elcook: So there is a very cool and nice feature coming to GOG - we will be introducing user profiles very, very soon. But I won’t be revealing any details of the feature, as we want you guys to experience it first-hand rather than reading some PR bla-bla. Before it all goes live and will be available for you, we need to deal with all the formalities - launching profiles means adding new privacy settings on our end. We want to give you a heads-up, and that’s why today we’ve introduced the three new privacy settings on your GOG account, all connected to the profiles.
As with all privacy settings, you will find the three new options on your account, under „Orders & Settings” in the
Privacy tab. These settings allow you to set visibility for your profile summary (including your recent activity and recently active friends), your games on the profile and your friends on the profile - you can set them to „everyone”, „friends only”, or „only me”. The default settings are - „everyone” for your profile, and „friends only” for both your games and your friends. If you want, you can change those settings already, before we launch with profiles, and of course you can change those settings anytime you want.
Hope you’ll enjoy this new feature when it comes to GOG, and expect an official announcement very soon!
Thanks for the heads up, it was much needed seeing how you chose to go about it; this feels like the introduction of the NAS, and all the hiccups and mistakes that came with it in terms of privacy, all over again.
I'd have preferred you shared some details, as the vague terms of "profile summary", "recent activity" and "recently active friends", all lumped together and set to "everyone", doesn't sound like the first-hand experience will be all that pleasant for everyone, especially if they miss this thread which doesn't stand out.
And I can't help but notice that while you've made this unofficial announcement as a sort of privacy awareness one, a lot of your wording indicates that you (GOG) wants to hype people up about this feature.
I will echo what a lot of others have said:
1. Every setting should be set to max privacy; it should always be opt-in, not opt-out.
2. Profiles, activity and active friends should be separate settings.
3. Send out emails, the same way you did when chat was set to "friends only".
And going over the revamped privacy tab, I see that the chat related option has been reworded and now states [emphasis added]:
Allow new chats with you to be started by
I'm a bit confused, it can be read as if people that have chatted you before still can even if your setting doesn't allow it, as in people not on your friends list when chat is set to "friends only". Is it just a bit of awkward wording there, or have you made any changes?
Big +1s to MajicMan (post #49), toxicTom (post #57), mechmouse (post #58), GR00T (posts #61 & #67), Cavalary (post #73), RWarehall (post #76), gogtrial34987 (posts #103 & #117), Ganni1987 (post #109), Breja (post #142), and johnnygoging (post #153) for expressing my own thoughts.
kohlrak: [...] To be fair, though, we do like to pretend we care about privacy (when, in reality, we totally don't, as our actions are inconsistent with what we say).
Well, if you want to be fair, you should speak only for yourself.
mechmouse: [...] Will there be an API that lets user trusted 3rd parties access these profiles.
Not sure I follow, can you elaborate?
GR00T: Mine was the same. Still, GOG shouldn't assume what you want to share with your friends, either. :)
Exactly, I've only have chat set to friends, everything else is for my eyes only, and it should be up to me to change it or not.
BeatriceElysia: Oh, you crybabies. Everything that could be public I SET UP public. I see no reason in hiding things. It's not like block fuction doesn't work properly.
So anyone that isn't and acts like you is a crybaby? You sure are quick to judge people you know nothing about.
Taro94: I don't get all this fuss, to be frank.
As someone has already said, most people don't care, so if the settings defaulted to full privacy, the feature would be close to useless. [...] Just look at the setting allowing people to only be messaged by friends. It's set like this by default and no one cares enough to change it. It'd be the same with profiles, which would be a waste of all the hard work put into this feature.
And there lies the problem. Perhaps people should care more about their data and privacy, read ToS, Privacy Policies and the rest, and venture into their settings page to see what's going and make an informed and conscious choice.
Starmaker: But dude, you already screwed privacy six ways and twice on Sunday by implementing this friend recommendation thing which leaks one's friend's friend list like a colander. This is terrible. Please hire an outside privacy consultant.
+1.
Nicole28: I was wondering, GOG, why don't you guys ever thought of putting up an option were you can
show/hide the fact that you are
online or offline? Since you've taken the trouble of setting up brand new display options, this one seems to have slipped through the cracks. I would say this is a good privacy option, so people don't harangue you if you don't want them too at a certain point
(like if you are gaming). Even Steam has this.
+1.
chevkoch: I'd like to add that under "Account and Locale" please - at last - have users opt in if they want their country displayed in forums. Not like the current situation, where you broadcast it openly by default, without the option to turn this feature off. This has always been a glaring privacy oversight.
+1.
