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Steam security issue revealed personal info to other users on XMas Day (fixed)

Nohar

Member
In any case, the best thing we can do is indeed notify the relevant parties, and hope they will act and create a precedent. If we want to make a difference, we need to act, not just react here.
 

Adry9

Member
Just got an answer from the Luxembourgish national data protection authority:

Dear Sir,

Reference is made to your request filed with the Luxembourgish national data protection authority (CNPD).

Please note that we are carrying out an assessment of the Steam incident with Valve Sàrl.

We will keep you informed about the outcome as soon as possible.

Do not hesitate to contact us, should you have any further questions.

Yours sincerely,
 

Jumplion

Member
VALVe needs a massive kick in the ass. They've slowly soured their reputation for me over the past few years, and these latest stink-ups that showcase their truly awful record of communication, to name just one of the many shitty practices that if anyone else were caught doing would be burned at the stake for, basically just cement my distaste for their current direction.

They want to be perceived as the indie underdog giant corporation, a corporation that's "not like those other corporations, man!", but in the end they're basically just like those other corporations, worse in some cases because they've been allowed to run around with no clothes.

The emperor has no clothes, people.
 

Ludens

Banned
Finally got around to submitting complaints to the relevant parties.

All those defending Valve make me sick, it's almost as if they have invested so much into steam and have such a large library that requires steam to operate that it's almost a Stockholm syndrome effect.

The sad part is defending them isn't helping, if they don't learn humility from this fuck up - it's only going to get worse.

It's not even humility, just customer's rights.
 
Yeah like shit happens, I understand w/e.

But that fact that they haven't acknowledged it, the fact that they're censoring that shit on their boards.

Fuck that, leaves such a bad taste in my mouth, honestly I've been buying less and less on steam every year, I don't think going cold turkey for buying new stuff on it is going to be very hard for me. Because like fuck I'm going to give any more money to a company that gives that little of a shit about its customers.
 
I've been considering dropping consoles and going full Steam, a friend of mine is a hardcore Steam exclusive gamer and has a good rig as well as a decent media box he built to be a TV "console".

It has seemed like a really good choice for me since I prefer controllers and couches, but love PC gaming.

This has kind of soured that though. I've had a lot of issues with Valve over the years and nobody ever gives a shit. They seem to be the one company you just can't acceptably criticize and I don't understand why. My friend usually has a million things to say anytime a company does something anti-consumer, but this Valve thing only got a "huh" from him.

Seems to be the general response from most people. They just don't want to criticize Valve.
 

Ludens

Banned
I've been considering dropping consoles and going full Steam, a friend of mine is a hardcore Steam exclusive gamer and has a good rig as well as a decent media box he built to be a TV "console".

It has seemed like a really good choice for me since I prefer controllers and couches, but love PC gaming.

This has kind of soured that though. I've had a lot of issues with Valve over the years and nobody ever gives a shit. They seem to be the one company you just can't acceptably criticize and I don't understand why. My friend usually has a million things to say anytime a company does something anti-consumer, but this Valve thing only got a "huh" from him.

Seems to be the general response from most people. They just don't want to criticize Valve.

Yeah, pretty much. Valve has ton of PRs between players, basically.
They are marked as "PC savior". No doubt with Steam they brought new life into PC gaming, pushing other companies to do the same, but later they just turned arrogant basically because they have the monopoly (yeah, they have it: even if some games are only available on Origin, 99% of titles are available on Steam. If some games are timed exclusive for GOG, they will reach Steam eventually...even Witcher 3 is not even GOG exclusive. So basically if you want to play all PC games, you NEED Steam, you can't buy Resident Evil Rebirth in any other place, nor MGSV etc.)
 
Hell, it's why I hoped Microsoft would get off their ass and directly compete with them. The fact that we didn't get a store wide warning at first really pissed me off.

I'll get slated for this but I tend to agree - MS have to be red hot on privacy as they've rightly got laser scrutiny on them, they also have an extensive consumer support org (how effective it is can vary based on what I see on gaf, but at least it exists). I'm trying to think of who else is well placed for that - Amazon(no PC pedigree)? Apple (happy on mac)?
 
