lol I searched, "does steam scan your registry," "steam registry scan" and didn't find anything concrete.
Good man! Can you interpret that jargon lol. Steam does have a web browser...wouldn't it make sense to have a DNS cache - then again sending that cache to Valve is the problem not the cache itself. Maybe you can bring more light as to the context of it all? This is really quite interesting.
I've never used steam or any sort of online service to buy games and do prefer a physical copy.
Bully! I take it you don't play many modern games then? I was under the impression that most PC games where just CD's that download the game from the internet when you pop them in. I haven't bought a physical PC game in over a decade. Very interesting!
All programs make use of the cache, which means that all of your Internet activities are recorded by it, even those where you never visit the site in question thanks to technologies such as Chrome's network actions prediction feature.
According to the thread author, VAC is retrieving the cache information and submits hashed versions of each domain you have visited or was looked up to remote servers. Hashed means it does not know the url itself, but only a hash of it.
While it is not clear what happens then, it is likely that the hashes are compared against a database of known cheating services and websites.
What you said makes more sense now. Seems the context is to prevent cheating...supposedly it's all hashed so that would make it tough for them. Seems benign then again you know more about this technically speaking.
they use headless chromium implementation. It is called local dns cache for a reason. Its local. Its not specifically steam dns cache, but system cache.
ever read their privacy policy? No? I recommend.
http://store.steampowered.com/privacy_agreement/
Here are interesting parts:
" Valve also processes anonymous data, aggregated or not, in order to
analyze and produce statistics related to the habits, usage patterns,
and demographics of users as a group or as individuals. Such anonymous
data does not allow the identification of the users to which it relates.
Valve may share anonymous data, aggregated or not, with third parties."
"personally identifiable information during the sign in process, and then
in connection with the use of Valveās products, services and online "
Lets be clear with the 'anonymous data' as my company worked with steam tracking data I can tell you you are completely identifiable within those "anonymous" data simply by cross referencing multiple tables and specific rows like notificationid, eventid.
This also means that valve can look for its products in your system, and use it to identify you if they really wanted to do so. Its very hard to prove something is reading from registry, but they do - since those products are their own - they use it to check license keys for that software.
on stats "main" purpose of the tracking data collection, it procures those nice stats. They include full dxdiag information and also other info about system itself. They reserve right to share this data that will identify you individually with any third party they want. So lets say ms pays them to give them 10 windows 7 'pirates' they can lawfully do it.
// edit
While for you or so mitm it'll be hard to read hashed cache entries, on valve side its decoded.
I dont have a credit card , so online games were never an option for me as I doubt steam has a cash option lol.
That and I really dislike the idea that I would pay someone money and receive literally nothing in return but an opportunity to play the game for a limited time so long as the company exists or the service exists.
Back in 2005 they shut down the original servers that you could play AOE online on. I still play the single player but the idea that steam could simply delete your account , delete your game , end that games support , or end their service bothers the hell out of me. One day everything I bought could literally disappear beyond my own control and they legally are allowed to do it , it's just not for me lol
I got that after I made the post. I realized the cache is what it is and isn't application specific. Oops!
Very interesting indeed. I'll have to take your word for it since it's over my head. It's a new perspective and I appreciate you elaborating.
This is what I hate about the future. I don't think Valve would do that but we all know that kind of shit will eventually bite us in the ass. So depressing lol. I still can't bring myself to call Valve evil but I see your point.
From what we know goverment on daily bases pays google, microsoft and other big companies for user data access points. In fact from what we see those companies make big profit from it. Since valve is all about profit I assume they'll be careful/secretive on when on whom, and how they release the user identifying data.
Since its inception, and beginning valve steam was evil. In their own way.
Their server dept really don't give a shit about the data, and what you are doing with it. But when their customer (i.e. game /software company asks for it, they are ready to complete the references and provide private identification data.)
?
So, your DNS cache is your cache of DNS records. DNS records are basically records that translate host names to IP Addresses.
When you go to Google.com, your computer asks your router what it's IP address is. It doesn't know, usually, so it asks a major DNS host what it is, and that host tells your router, and that router tells your PC.
Your PC remembers this in it's cache so it doesn't have to repeatedly do that. Makes things faster.
Now say you went to youporn.com. Now that's in your DNS cache. You start up Steam. Steam sends your DNS cache to Valve. Something they don't have to do at all. Valve now knows you go to youporn.com.
That's what that means. It's the same reason you want to disable Chrome's Malicious Website "feature". For Google to check if it's a malicious website, they have to have Chrome send the website URL to a Google server to compare it to the list of Malicious Websites. But that means Google has a list of URLs you go to.
That is not acceptable and a violation of privacy. It is not specified that they do that and just using Chrome means you're using that. You can disable it, but that's not acceptable to me.
I take issue with the "lawfully" part of that. Accepting terms of service isn't a binding contract.
The big "if" is if you can prove they did it, but if you could, they could likely be sued.
it is binding, if you accept their T&C you waive your rights.
