Bethesda data collection fuckery (split)

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Kappes Buur
 
 
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Bethesda data collection fuckery (split)

Post by Kappes Buur »

Kinsie wrote:The doors to the F2P version of Quake Champions have re-opened for QuakeCon full-stop:
Oh, I should have known better.
I downloaded Quake Champions. But before I was allowed to play the game they wanted to collect all kinds of info. The same BS as with Doom 2016.
No, thank you.
Uninstalled.
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Post by lil'devil »

Kappes Buur wrote:But before I was allowed to play the game they wanted to collect all kinds of info. The same BS as with Doom 2016.
What info? Your system specs, or personal info? If it's the latter then what the heck?
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Post by NeuralStunner »

Satan's lawyer says that maybe online games should have more information on players. The personal investment might make 'em think a little harder before they start being dicks to each other.

(This is nonsense, of course. Look at how many people think Facebook is a protective level of anonymity...)
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Re: The "Fresh Free Game Deals" Thread

Post by SiMpLeToNiUm »

Kappes Buur wrote:...they wanted to collect all kinds of info. The same BS as with Doom 2016.
No, thank you.
Uninstalled.
I just don't understand. While I get that people want their privacy and yadda yadda, especially in the EU, I'm always hearing people talk about privacy violations and such. No one is ever truly safe...I mean, governments can make you disappear without a trace if they wanted to and have ridiculous resources to do so but nobody really pays attention to that fact.

It's the same concept as letting someone at a restauraunt cook your meal. You don't really know what they're doing, but for the most part, you don't really care. There's an interesting psychological theory known as Psychic Numbing that refers to possible uncomfortable realities like nuclear armageddon that are best not to dwell on.

In my opinion, it's just not worth getting worked up over. Unless you have something to hide, don't be scared. I think everyone just needs to realize that you have to sacrifice some "personal info" every time you enter into a transaction or a "deal" with service providers. We forget, video games are a service. I mean, what can they really identify you with? How are they going to use it against you? There are government services in place to stop fraud. If you suspect foul play, report it.

Bah, we all live too short of lives to worry about these things. I'll enjoy my games.

On a side note though, I tend to steer away from foreign titles. There was a great example in Black Squad, some Korean FPS game on Steam. Shady characters...That was the first game I ever read through a EULA for and boy am I glad I did. The links they put in there to their terms of service did not exist. I had no idea which terms I was agreeing to. When asked to see the terms, I got no response. They even changed their customer service e-mail and website layout several times, probably in an attempt to shake me off. that's the privacy stuff that wigs me out. When you have no idea what you're getting into, that raises red flags. However, when you know exactly what is expected, and you can read through all the agreements and contracts, I say "why the heck not?"
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Post by Graf Zahl »

hatakethecopyninja wrote: It's the same concept as letting someone at a restauraunt cook your meal. You don't really know what they're doing, but for the most part, you don't really care. There's an interesting psychological theory known as Psychic Numbing that refers to possible uncomfortable realities like nuclear armageddon that are best not to dwell on.
No, it isn't. Because unless you pay with your credit card the restaurant will have nothing to profile your eating habits.
hatakethecopyninja wrote: In my opinion, it's just not worth getting worked up over.
Oh my.

You really have no clue about the dangers of this data collection, don't you?
Sure, the bit of data one single company has on you may not be worth much, but do you trust these people to handle your data responsibly? Or would you imagine them selling it to some third party? Now imagine that third party collecting enough data about you to create a personality profile. And now imagine that getting stolen and into the hands of other people who really are up to bad things.

Sounds far fetched? I don't think so. All of this has happened in the past already.
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Re: Bathesda data collection fuckery (split)

Post by Rachael »

I'm sorry, but "don't worry about it" is the WORST THING YOU CAN SAY about any corporation - ever!

And the fact that they ask for so much trust is mind-boggling, to say the least.

It's extremely well proven that any trust placed in corporations whatsoever is misplaced, under any circumstance. If your data hasn't been leaked by XXXXX or YYYYY by now, you're sinking into a shrinking minority as more and more data gets compromised.

