I subscribed. I want very little info coming at me on YouTube but I really liked the way he presented information, without gimmicks and weird, read sometimes gross, shticks.
This is bullshit. I’m not saying it’s a lie, but the concept that they first preemptively copy (and hash) your files and then ask you if you’ll send them… I don’t know what to say. It’s the exactly wrong approach to implement this, and I don’t know why the heck they would do this. Maybe they’ll keep presenting the option to you until you agree… Why would they program things this way?
I hate it when people cry wolf like this. It just makes everyone numb to the outrage, making it easier for actual abuse of data to slip by. But I guess “Steam allows sorting the list of games by most recently played” doesn’t sound quite as dramatic as “Steam spies on you”.
My recollection of that discussion is that you objection was never from the point of view of the user. Instead you were annoyed that SteamSpy was effectively stealing data that belonged to the developer of the game.
I don’t know exactly what Valve collects outside of what they write in their privacy agreement, but there are good use-cases for tracking what I’m playing on their own service. I like seeing my Recent games, and their algorithms can offer games based on what I play and like. People complain about Steam being huge and not finding games, and those algorithms are a way to help with that. I don’t complain when Netflix or Amazon does the same. If anything, I’d like Valve to use more machine learning to point me towards games I’d really like.
Wow…
Well put. I agree.
This bit also offended me:
“We have lots of external shareholders, none of whom have access to customer data.”
They shouldnt be collecting our data anyway. And burying it in the TOS that I “agreed to” is bullshit as well. They just need to stop.
I don’t complain when Netflix or Amazon does the same.
Thats where we differ. I find Amazon really really creepy as well. Again if you want to sell me something then make the store easier to navigate or give me the ability to customize my search, I dont want anyone spying on my buying habits to show me things they think I like.
I just dont trust tech companies at all with my or my kids information.
If any other company wants to do something shady or just screw their backers, they should do it now; they might just fly under the radar for a little bit since Epic and Snapshot are keeping everyone busy. Hell we might even forget EA and Activision for a minute.
Or Steam. Notice, this information is all from Steam to begin with.
What are you talking about? They’re stealing your friend list and your Steam game usage info. That’s not ‘super private information’ as far as Steam is concerned.
Agree. I think a lot of people wouldn’t actually be so happy with the quality of the interface and service if that data were all blocked from the provider. Certainly there would be zero chance of Steam (or any store) providing useful purchase suggestions.
That said, virtually nobody actually enumerates what they actually capture and use it for in specific terms. They just give a blanket “we capture data about what you do and use it however we like but don’t share it seriously we promise” type line.
Well it would be pointless for Steam to offer me a Friends List and not save it. It kind of annoys me when categories get messed up. It’s not the same thing though. They didn’t take my Friends list.
The thing about Epic though is… they’re thinking more mobile right, going with the Fornite crowd. Almost every Social Media application wants to suck information from other applications. I always say no, but many of them ask multiple times a year, still.
Let me get the Epic apologists started: well Steam is a monopoly, and you can’t expect to take on a monopoly without stealing some information, right?
What ever. You want to live in your bubble, that’s on you. Me, I want competition. But that might just be because I am a red blooded American who believes in the free market.
We are all right here. We can have a reasonable discussion without calling each other names. I am not a mod just a fellow poster and I invite you to consider changing your post.
Privacy should be something we all care about imho regardless of whether we prefer Steam or Epic or whatever to buy games from.
The remark I made was based on a longer pattern than just this thread, but I took your advice to heart. Thanks.
For those that want competition I hope they rally this strongly for GOG and itch.io when needed. :-)
Serious question, is that GDPR compliant? This sounds like conversion tracking. Steam currently does not do sourced conversion tracking and one of the explanations I’ve heard is privacy (another is that it’s technically hard). I’ve thought about it and it’s actually kind of hard to track a sale from lead to conversion in a GDPR compliant way. (I am not a lawyer, and I am especially not an EU GDPR lawyer).
Precisely. itch.io is a little too indie for me, but I try to buy all my games on GOG. If we really want competition of the good kind, everyone should be buying from GOG as well.
Cheers! Thanks for the consideration.
Also @jsnell
My views were mis characterized that way, despite my best efforts. But the internet is a tough place to make a long form argument :)
I was being sincere when I said Steamspy was a customer privacy issue as well as a developer privacy issue.
Again thats just my perspective. Folks may disagree but I hope they will accept I am and was sincere.
Data theft and privacy really are a big deal to me. I hope to persuade you and others to join my position.
Put a trigger warning on that dance gif