Yeah, pretty much. Valve has ton of PRs between players, basically.
They are marked as "PC savior". No doubt with Steam they brought new life into PC gaming, pushing other companies to do the same, but later they just turned arrogant basically because they have the monopoly (yeah, they have it: even if some games are only available on Origin, 99% of titles are available on Steam. If some games are timed exclusive for GOG, they will reach Steam eventually...even Witcher 3 is not even GOG exclusive. So basically if you want to play all PC games, you NEED Steam, you can't buy Resident Evil Rebirth in any other place, nor MGSV etc.)

I think the biggest problem is people have massive investments with Steam that can't be transferred.
 

Dunkley

Member
Yeah, pretty much. Valve has ton of PRs between players, basically.
They are marked as "PC savior". No doubt with Steam they brought new life into PC gaming, pushing other companies to do the same, but later they just turned arrogant basically because they have the monopoly (yeah, they have it: even if some games are only available on Origin, 99% of titles are available on Steam. If some games are timed exclusive for GOG, they will reach Steam eventually...even Witcher 3 is not even GOG exclusive. So basically if you want to play all PC games, you NEED Steam, you can't buy Resident Evil Rebirth in any other place, nor MGSV etc.)

"You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain."

I mean they did do a lot of good for PC Gaming, but they have been dropping the ball so hard in the last couple years it caused me to completely reevaluate my opinion of them. Their good reputation still lingers with them to the present date, which is understandable considering how awesome they once were, but I hope at last after this finally people will start realizing that Valve is far from being that great company it once was.
 

Ludens

Banned
Anyway I find both funny and sad the fact Gabe did an AMA for the Bethesda Mods thing going on full damage control and they didn't bother to make a proper statement in this case.
 
Anyway I find both funny and sad the fact Gabe did an AMA for the Bethesda Mods thing going on full damage control and they didn't bother to make a proper statement in this case.

They reverted all R8 patch changes and nerfed revolver itself in like two days. There was a huge statement about this patch aswell.

Someone in here had a nerve to suggest that they are better off fixing the issue (that they claimed was fixed hours within discovery) instead of giving an official statement about the situation three days later. This radio silence means that either they think they are going to get away with this just like that, or that caching issue wasn't the only thing that happened. Steam guard wasn't working properly for two days.
 
Holly!!!! Now that Steam servers are back sending authentification emails, Steam didn't recognize the browser anymore and registered as a new device which needs 7 days to authorize tardes again till then the sale will be over. PFFF.
 
Schreier wrote about it for Kotaku.

Yet other than a short statement sent to Kotaku and other press outlets last week—“This issue has since been resolved”—Valve hasn’t said a thing. They haven’t commented on how many people were affected. They haven’t contacted the Steam users whose information was exposed. Most alarmingly, they haven’t informed their 125+ million users—some of whom, sadly, do not read Kotaku—that this happened at all.
 

inm8num2

Member
Hopefully more outlets follow up. I doubt Valve responds to further inquiries, but at the very least people shouldn't forget this snafu.
 
Valve's failure to respond to this is pretty shitty. None of the people I know who play on Steam even knew about it.

Will definitely taint my view of them going forward.
 
2016 has to be the year where they fix their customer service. I know these things, they take time, but there's too many problems piling up that, from an outside perspective, don't seem to be getting tackled fast enough.
 

Sini

Member
2016 has to be the year where they fix their customer service. I know these things, they take time, but there's too many problems piling up that, from an outside perspective, don't seem to be getting tackled fast enough.
Valve said they were going to fix it this year, didn't they?
 
Kotaku now has another article up where the issue and the lack of communication by Valve is mentioned in the second half.
Steam Problems Linger After Christmas Fiasco

I thought it was strange no emails were sent once I finished a couple transactions. So this means Steam Guard Email is worthless and Valve continues to be basically silent through this debacle.

Nice job Valve, nice fucking job.

EDIT: It seems I can get emails again, but even though it's fix there's still silence on the Valve front.
 
I thought it was strange no emails were sent once I finished a couple transactions. So this means Steam Guard Email is worthless and Valve continues to be basically silent through this debacle.

Nice job Valve, nice fucking job.

I would bet that only 0.1% or less of those 120m+ account owners are aware of this situation.
 

Haunted

Member
Even people that are pretty dedicated fans of Steam should want competition. Valve being pushed to make Steam a better platform (and in some cases like CS, a competent platform) is good for everybody.
Oh, absolutely.

