What do you do if a game asks you if it's okay to transmit data

[ZedClampet]

If it's just gameplay data and system information, I always say yes. There are at least a couple of games that also want your browsing history. Not sure what I would do in that case, but I'd probably allow it given that everyone else already tracks my browsing history.

 

[Pifanjr]

I don't remember a game asking that, but I typically don't mind sending usage data of software I use.

 

[neogunhero]

I typically don’t mind but you have to be careful, like you said some games will ask for even more data. Back in July, Owlcat Games, developer of a Pathfinder game, introduced a new analytics tool to their game nearly 2 years after release. It seemed pretty standard as far as analytic tools go; it takes your IP, some specific info about your hardware and OS, then uses it to see if you bought the game because of an ad you saw. They wanted to make the game more popular so they wanted to research players spending habits essentially to make better targeted ads. That wasn’t the main reason for the outrage, they also updated the EULA where if you did not consent to the new update you could not play the game. Luckily they immediately removed all instances of the analytics tool and reversed their EULA. This has probably only heightened players sensitivity to having their data collected.

Fan outcry pushes Pathfinder dev to delete new data-sucking tool and all its info one day after introducing it: 'The scale of the outburst surpassed worst expectations'

A patch to Wrath of the Righteous introduced a 3rd-party analytics tool and a new EULA, but fans were having none of it.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[Alm]

Since I heard of GDPR in Europe I reject as much as possible. But that's my own preference. I don't trust companies not to sell my data

 

[ZedClampet]

The only things I ever buy from links are from PCG Amazon links when I can find one that I need. Since I use an adblock, I never see the ads all these people are trying to show me, and in the rare cases that I do disable my adblock, I usually get ads like "Elderly women in your area want to hook up!" or "This 197 year old man discovered the secret of staying young!" I don't know how hard I'd have to get hit in the head to follow the advertising links I see. I mean, if you are going to lie to me, don't tell me about elderly people. Tell me young women are seeking older men. If I wanted an elderly woman, I'd just go get one myself without paying anything. But you can tell the marketing people are very young since they obviously consider me, in my 50s, to be elderly.

 

[Brian Boru]

I typically don't mind sending usage data of software I use

Same, except in rare case long ago where log file compilation hogged puny resources and got huge. But last decade, no problems.

a couple of games that also want your browsing history

No. I can't think how that helps make game better, got to be for marketing purposes and/or compiling data to sell on.

 

[Zloth]

Browsing history!? Well, if I actually notice that it's there, that would be a no-go.

Actually, now that I think about it, that could be OK, but I'm going to need assurances that the data is anonymized. By that, I don't mean just writing it down on the agreement, I mean paying some third party to monitor the data going back to make sure it's anonymous. When the game gets less popular and paying somebody to monitor the data is no longer financially sane, they have to remove the monitoring. If data becomes not anonymous, the third party tells the developers AND the gaming community (via Steam announcements and other platform equivalents).

P.S. Those agreements can sometimes be useful to refuse. Metal Gear Solid 5: Phantom Pain has an online component that I didn't want any part of. By refusing the online interactions agreement, I was able to completely turn off all the online pieces! Options are good (when taken in moderation)!

 

[stormluisss]

As for me, this is more of a rhetorical question, supposedly purely for show. Because with modern technologies we already give these permissions to many resources, sometimes without even knowing about it, sometimes we simply automatically accept the agreement. Search history is often asked for in order to select advertising to suit your interests.

 

[mjs warlord]

I guess we dont have a choice we have to agree to our data being collected , its a bit like when you bought games on discs in real shops , you put the disc in the pc and unless you tick the agree to T & C box you cant install it.

What really annoys me is when they pass your details onto other companies and you get emails from companies you have never dealt with. I once got an email from a games company with the opening line ... hello to ********** it was a user name i had over 20 years ago and only used it once because somebody said the name was in bad taste , so how did that company find it.

 

[Frindis]

If something like browsing history, I'd say no and then uninstall the game. This is one of the reasons I am skeptical about big companies (like Microsoft/Ubisoft/Tencent) getting larger ownership in the video game industry because they have the power to really dig deep into how they can squeeze money out of us consumers but without necessarily raising the quality of the games produced. I'll make a thread later to exemplify this thought.