4 ms·

Thank you for bringing up the invasive and crazy anti-privacy policies of Valve/Steam, it boggles my mind that so few people have problems with it. Could you i

by criley2 10y ago

Thank you for bringing up the invasive and crazy anti-privacy policies of Valve/Steam, it boggles my mind that so few people have problems with it. Could you imagine if Facebook pushed a notification to all your friends when you visit a new page? If Microsoft sent an email to your entire contact book every single time you opened a program? And yet, that's precisely what Steam does. Insane.

ocdtrekkie 10y ago
It's particularly uncomfortable now that Steam has some... risqué game titles out there. I'm surprised there isn't at least more options on Steam to mark certain titles as private.
- suby 10y ago
  You can set your profile private and then play in offline mode, which should prevent people from viewing your profile and seeing what your playtimes are. I'm not sure if playing in offline mode stops Valve from logging / viewing this data, however. I'd be surprised it it does.
  - zarify 10y ago
    In terms of playtime I think offline mode does stop it being logged. My wifi was stuffed in my game box and about 20 hours of a game weren't logged by the time I got a new adapter and reconnected to Steam servers.
mnm1 10y ago
PS4 does this as well. Not sure if this sharing can be turned off (I still see the messages) even with all the privacy settings turned on.
- vinay427 10y ago
  The PS3 did this as well, so it's clearly a policy they haven't seen enough backlash from to reverse.
- tapoxi 10y ago
  It's the 'Hidden Games' section in privacy settings.
wallacoloo 10y ago
Hmm. For the most part I only play games in a social setting - local multiplayer or online - so it may be different for me. When I join an IRC channel, every other user sees "wallacoloo has joined" and I've never heard anyone complain about that. It's an open invitation, "hey, I'm here now - message me!" Similarly for Steam, the notification serves the purpose of saying "hey friends, I'm playing Rocket League now if you want to join". Isn't the whole point of friending people on Steam so that they can play games with you? In that case, this behavior seems pretty intuitive to me. Though from that angle, broadcasting this announcement for single-player/non-networked games doesn't really achieve anything and should maybe not be the default.
- nitrogen 10y ago
  I think it's amusing to put non-games and other silly things in Steam and broadcast the fact that I'm now playing Notepad or Solitaire.
- criley2 10y ago
  "When I join an IRC channel, every other user sees "wallacoloo has joined" and I've never heard anyone complain about that." I'm okay with Steam saying "Soandso has logged on" but not "Soandso has moved their mouse 400 pixels, double left clicked, and is starting new software... stay tuned!" "Isn't the whole point of friending people on Steam so that they can play games with you?" The whole point of steam is a distribution platform. It has a defacto monopoly on computer gaming with some 3/4 of the entire market through the platform. Sure, I play the occasional multiplayer game, but the other 80% of my behavior doesn't need to be publically broadcast against my will at all times. It's ridiculous: I have to click "appear offline" then log into the Steam Chat website just to play a game and not have my steam account announce that to everyone I know. Sometimes you just don't want to push notify everyone you know about your every behavior. Also -- why be friends on steam? "Dude you didn't friend me yet" "Dude i sent u my info a week ago" "Dude i thought you said you wanted to friend me" "Dude" "dude" You have to friend people or they get offended. Social networks and psychology man. I just don't want a f'n social network in my video game launcher. Crazy. Not every single computer endpoint has to be a social network.

by criley2 10y ago

ocdtrekkie 10y ago

It's particularly uncomfortable now that Steam has some... risqué game titles out there. I'm surprised there isn't at least more options on Steam to mark certain titles as private.

suby 10y ago
You can set your profile private and then play in offline mode, which should prevent people from viewing your profile and seeing what your playtimes are. I'm not sure if playing in offline mode stops Valve from logging / viewing this data, however. I'd be surprised it it does.
- zarify 10y ago
  In terms of playtime I think offline mode does stop it being logged. My wifi was stuffed in my game box and about 20 hours of a game weren't logged by the time I got a new adapter and reconnected to Steam servers.

mnm1 10y ago

PS4 does this as well. Not sure if this sharing can be turned off (I still see the messages) even with all the privacy settings turned on.

vinay427 10y ago
The PS3 did this as well, so it's clearly a policy they haven't seen enough backlash from to reverse.
tapoxi 10y ago
It's the 'Hidden Games' section in privacy settings.

wallacoloo 10y ago

Hmm. For the most part I only play games in a social setting - local multiplayer or online - so it may be different for me. When I join an IRC channel, every other user sees "wallacoloo has joined" and I've never heard anyone complain about that. It's an open invitation, "hey, I'm here now - message me!" Similarly for Steam, the notification serves the purpose of saying "hey friends, I'm playing Rocket League now if you want to join". Isn't the whole point of friending people on Steam so that they can play games with you? In that case, this behavior seems pretty intuitive to me. Though from that angle, broadcasting this announcement for single-player/non-networked games doesn't really achieve anything and should maybe not be the default.

nitrogen 10y ago
I think it's amusing to put non-games and other silly things in Steam and broadcast the fact that I'm now playing Notepad or Solitaire.
criley2 10y ago
"When I join an IRC channel, every other user sees "wallacoloo has joined" and I've never heard anyone complain about that." I'm okay with Steam saying "Soandso has logged on" but not "Soandso has moved their mouse 400 pixels, double left clicked, and is starting new software... stay tuned!" "Isn't the whole point of friending people on Steam so that they can play games with you?" The whole point of steam is a distribution platform. It has a defacto monopoly on computer gaming with some 3/4 of the entire market through the platform. Sure, I play the occasional multiplayer game, but the other 80% of my behavior doesn't need to be publically broadcast against my will at all times. It's ridiculous: I have to click "appear offline" then log into the Steam Chat website just to play a game and not have my steam account announce that to everyone I know. Sometimes you just don't want to push notify everyone you know about your every behavior. Also -- why be friends on steam? "Dude you didn't friend me yet" "Dude i sent u my info a week ago" "Dude i thought you said you wanted to friend me" "Dude" "dude" You have to friend people or they get offended. Social networks and psychology man. I just don't want a f'n social network in my video game launcher. Crazy. Not every single computer endpoint has to be a social network.