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Epic Game Store, Spyware, Tracking your Steam friends and play history.

lukilladog

Member
It's none of the above, it's literally information housed in local text files in the Steam directory. This is the biggest non-starter fake outrage thread I've seen in a while.

Information not generated by Epic´s software/third parties, which is not what Epic users allow Epic to recollect.
 
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Dunki

Member
When you accept the Terms of Service (which you are supposed to read) you are administering consent.
EULAs are no real choice. That is why your windows installation has choices you make about data collecting via MS. If you do not accept the TOS you are not allowed to play the games you bought etc. Again no free choice. Furthermore. Epic collects data from a third party software and application this alone SHOUTS NOOOOO
 
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EULAs are no real choice. That is why your windows installation has choices you make about data collecting via MS. If you do not accept the TOS you are not allowed to play the games you bought etc. Again no free choice. Furthermore. Epic collects data from a third party software and application this alone SHOUTS NOOOOO
You agree to their terms before you ever even engage in the purchase of software which could therefore be withheld behind said ToS.

It's free will, it's informed consent, you're made aware of exactly what they do and do not collect information on and access rights which you grant them UPON AGREEMENT of their Terms of Service.

Quit the victim complex.
 

Dunki

Member
You agree to their terms before you ever even engage in the purchase of software which could therefore be withheld behind said ToS.

It's free will, it's informed consent, you're made aware of exactly what they do and do not collect information on and access rights which you grant them UPON AGREEMENT of their Terms of Service.

Quit the victim complex.
If I for example crowdfund a game via fig and suddendly only can get epic store keys than again it is no free choice at all. I am not playing the victim I am explaining to you the rules of the GDPR and why this is not allowed with people living in Europe.

And again they CAN NOT Collect data from third parties like Steam AT ALL. It does not matter if its encrypted or not.
 
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If I for example crowdfund a game via fig and suddendly only can get epic store keys than again it is no free choice at all. I am not playing the victim I am explaining to you the rules of the GDPR and why this is not allowed with people living in Europe.
That's a personal issue with the provider of said crowdfunded game, in that event you are within your rights to seek financial restitution from the host of the crowdfunded game.

That has no involvement from Epic.
 

CuNi

Member
They're not collecting data from a third party, they're collecting data locally; directly from you.

This is epics privacy policy.
We generally collect or receive information in three ways: (1) you voluntarily provide information to us, such as by creating an account, making purchases, or signing up for email alerts, (2) we collect information automatically, such as through cookies or our games and other software, and (3) other parties, such as social networks, may provide information to us. Each of these methods is described in more detail below.

This is number 2
  • Technical information about your computer, device, hardware, or software you use to access the Internet or our services, such as IP address or other transactional or identifier information for your device (such as device make and model, information about device operating systems and browsers, or other device or system related specifications);
  • Usage information and statistics about your interaction with our websites, games, game engines, and applications, which may include the URLs of our websites that you have visited, URLs of referring and exiting pages, page views, time spent on a page, number of clicks, platform type, the application you used or the game you played, how long you used or played it and when, and other usage statistics;
  • Crash reports, which may be automatically generated when a game or application crashes and includes information about your system and the crash;
  • Information that facilitates a safer and more personalized experience, such as your display name or other user identification provided in connection with your application use or game play, saved preferences, game progress, and device identifiers or usage information for authentication and fraud prevention purposes;
  • The location of your device, such as may be derived from your device’s IP address.

Please point me to the direction where it says it can read folders on my pc from other programs.
 

PhoenixTank

Member
That ends that, as I said this is all a part of their Terms of Service.
I'm half asleep but I see no mention of why they'd grab the lastplayed info in that post. Like CuNi CuNi I can't see a section of the policy that'd allow that either.
Doesn't fall under hardware info, specs and so forth.

Possibly under this:
Information that facilitates a safer and more personalized experience, such as your display name or other user identification provided in connection with your application use or game play, saved preferences, game progress, and device identifiers or usage information for authentication and fraud prevention purposes;
but that seems reaaaaally thin and offers no notion of non-epic related info gathering IMHO.

I remember the Origin stuff from way back and it was a bit too knee jerky of a reaction, tbh. My tired brain does think this smells a little off though.
 

daveonezero

Banned
Speak for yourself, go extrememly out of my way to avoid anything google produced at all costs and blocking their services. Its actual baffling people put google home devices in their houses compared to uproar we had about kinect.

Oh I'm with you. I've ditched google a while ago and trying to get rid of them more. I don't think any big tech company has consumers in mind when they are making more money from selling data.

I also think its hilarious people thing legislators who know nothing of this technology can possibly do something to legislate protection. Especially after the public should know the government is a huge collector of said data. Its pure comedy.
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
People overreact. Unless Epic is trying to scam your info into something criminal like stealing your account info/credit cards, who really cares.

Guess what? The second you apply for a loan or get car insurance or get a credit card, all of your data goes into a database for all financial and insurance companies to see.

That's why when you apply for a mortgage at a bank you've never used before, somehow they already know you have a student loan or credit card debt. All of your info is there for a financial industry employees to pull up your record, finances and personal info to see, yet nobody gives a shit.

