In reality, is simpler than that.

If only care about owning your game, a little bit of optional telemetry on GOG it's fine (yes, it's still optional if you can avoid it by going offline)

If you are *that* paranoid, you already are the kind of guy/girl who shields his/her system against everything, doing VPNs, no bloatware, no extra useless junk, no nothing, just the stuff he/she needs and that's it. Unfortunately, in this case, you won't trust big companies, nor their claims about "no telemetry" or their options about "disabling telemetry entirely". You will always feel watched and spied, no matter what. So, you will ALWAYS take that extra step to protect yourself. And if you do so, you have already defeated the still optional telemetry. (By *you* I mean somebody, not your persona)

Both cases, that guy was right. It's harmless.

Is it politically correct? No.
Is it fair? No.
Will it harm me? Not in my lifespan.
Then, who does? Major (like, ultra-major) players, like FB, and pretty much any social platform.

The devil it's not in the telemetry of HZD.

Cheers and Yikes forever!

First of all I need to get one thing off my chest. Data collection is not DRM! DRM is making sure you own the product. Data collection is how you use the product.

By logging your key strokes they mean what keys/buttons you press ingame. The game is already monitoring what keys/buttons you press to, you know, do the actions you want it to do. The telemetry data include a log of this activity for %reasons%.

So, there is no system-wide keylogger.

That being said, no toggle to opt out is an idiotic move. I am no fan of forced telemetry gathering either. Using your endusers as QA should not be necessary. But be reasonable, just block it with your firewall and move along. There is no conspiracy to log all your porn browsing when you are not playing HZD.

I read through the "game data" in the extra's menu, and from what I understand, it's basic game info that you send as a crash report or when you connect to a game server.

I'd go as far as to say that they're saying they collect the same data a Quake 1 server operator can collect from you.

To break it down:
content data: a quake 1 server gets all that info they list on their servers & if it doesn't match the server can kick or auto-send you the required data.

network data: a quake 1 server had your IP and could see your up/down speeds/latency.

configuration data: I don't believe a Quake server had this info. With Q95 it's possible that data was sent in a crash report (along with the directx info)

connected hardware data: the server didn't have this info, however, Q95 might of.

error data: the server could record and errors you have with the server.

load time data: the server could record how long it took you to load data (how long to join from connecting, downloading, things like that)

security data: mods added anti-cheat protection which would be passed to the server, and compared to a 3rd party database.

legal data: yeah, nobody cared back then. :)

Under full data, that's what achievements use.

Really, this info should be listed in any game that has any online or LAN component.

This one was just thrown out of my wish list.

What I am concerned about is if it is monitoring your web activity even when the game is off.

Games are not supposed to monitor your web activity at all.

The problem is that the legal language is making it seem like they are gathering personal data when it is just game data.

That is kind of the problem with lawyers. They try to cover all their bases and end up making it sound like they are doing more than they are actually doing.

I don't get it.
Why would *I* have to take measures against collecting and transferring personal data?

You really expect people to unplug the network cable when they play a game and plug it back after that - each time? Maybe yours don't but most peoples computer runs other software that accesses the web when they are playing, at the same time, really!
Anyhow, collected data can be stored locally until there is an internet connection in order to send the data "home".

Why would a desktop firewall help? In order to prevent bypassing it, some* DRM software is injected deep into the system (running with admin rights) and does always run when your PC is turned on. So when collected data can be transferred by the DRM software - which needs to access the internet in order to check digital rights - why would someone program another piece of software for telemetry? I doubt that a desktop firewall can't be circumvented. The service which runs first can disguise itself - that's why rootkits are removed in offline mode.
Anyhow it's much easier to tell the user that "telemetry" data is crucial and ensure that the game won't work without it.

"Interesting. Most people have no problem to accept the terms presented on their new TV set... "
Yeah, some people do not. So you sweep aside the concerns of people because the - in your opinion - not so large majority doesn't care about informational self-determination?

* You never know which does and which maybe does not.

And before you claim that I'm paranoid, look for "XCP rootkit" and "Always-on DRM" in wikipedia or whatever trustworthy source you prefer.

Me neither. Why would someone use Windows in the first place? Since Windows 10 Microsoft is actively and openly collecting telemetry from users, including mouse movement. I haven't heard people complain about that, and Windows does this all the time, also when you're using the web browser or the e-mail client.

On the other hand, people seem to not understand what "telemetry" means... Otherwise they wouldn't be afraid that much.

Now, Horizon Zero Dawn also collects telemetry, in order for the developers to see if something doesn't work and they have to fix it. What will such telemetry include? The system specs quite likely, the specific Windows operating system version and some versions of loaded libraries used by the game. That is useful to see when errors occur, otherwise they cannot fix glitches and other issues. And that's basically what basic telemetry is. The extended telemetry, which is optional, will most likely send more data, like how often and for how log you run the game, what you do in the game and so on. This way the developer have even further access to what people really do "to" their game, and can fix things they themselves didn't expect when making it.

So: if you're afraid of that, don't play the game. But if you're afraid, why then use Windows 10 or 11, which does the same?

So, there's only one solution: Play Horizon Zero Dawn on the Steam Deck, configure Wine (Proton) to not allow access to the internet even when you're online, and play along happily ever after...

And, this proves my point all along: Linux can be trusted, while Windows/Microsoft and macOS/Apple cannot.

Lol, from a Windows DRM, go to a Steam DRM. What an advice...

Do a Google/Bing/whatever search for this search string "play GOG games on steamdeck" and you will find out it is not too difficult to get it to work overall. Don't laugh about shit before you look it up.

Sure, every DRM will welcome in its jails.

Is this telemetry still mandatory? I saw the game on sale but this puts me off. I would accept it if it were optional, but it doesn't seem the case.
It may not be DRM, but still the game calls home and I don't like it from a game on GOG.
I'll buy when this changes

There is: play offline. There is no -- none whatsoever -- online content in the game. All you need to do is either disconnect the ethernet cable, or select "disconnect" for your WiFi. Done -- no telemetry.

The game may still collect the data into some file and wait until we turn the internet on again and send that data to Sony anyway. It wouldn't be difficult for Sony to have that implemented.

Thank you for the warning.