Dozens of PC games drop tracking software after surveillance fears

Re:Dozens of PC games drop tracking software after surveilla... by rostigerpudel on Friday July 20, 2018 @10:41AM (#17575355)

While I agree that is what they officially say they do, the means employed go beyond that. From the article:

> "These are generally data points about the user’s device, such as its operating system, installed fonts, browsers (and versions) used, timezone, language, the user’s in-game ID, and screen resolution. This is what Red Shell calls a ‘fingerprint’, which can also be made on games consoles as well as PCs."

Such a fingerprint is very unique and can easily be connected to a person with very little effort down the line, even if now nobody does that (yeah, right).

Personally, I do not trust any company that collects such detailed information without my informed consent and without a clear (i.e. verifiable and legally enforceable) pledge to delete that information when the original purpose has been served. This is exactly the overshooting behaviour that was rightfully targeted by the Europeans with their recent data protection law.

edit: formatting

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Re:Dozens of PC games drop tracking software after surveilla... by Flammy on Friday July 20, 2018 @11:02AM (#17575530)

That is correct. Red Shell also specifies to devs you should configure it to report some of those and not all should be reported. It provides guidelines for how many to report based on how many unique users you have/are expecting.

All of these factors are available to web browsers (which is why they were chosen, so they can be matched up to web clicks). These are tracked in most web analytics suites today by default.

Based on my research I don't believe that these (even all of them together) are PII.

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Re:Dozens of PC games drop tracking software after surveilla... by legitster on Friday July 20, 2018 @11:38AM (#17575883)

Okay, I get this, but then do services like Google Analytics get a free pass?

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Re:Dozens of PC games drop tracking software after surveilla... by rostigerpudel on Friday July 20, 2018 @12:04PM (#17576180)

No, I don't trust Google either. But at least Google is somewhat open about the fact that they collect the data. I can have a look at it and I have settings to influence and even delete (probably) what is being collected.

That is vastly different from a spyware module installed clandestinely together with a software I paid for that sends data about me to somewhere and somebody then does something with it that I don't know about.

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Re:Dozens of PC games drop tracking software after surveilla... by mondoshawan on Friday July 20, 2018 @12:04PM (#17576178)

No, they don't, and they are just as subject to the GDPR as anybody else is, in fact, probably more given the EU decisions lately and because they're a huge big, fat target.

The distinction here is that they have been doing it a very long time, and user privacy actually is a core tenet of what they worry about at Google.

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Re:Dozens of PC games drop tracking software after surveilla... by actsasbuffoon on Friday July 20, 2018 @01:59PM (#17577321)

You can install browser extensions to block that kind of tracking, or you can go nuclear (as I have) by disabling JavaScript altogether. When I buy a game, I do not have this freedom.

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