Just why? Why, after spending almost a year in limbo since PUBG Mobile was banned following Indo–Chinese border skirmishes, and then scrambling to make up for it by terminating Chinese company Tencent's publishing rights for the game in India; after promising to plough US$100 million into India and renaming the game to remove "PUBG" from the title; replacing visuals of blood with green splotches to appease... who, exactly?; after signing a deal with Microsoft Azure to proudly host user data in India; why, after all this, would South Korean game developer Krafton Inc. have their supposedly non-Chinese app ping a server in China? Because that's what has happened until last night, per IGN India, following the relaunch of PUBG Mobile under the new avatar of Battlegrounds Mobile India. The company was able to push a patch on Monday night, merely a day after the issue came to light, that stopped the pings. In a statement Tuesday evening, Krafton downplayed the pings, saying that "KRAFTON will continue to closely monitor and protect any data being transferred to unexpected and restricted IP addresses prior to the official launch." The statement also said that the game's "privacy policy (link) fully discloses that the app may transfer some user data, with users’ consent to the privacy policy and choosing to migrate their accounts. No data has been shared in violation of the privacy policy," which, given the circumstances and what Krafton has implicitly admitted to, seems to imply that the terms give way for personal…