Here's my most important wish over everything else, though: I want to be able to buy and play everything on one platform. Put everything on everything. Put Valve games on Origin and uplay, put EA and Ubi games on Steam using all its features etc. Don't make me have to have several clients installed at the same time.
 

cyba89

Member
Valve said they were going to fix it this year, didn't they?

Yes, they did say that in March when they got an F by the Better Business Bureau.

Valve Is Not Psyched They Got An 'F' In Customer Service
"The more important thing is that we don't feel like our customer service support is where it needs to be right now," he said. "We think customers are right. When they say our support's bad, our initial reaction isn't to say, 'No, it's actually good. Look at all of this.' It's to say that, no, they're probably right, because they usually are when it comes to this kind of thing. We hear those complaints, and that's gonna be a big focus for us throughout the year. We have a lot of work to do there. We have to do better."
 
I would bet that only 0.1% or less of those 120m+ account owners are aware of this situation.

Maybe 0.5%, considering the attention it got from social media. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of those accounts are dead, fakes, alts, forgotten, etc.


Yes, they did say that in March when they got an F by the Better Business Bureau.

Valve Is Not Psyched They Got An 'F' In Customer Service

We hear those complaints, and that's gonna be a big focus for us throughout the year. We have a lot of work to do there. We have to do better."

giphy.gif
 
Valve needs to hire a legit team of adults working on customer service, and steam client. Not tinker with it when it's fun, or whatever else their valley hippy motto trumpets about. They are a business now rendering a service, and have a responsibility to their customers. Even if it might not be fun, they might want to install some desks without wheels.
 

jelly

Member
The problem with Steam is how do you get publishers and devs to support another PC platform that doesn't actually separate players. Microsoft seems like the only one capable but they'll be all Xbox Live on Windows, Steam who ? Oh but you can screenshot and shit with our overlay! Microsoft would inevitably or pre emptively shoot themselves in the foot anyway. Windows 11, nah that Xbox Live PC thing doesn't work any more but this new thing...
 

Dunkley

Member

Thank you based Schreier, while we're here doing our best about notifying the authorities I feel like this needs to re-gain some traction on the internet as well.

I know by now they will be criticized for not doing it in the first place which they totally deserve, but I still think Valve needs to notify its' user base that it happens even with 4 (?) days passed since the breach. It's unacceptable that they still haven't informed their customers about compromising their data after so long, I mean at this point I think even scummy companies like EA would have notified its' customers.

The fact that to the present date we still don't know who was affected, what exactly happened besides "a configuration change" and why some people had their CCs removed even though it was page caches is baffling.
 
The problem with Steam is how do you get publishers and devs to support another PC platform that doesn't actually separate players. Microsoft seems like the only one capable but they'll be all Xbox Live on Windows, Steam who ? Oh but you can screenshot and shit with our overlay! Microsoft would inevitably or pre emptively shoot themselves in the foot anyway. Windows 11, nah that Xbox Live PC thing doesn't work any more but this new thing...

Quite a few games on Steam are actually just launchers for the separate client: Warframe, War Thunder, Uplay games etc. These games require a separate account that supports both Steam and non-steam users playing together.

Origin is a great client: faster and sleeker. They have some non-EA games, but it is mainly an EA realm. I like it: EA Vault is great, game time, refunds way before Steam, Steam-like sales and they gave free games several times (Crysis, Older NFS, Mirrors Edge etc.) Sadly, outside of the few games like Battlefield and Fifa, they don't seem to have a lot of platform sellers.
 

Shenmue

Banned
Wow... how have they not freaking apologized and given a clear statement of what information was revealed yet?!?!

Valve. is. GARBAGE.

I signed on during this cache issue (actually ran into this issue a long while before this thread went up. Tried to buy games for my friends on Christmas and got my name, address, and who knows what else revealed to who knows how many people and Valve can't even muster a message saying sorry.
 
Fair play to Jason and Destruction for continuing to push, I know it must be frustrating to scream into the void of Valve PR but we appreciate the effort.
 

Ludens

Banned
Fair play to Jason and Destruction for continuing to push, I know it must be frustrating to scream into the void of Valve PR but we appreciate the effort.

Yup, at least is something, but I feel like this whole situation felt into nothing.
I would be really disgusted if Valve goes away with it.
 

HelloM0f0

Neo Member
Totalbiscuit uploaded a video talking about this.

I'm sure people have seen it, but sharing it anyway. Hopefully Jim Sterling does one too to increase awareness and all that, force a response out of valve, etc.
 
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