbacks to the modifications which do not favor the privacy policy of its users. Due to the modifications planned by Twitch, Korean viewers will have to opt into it in order to watch videos in 1080p on Twitch. This technology uses computing power from viewers’ devices to provide a Full HD (High-Definition) quality viewing experience.
Twitch is testing P2P Video in Korea.
— Zach Bussey (@zachbussey) July 29, 2022
– Viewers watching in 1080p will share the video content with each other P2P.
– To avoid privacy concerns, watching in 720p or less quality will avoid IP sharing risk.https://t.co/vI3ycA9mdN#TwitchNews pic.twitter.com/m4WYgNDudR
The drawbacks of P2P have increased latency issues with other potential breaches in privacy issues due to the requirement of the IP addresses of all the participants shared with each other. This in return increases the risk of cyberattacks and crimes.
In its FAQ, the streaming platform suggested that viewers with privacy concerns should switch to watching in 720p, saying: “It may be possible for a highly motivated and technically proficient person to discover participants’ IP addresses, which could potentially be used to approximate location. Viewers who have privacy concerns with P2P can watch streams in 720p to avoid any IP sharing risk.”
Despite the troubles and issues, Twitch decided to move forward with testing P2P technology for Full HD video streaming in South Korea and rolled out the test with partnered streamers on July 29. The modifications are introduced as a measure to draw a balance between cutting cost operations in Korea and offering its viewers with same HD stream quality likewise before.
“Due to the unique and associated rising costs of operating in Korea, we must work with the community to find a solution that enables us to continue to operate and still deliver the best experience for the community.”
Literally described as a cost-cutting measure in the FAQ. pic.twitter.com/Ku4Yk59HZi
— Zach Bussey (@zachbussey) July 29, 2022
This planning of Twitch has been criticized harshly and critics have pointed out that this move is particularly compromising with user experience and privacy to save some money.
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