This is a very "press-releasey" response, and it feels disingenuous. He doesn't specifically address the weak hash algorithm, nor the privacy concerns of monit

This is a very "press-releasey" response, and it feels disingenuous. He doesn't specifically address the weak hash algorithm, nor the privacy concerns of monitoring people's domain visit history. This is basically "Yep, we do that stuff, and we're going to keep doing it, because it's good for you". Understood; cheating is a big problem for them, their players, and their business model. Also, it's unlikely that Gabe had any direct hand in deciding how to build this cheat detector; those decisions were made further down the org structure. Finally, they probably aren't currently doing anything really bad with that data, but it's a slippery slope. They _have_ that data now, and they aren't going to stop adding new features. Over time it's likely that some smart developer is going to realize that they can use it in some other way, maybe cross reference it, etc. Gabe isn't asking you just to trust that they're not evil, he's asking you to trust that they will _never_ be evil. His Q&A at the bottom: 1) Do we send your browsing history to Valve? No. (just the domain names in an easily reversible hash) 2) Do we care what porn sites you visit? Oh, dear god, no. My brain just melted. (We aren't specifically looking for porn, we're not that selective; we collect ANY DOMAIN we find on a cheater's system). 3) Is Valve using its market success to go evil? I don't think so, but you have to make the call if we are trustworthy. We try really hard to earn and keep your trust. (Don't be evil.) The "You're either with us, or you're a social engineering cheat developer" part rankles a bit too, although there may be some truth to that scenario (I don't know either way, but that's one path that could lead to discovering the DNS interception).