That's what people thought about Facebook too, only later learning that their identities are also being used for presidency campaigns etc.

Also where do you draw the line with the "marketing purposes"? What if you start seeing erection problem clinic ads whenever you go online (even on your friend's machine), just because you happened to google for it at some point? Or you start getting medical ads for ALS or Parkinson's disease, because you happened to google for them in the past as well? These are also "just (targeted) marketing".

Plus, data gathered from your online behavior may affect what kind of loan margins you will get online, or if some food store chain would sell your grocery buying habits (along thousands of other of their customers) to some insurance companies, that might affect your insurance fees as they see you quite often buy greasy pork ribs and tobacco, even if you weren't buying them for yourself but your uncle who lives nearby.

And no this is not tinfoil-hat conspiracy stuff, e.g. the example of the data mining company tracking your mobile device usage (including how often you charge your battery), and rating you according to those for e.g. online loan companies.

I recall like 6-12 months ago, there used to be TV commercials here too of a company offering a free service: "Send us a DNA sample of yourself, and we will send you a report of where your ancestors came from, for free!". And I know many people apparently fell for it.

Why would a company offer such a free service? Because they just think it is fun to help people find out that 20% of their biological heritage came from southern Europe and 40% from Russia and rest from the Asia, or whatever? Most probably some (medical?) company was creating a private DNA biobank of people, possibly checking what kind of hereditary diseases you might have that might need medical attention (and drugs) later, etc. Targeted marketing, ahoy! To medical companies information like that is a gold mine.


Many people probably feel this is all fine and all, but the point is that the company should be open to everyone that they are gathering data, what kind of data they are gathering, and for what purpose. And generally they should also ask a permission for it, beforehand (with all those previous details, not just generic "we might gather some data and do something with it (maybe even sell it to someone else), yeah...".

The data mining situation has reached disgusting levels.
Also, they use Google Analytics on their site, sheesh.

Phew, none of my games have that garbage integrated.

And not only online loan companies. Just look how it is already in China. It's a longish read, but a must if you're interested in the topic: https://www.wired.com/story/age-of-social-credit/

And it's probably going to get much worse when the government finishes integrating this Sesame/Zhima Credit thing into their own (already scary) Social Credit System. (G̶o̶o̶g̶l̶e̶ Find that in your search engine of choice: "china social credit system".)

Nowadays, whenever people tell me that "they track me, so what, they're just going to show me ads, and better ads actually" I direct them to several articles/news about this. They can't really keep arguing, except resorting to "that can't happen in Europe"... Yeah, good luck with that in a few years.

Thanks for sharing, and all too familiar...

It's a shame that this perverse data collecting is having an opposite effect on the internet, where in its infant state was meant to be open and transparent based on trust.

Today I'm not having a firewall to mainly keep crackers out - I'm using a firewall to keep proprietary binary software from "phoning home" and tell the world about what I do, how long, and where.

Interestiing, I did a locate RedShell and got 2 returns, Ballistic Overkill linux on steam and Vaporum linux from GOG. So it seems it as likely to be here as steam. (and after deleting Vaporum still works, but Ballsitic Overkill is dead.)

deleted

unity does (atleast did - didnt check their eula after GDPR) collect information on 1st launch of each game, without (atleast, there wasnt) the way to opt out - indeed.

By the way - I like how OP says about steam games, while some of mentioned titles are available there aswell.
OH, YOU GOT THE IDEA? JOIN THE RESISTANCE
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/galaxy/remove_online_connectivity_from_galaxydll

I thought that too but a lot of recent games have telemetry integrated into them. I'm talking about games that use Unity and Unreal. I guess you could block them with your firewall or just turn on airplane mode/turn off wifi.

There are still several issues with this:

1. The ones that clearly had it saw nothing amiss with compromising security and privacy of their users' machines without any notification whatsoever. And for what, some marketing metrics?
2. RedShell already got the information they wanted from anybody that ran affected titles. Personally, I don't believe for a moment they will delete the highly marketable fingerprinting information.
3. RedShell was only found out because of lazy implementation (leaving RedShell's default library as stand-alone file). It can easily be implemented directly in game code without any sign of it. At this point it becomes clear that you cannot trust any paid-for game you own not to fuck you over with data-mining unless you fully reverse-engineer every single title you intend to play prior to doing so (or do deep packet inspection on everything outgoing from your computer).

RedShell is just a symptom. Paradox did not see any significant backlash when, years after release under terms that had no clause for such privacy breach, they added forced telemetry to Crusader Kings II. When Take 2 bought out Squad (makers of Kerbal, which ironically is one of the RedShell'd titles), few people objected on the basis of sudden inclusion of so wide data-mining terms in the EULA as to pretty much allow Take2 getting whatever they want from your machine.

A lot of boilerplate EULAs from large studios also contain things along the lines of "if we suspect you cheating or doing something we don't like with our game, we can access your machine and do whatever." Look at Warner Brothers' EULA as an example.

The entire industry is full of these practices, and there is no legal recourse despite the fact that:

1. If that information is valuable, the owner of said information should have a way to demand compensation for it
2. Aside from a small text in pages-long EULA (which often contain unenforcable clauses in the first place), there is no notification of such practices
3. Most people do not see the impact data-mining has on their lives (or ignore when they see it, as with the whole recent Cambridge Analytica SNAFU)
4. Laws are frequently in hands of people who are idiots when it comes to technology. Or paid-for by the special interests supported by tech giants, at least in our "best money can buy" US.

Orwell's telescreen is already here, it's just not hanging on your wall, and gathers different kind of information. And it's not the Party that put it up, but corporate interests - and I have even less faith in the goodwill of an institution solely driven in search of ever-increasing profit than I do in social construct that is at least technically intended to represent the plebes.

You can try, but the addresses are all over the place. Amazon servers, mostly.

Most peeps are OK with slavery because freedom seems like too much effort. But one day you wake up to find that your gilded cage has become a hellish nightmare -- and the way out is nowhere to be found.

A little more on this: Gaming Companies Remove Analytics App After Massive User Outcry

as long as itsnot on gog its not on gog its it??