4 ms·

Why would you tell your Call of Duty any private data whatsoever?

hutzlibu 5y ago
When you play. What you play. How long you play. With whom you play. What you say to anyone and what you say at what times. How good you are at what times. And so on. That all adds nicely to a big data pile about you, they have from other sources.
- emteycz 5y ago
  Don't play online games then. There is plenty of offline gaming available. My point is, Microsoft most likely already knows, and even if they didn't, isn't it a given that they know when and for how long do I play their own online games?
  - hutzlibu 5y ago
    "Don't play online games then." On a general basis, why? Not every company is assumed to track and sell everything you do. But when you play with windows as a base ... yes, then it probably does not matter anyway.
    - emteycz 5y ago
      Even the simplest Minecraft server installation tracks the players. And as for companies, for example in EU there is a law that says any online service must collect usage logs and store them at least few years, I guess it's the same in the US. Any server you're connecting to and playing on will know when and for how long, and your individual actions will be logged at the very least at the network level. If you don't like it, your only choice is to not play online.
      - chucksta 5y ago
        Even that is becoming a limited choice thanks to DRM; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Always-on_DRM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Always-on_DRM
krageon 5y ago
If you play it at all, you're telling it when you play games.
- emteycz 5y ago
  Of course the server I play games on knows when I play - just as the website I visit will always know I visited it. Who cares though, and if one cares, why do they play online games? Anyways, I'm also pretty sure Microsoft gets pinged nearly every time one opens an application (unless a power user disables it), so they already know either way - what's the new risk?
  - BiteCode_dev 5y ago
    Who cares about cigarettes being dangerous? People already smoking knows that. What's the new risk?
  - alexanderdmitri 5y ago
    Toyota's new 'more we know about you' program randomly extends their warranty for 2 years (or +50k miles) for new car buyers who have Crash Bandicoot game time in their dataset. Also Walmart will give $30 back on purchases >$125 if you have played at least five hours X-Men Legends in the last week while they're promoting the new Wolverine movie. It's not all good though ... people who play Call of Duty are more likely to default on their loans and World of Warcraft is well known to have a strong correlation with sexual predators. Banks and FBI buy the relatively cheap video game data and use it to decide which individual's browsing history ($$$) and pc usage telemetry ($$$) to buy from Microsoft.
  - potench 5y ago
    The article provides no detail on new privacy risk, yet it is the title of the piece… is there some new vector? I agree with your sentiment that it’s not like Microsoft just gained access to some entirely new portfolio of information about you, they already have access to the superset of this data since they own Xbox (PlayStation provides a million data points on the amount of time, progress, and trophies I earn in games that are not owned by Sony - i assume the same for Xbox?) Fine if you want to postulate as to what these privacy risks are but wtf, the article provides no detail whatsoever here lol.

When you play. What you play. How long you play. With whom you play. What you say to anyone and what you say at what times. How good you are at what times. And so on. That all adds nicely to a big data pile about you, they have from other sources.

emteycz 5y ago
Don't play online games then. There is plenty of offline gaming available. My point is, Microsoft most likely already knows, and even if they didn't, isn't it a given that they know when and for how long do I play their own online games?
- hutzlibu 5y ago
  "Don't play online games then." On a general basis, why? Not every company is assumed to track and sell everything you do. But when you play with windows as a base ... yes, then it probably does not matter anyway.
  - emteycz 5y ago
    Even the simplest Minecraft server installation tracks the players. And as for companies, for example in EU there is a law that says any online service must collect usage logs and store them at least few years, I guess it's the same in the US. Any server you're connecting to and playing on will know when and for how long, and your individual actions will be logged at the very least at the network level. If you don't like it, your only choice is to not play online.
    - chucksta 5y ago
      Even that is becoming a limited choice thanks to DRM; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Always-on_DRM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Always-on_DRM

krageon 5y ago

If you play it at all, you're telling it when you play games.

emteycz 5y ago
Of course the server I play games on knows when I play - just as the website I visit will always know I visited it. Who cares though, and if one cares, why do they play online games? Anyways, I'm also pretty sure Microsoft gets pinged nearly every time one opens an application (unless a power user disables it), so they already know either way - what's the new risk?
- BiteCode_dev 5y ago
  Who cares about cigarettes being dangerous? People already smoking knows that. What's the new risk?
- alexanderdmitri 5y ago
  Toyota's new 'more we know about you' program randomly extends their warranty for 2 years (or +50k miles) for new car buyers who have Crash Bandicoot game time in their dataset. Also Walmart will give $30 back on purchases >$125 if you have played at least five hours X-Men Legends in the last week while they're promoting the new Wolverine movie. It's not all good though ... people who play Call of Duty are more likely to default on their loans and World of Warcraft is well known to have a strong correlation with sexual predators. Banks and FBI buy the relatively cheap video game data and use it to decide which individual's browsing history ($$$) and pc usage telemetry ($$$) to buy from Microsoft.
- potench 5y ago
  The article provides no detail on new privacy risk, yet it is the title of the piece… is there some new vector? I agree with your sentiment that it’s not like Microsoft just gained access to some entirely new portfolio of information about you, they already have access to the superset of this data since they own Xbox (PlayStation provides a million data points on the amount of time, progress, and trophies I earn in games that are not owned by Sony - i assume the same for Xbox?) Fine if you want to postulate as to what these privacy risks are but wtf, the article provides no detail whatsoever here lol.