Its a binding contract between you and them.
If you violate it they can remove your account, remove your game/s, sue, provide your details to law enforcement agencies. Funny part about most T&C it solely protects them, and you waive all your rights. It doesn't protect you.
What Should Companies Do?
Applying the Second Circuitās decision to website Terms of Use and other online agreements, to maximize their likelihood of enforceability, companies should ideally:
provide clear and conspicuous notice of all terms;
require counterparties to scroll through to the bottom of the terms and then type in their name in a signature box, click an āI Agreeā button or otherwise expressly and actively manifest their assent to the terms;
prohibit any use of the website or commencement of the relevant services prior to such express and active manifestation of assent; and
periodically have counterparties reconfirm their agreement to the terms.
Valve doesn't do #2, #3 (because it requires #2), or #4 (I have never experienced reconfirmation after having used the service for extended periods of time).
"My nephew installed that. I never clicked anything that said I agree to anything."
that would never hold out in court, or in any hearing.
I dont even have a cdrom drive in my 2 pc's. so installing anything has to come over the intertubes outside of a usb stick
Blizzard's Battle.net or Blizzard app w/e they want to call it now, is a prime example of a company doing it correct. I dont miss their games on steam. I dont think people can call steam a monopoly since the others just suck in comparison, if Blizzard offered 3rd party games I would probably get them off there or steam whatever is cheaper. Its just uplay and origin are not that great IMO.
Considering what EA did to KOTOR 2, and to SWTOR (completely ruined both of them), I find that comparison to be distasteful /s
In all seriousness. I agree with the main points made by the article, but at the same time I don't want to have Origin, Uplay, etc. I don't want 80000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 different "apps" needed to launch a game.
But at the same time I don't want to get any of them from the Windows Store.
so what i'm getting from this thread is Steam is bad. what are the alternatives?
Worse services that do nearly the same thing as Steam. I suppose GoG is probably the least of our worries since DRM free games are an option there....although idk if more modern games are sold DRM free from their website. Last I checked you do not need to have their client to launch a game but that may have changed over time.
Their client is still optional and all of the games on their website are sold DRM free.
Always optional
Beyond all these features, GOG Galaxy will never be mandatory. And thatās great motivation for us - we want to make it so good, that you actually want to use it.
They do sell modern games, with a few being AAA titles (e.g. Outlast 2, Divinity: Original Sin 2, The Witcher 3), but not nearly as many as Steam. Most big publishers are not yet comfortable selling their games DRM free, but hopefully as GOG continues to grow it will become an option. Within the past year or so, games like Crysis, Dragon Age: Origins, and Dead Space have been added to their catalogue. They're not the latest and greatest, but it's a step in the right direction.
About Valve not being anyone's friend... You know, this is like when you play an RPG and after a while your character becomes over-powered, and it kind of breaks the game, because you are just essentially invincible, as in, it takes a power outage to stop your character from advancing?
Well, Steam is seriously over-powered, but not monopoly. Just like Dropbox, Netflix, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, Comcast, etc., they are giants who may or may not move their legs in such a way to trample on our vested interests. The more the power the greater the damage they can do when they move about. I don't think there is any more to it. You can have laws to protect you from them, or not. You can execute the full power of those laws or you can't. Makes one feel powerless as an individual. Nobody wants a mad giant running around their back yard, yet we all have them.
Life is, in terms of games, a badly balanced experience with many unwinnable states, one life, and no saves. It is also the one important not to avoid playing.
lol. cute.
Gday
As an Australian using steam I was slow to embrace it
I guess one issue is now we have 99% of our games on Steam
and if steam happens to go offline or out of business we are stuffed
with a a capital F
In my view Steam in 2017 still
For some RETARDED STUPID FRAKING reason they are selling the steam link in Australia after 13 months of selling it in USA , finally in Australia at EB games AU stores for AUD$90 when its on sale all the time between USD$50-35
and the steam controller (not that i want it) is AUD$90 aswell
Steam machines are still BLOCKED on AU steam store
Various games are often USD$20 more (end up USD$80) which end up in our converted AU value as AUD$107-109 for a USD$60 game overseas
So not only are lots of AAA multi plat games BROKEN on PC , missing proper PC features and using p2p match making , missing server browser and missing content sold in in DLC/season pass that should of been in the base game but we in AUSTRALIA get to pay 40-50 bucks more , YAY
STILL in 2017 Steam REFUSES to offer a PHONE or EMAIL support or LIVE HTTP web chat
STILL in 2017 steam refuses to sell games in AUD instead of USD
ohh and we are going to get slugged with an digital sales tax (GST) in Australia soon making USD$60 games go up around AUD$120-125,cant wait for that FAIR TRADE
If STEAM and studios want to reduce pirating and key sites
go back to OpenGL + VULKAN instead of dx11 + offer a FUCKING DEMO for once before the retail comes out , and sell games in AUSTRALIA for AUD$66 if its sold in USA for USD$60