A company puts some spyware (so they can nag you to buy more stuff just like spam or random advertisements in your mailbox) in software and people go ape shit.
 
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Orenji Neko

Member
Speak for yourself, go extrememly out of my way to avoid anything google produced at all costs and blocking their services. Its actual baffling people put google home devices in their houses compared to uproar we had about kinect.

Same, and I 100% agree.
 
Speak for yourself, go extrememly out of my way to avoid anything google produced at all costs and blocking their services. Its actual baffling people put google home devices in their houses compared to uproar we had about kinect.

Duckduckgo for the win. Though I do use Chrome for various functions it has that just aren't the same in Firefox.
 

lukilladog

Member
X company making encrypted copies of some of the competition archives without asking first, seems legit. :messenger_angry: What else are they making copies of?
 
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MadAnon

Member
All of which is up front and known by the user. The user is a willing participant. Epic's tactics are not up front, aren't largely known and the user is not a willing participant unless they find out the information from a 3rd party source like reddit or neogaf and choose to continue using the launcher.
Did he actually read ToS when installing the software?
 

Fuz

Banned
I highly doubt this shit is legal. At least in the EU.

Epic better hope this don't get too much attention. Or better convince journalists not to talk about it.
 

MadAnon

Member
Again Wrong



Which means it does not matter if its in their EULA or not. You need consent without consequences aka not being able to play your games you purchased got etc.

More info here:
https://www.criteo.com/insights/gdpr-compliance-legal-bases-collecting-personal-data/

Also they collected data since May 4th Which means that was even before the GDPR also this means they need special consent after it as well. They had to write EVERY customer so they can sign their consent. Otherwise it is a breach.

How did you purchase those games if you didn't install the platform...

And why every website doesn't ask for this special consent? All they do is "do you agree with this and that" and proceed. Don't see anything outrageous here.
 
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MadAnon

Member
Example crowdfunding in which you were promised Steam and GOG keys and this changed.
I don't see the difference between crowdfunding and donation. If you donated the money then it's your own problem. I have yet to see someone being successfully sued for breaking some crowdfunding promises because it happens all the time. Outright scams is a different thing though.
 
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OMG! Everyone doesn't have the same opinion as mine. Better call him a paid shill.

Try better next time.

No need to get so defensive, Neogaf has been the target of Astroturfers in the past.

You are a Neo Member and post only positive things about Epic and the Epic store.
 

MadAnon

Member
No need to get so defensive, Neogaf has been the target of Astroturfers in the past.

You are a Neo Member and post only positive things about Epic and the Epic store.
And you post only negative. You are paid by the Steam to trash Epic?
 
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ethomaz

Banned
Is that legal?
Peharps so... I’m not knowledgeably in these laws.

Epic says what they get is in the TOS and the rest are only send to Epic servers if the use agree... so I guess it is legal.

Unless of course somebody finds proof Epic is sending the data do servers outside the TOS or without the user agree do import Steam friend list.
 
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Lupingosei

Banned
Still waiting for the Kotaku or Polygon articles about this. I bet Jim Sterling will make a video about this on Monday.
 
Did he actually read ToS when installing the software?

No he didn't. Which is the point. The comment mentioned Google and gaf, both of which have privacy front and centre on first use and you can easily track and alter information Google collects on you. None of which applies to Epic.

And by the way, EA and GoG use the Steam API if you wish to look for Steam friends on those clients. I wonder why Epic uses a different method....
 

nikolino840

Member
EULAs are no real choice. That is why your windows installation has choices you make about data collecting via MS. If you do not accept the TOS you are not allowed to play the games you bought etc. Again no free choice. Furthermore. Epic collects data from a third party software and application this alone SHOUTS NOOOOO
So Is not Epic fault...send a mail at your GOV... Or It works only with Epic store? Any examples?
 

Catphish

Member
Bookmarking this thread so when people ask, "Why don't you want to install the Epic launcher? What's wrong with it?" I can post this shit.

I deleted the launcher, and said farewell to Fortnite, when I first learned that Tencent was a driving force behind it, several months ago.

Feels good, man.
 

Shifty

Member
And by the way, EA and GoG use the Steam API if you wish to look for Steam friends on those clients. I wonder why Epic uses a different method....
The fact that there's an existing API to solve this problem makes Epic's solution look even more shady. I guess it didn't give them all the information they wanted.
 

Allandor

Member
can you say no to the agreement in the installer and have it install still? Probably not ...
that's the problem.

It is another of those "Features" done wrong. Especially in the EU this can have really hart consequences. "Mining" data the user did not permit, maybe even saving it in the only profile ... well

on the other side, this is just a "service feature" that should make it easier to see if your friends are playing or whatever ...
But they did definitly not learn from the Origin outcry.
 

CuNi

Member
German news article about the issue.
Apparently Sweeney himself even says that the launcher collects the data without asking the user for consent and they are going to fix it in a future update. I guess they are fucked then. This just screams for a GDPR lawsuit in the EU.
 
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