The only real way to solve this problem is to prohibit corporations from being able to collect so much data in the first place. Only as much data as is needed to complete a transaction, that's it - after that, say 90 days or warranty period, whichever is longer, the data should be destroyed, no matter how convenient it is to not reach for your credit card to make a purchase. Full stop.
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Re: Bathesda data collection fuckery (split)

Post by wildweasel »

I mean, you're playing their online game on their online servers - exactly how little data do you expect them to be getting out of that? :?
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Re: Bathesda data collection fuckery (split)

Post by SiMpLeToNiUm »

I don't know. For the sake of argument, what's the purpose of privacy agreements and terms of service contracts if corporations aren't going to abide by them anyway? They exist to keep these people in line. There's things that they simply are not allowed to do as per the stipulations of your agreements with them. Read over them and leave it at that. There's no use in stopping in place and going over the "what if's" all the time.

It just makes you paranoid and distrustful. But you'll say, "you can't trust them to uphold those agreements." I get it. Really, I do, but then who do you trust? Do you just sit in a fallout bunker all day unplugging your devices from the internet, throwing up VPNs, constantly going to the bank to withdraw cash, beating down salesmen with questions every time they open their mouths, taking your kids out of school because "the man" is putting his corporate lies into their delicate heads?

I mean, you have to give up some trust at some point. You can't farm all your own crops, create your own internet, build your own house or cars, etc. You need businesses who have thousands of employees to do many of these things for you. You can't get around corporations or their dishonesty. It's not possible. To have that level of distrust in the system is no way to live in today's world. It might have worked back in the 1800's, not now.
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Re: Bathesda data collection fuckery (split)

Post by Rachael »

Yeeeaaaahhhh... I think it's time we agree to disagree. That's ... yeah, I'm just leaving that alone.

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Re: Bathesda data collection fuckery (split)

Post by SiMpLeToNiUm »

Agreed.
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Re: The "Fresh Free Game Deals" Thread

Post by Chris »

hatakethecopyninja wrote:Unless you have something to hide, don't be scared.
That is horrible reasoning. People have been harmed physically, mentally, financially, and socially not because of information they needed to hide, but because someone found information on said person after the fact that they vehemently disagree with. Wantonly throwing your personal information out around just because you have nothing to hide is asking for problems. Plus, the more data there is about you that can be directly linked to you, the easier it is to link you to information you thought wasn't personally identifiable.
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Re: The "Fresh Free Game Deals" Thread

Post by Enjay »

hatakethecopyninja wrote:Unless you have something to hide, don't be scared.
I once heard somebody counter that with If "I have nothing to hide, no one needs to be looking". It's a simplistic counter, I concede, but it's quite neat in some ways.
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Re: Bethesda data collection fuckery (split)

Post by leileilol »

IIRC it was just an email addy and handle required. The rest of the identifying fields are optional. Probably the relatively least invasive of any beta signup you can find, and giving out plenty of info had been the standard of all open beta testing for decades. It's nothing new. This was long before the recent Redshell controversy which was apparently a small window of time in this year however

It's certainly been a problem for the new Unreal Tournament regarding community growth though, tying personal information into mandatory forum signup, while its forums get rather frequent database breaches, pretty much is a disservice for anyone of the security conscious... ...
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Re: Bethesda data collection fuckery (split)

Post by Graf Zahl »

I use fake accounts for mandatory signups whenever I can. It's much harder to link that info back to me later. What also helps is that my ISP uses dynamic IP addresses so that even that cannot be used to identify me because it frequently changes and gets mixed with other people. Even on this forum I have seen users who apparently use the same ISP I do and occasionally get an IP I got assigned to as well at some other time.
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Re: Bethesda data collection fuckery (split)

Post by Apeirogon »

Can someone explain to me why data collection is generation of evil?
Yes, its unpleasantly when someone thrusts his nose in you life without you permission. But from all discussion about data collection what I see, people discuss it like "sinister minds of all galaxy united in one overmind only with one purpose: find out some facts from you life %user_name% "

I understand if it connected with finances, you work hard, sweated and suffered at/in unloved work, to get this money.
But go in to rage if someone in, say microsoft, find out that you have cat with name slady... its stupid, as for me.
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