> Valve does say they can process anonymous data and they may share anonymous data, aggregated or not, with third parties. This is a fairly common practice and doesn’t worry us too much.
But rather that they don't make sure they're providing an ecosystem that, to their standards, protects the user from data collection by others:
> Here’s the bad news about the Steam Deck though. We can’t confirm it meets our Minimum Security Standards because we can’t confirm it uses encryption or if Valve has a way to manage security vulnerabilities.
If that's a concern, it would likewise be on any computer, I would imagine. I mean isn't the Steam Deck basically a regular e.g. desktop computer turned handheld? It's not an issue specifically about the Steam Deck unless you compare it to more closed platforms like the Switch instead of other regular computers.
And the user does have the option to harden the system, like they can any computer:
> There is a lot written out there on the internet about how to set up encryption on the Linux-based SteamOS yourself. However, we don’t think that users should have to go through that to protect their data.
Like they say, it's a matter of lacking convenience to not have that level of hardening by default.
But again, why is this an issue here, when most people using Steam from their desktop computers probably don't use encryption either.
Encryption is important because of how portable the device is. I've never lost a gameboy/DS/switch, but I know plenty of people who have. It's bad enough to lose your games, but if you're doing non-gaming things on the device it's a problem. It took a while before Valve added a pin to protect your device too, but they have.
Given that there's effectively no such thing as anonymous data, I'm really surprised they said this.
At the end of the day it comes down to what the company actually does vs what they say they do.
A look at their privacy policy by Mozilla was something of a mixed review. (https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/steam-d...). They said the policy didn't raise any huge privacy concerns, but that the policy was vague, Valve was unresponsive to questions ("We emailed Valve three times with our privacy and security questions and haven’t heard back from them"), and that ultimately Valve reserves the right to collect and share (read sell) "anonymous" data, aggregated or not, with third parties.
I expect them to track what games you play and when, but what about desktop mode? If you run applications or browse the web how much of that activity is collected by Valve? Anti-cheat software works with the steam deck and that too is often highly invasive recording files on your system or other running processes.
The device also comes with two internal microphones, and I'd probably want to remove them (hopefully that's as easy as it is for PS5 controllers) and has bluetooth which is hopefully easily disabled while traveling.