4 ms·
This seems like a misunderstanding of the complaint. I know people do oppose targeted advertising, but that's not why they're mad about Red Shell. The way Red
by Bartweiss 8y ago
This seems like a misunderstanding of the complaint. I know people do oppose targeted advertising, but that's not why they're mad about Red Shell.
The way Red Shell targets ads involves building and storing full device fingerprints when you play a game. It's a privacy risk totally separate from the targeted advertising question. And yes, individual devs could do that also, but at least I've chosen to deal with those devs, and my data can't be tracked across different games by different companies.
If Red Shell switches to something like a device-side hash of the fingerprint, so that it can recognize returning users but not give out (or lose) the underlying data, I'd feel vastly better about it. Basic targeting analytics don't bother me, and "did this game ad work?" is vastly more justified than most tracking. I just don't want it tied to an externally-stored device fingerprint.
- KaoruAoiShiho 8y agoI guess I don't understand in what way that's a privacy risk. They have the device fingerprint, isn't that just the device id, like a name? This is only meaningful if paired with another piece of information, like your personal identity or other tracking. In this case it's game sales which I think is definitely a positive thing. I mean if they were tracking other things or keylogging or something I would be mad but...
- foepys 8y agoThey are apparently also logging the Steam ID which is unique for each Steam account. In my eyes the Steam ID is PII as very few people with more than one game on it will change their Steam account.
- Fnoord 8y agoAlthough making a one way hash is the right way, having no opt-in is not in the EU. Also, you'd be surprised at what counts as PII in the EU. I know I've been after I read a lawyer's blog on the matter (sadly in my native language).