Steam Spy is pretty much dead

Nilden

R.I.P.

Grunty

Good job, Valve. Thanks.  Of course my information shouldn't have been public in the first place

Asheram

Damn I didn't even know about this steamspy thing, lol. I am glad they made it player choice now. And to the guys in the video, how can you validate invading my privacy? Good job Steam thank you, and I agree with Grunty.

Sandmanjw

As a person i have to say good...privacy, what tiny bit we have on-line anymore, is important. 

As a gamer, and one that likes a lot of info to make decisions on, i am quite mixed. Losing some data, that will most likely never be back, just makes it easier for shady practices to flourish. 

 

Asheram

Nyctelios said:

Couldn't they find a middle ground?

Steam Spy and Steam Chart does a great job providing numbers for more in depth discussions about marketplace.

There is a middle ground now isn't there, the option for those that don't mind it to allow it in options? No one else can look at my steam profile because its set to private so why should steamspy be able too?

Tiller

Well question is, was he selling this data for any kind of profit, or was he profiting off it? Data is big business. It makes sense that Steam would want to put a lid on it. I never used the site since I can get a pretty good idea of a gme's popularity based on the available options on Steam itself. As for tracking sales, there is good site for that and it's not invading anyone's privacy.

Asheram

DMKano said:

Asheram said:

Nyctelios said:

Couldn't they find a middle ground?

Steam Spy and Steam Chart does a great job providing numbers for more in depth discussions about marketplace.

There is a middle ground now isn't there, the option for those that don't mind it to allow it in options? No one else can look at my steam profile because its set to private so why should steamspy be able too?

If you had your profile to not be public - steam spy couldn't read it.

Oh, ok ty for the fyi.

AnOldFart

So a guy was getting my gaming data off steam and using it to earn himself an income...

And I'm supposed to be upset this has stopped?

I think not

Manestream

dont know what steam spy was. reading here it seems it only detected what game you was playing and how long for so it could register how many users played said game during said times.

Tiller

Nyctelios said:

AnOldFart said:

So a guy was getting my gaming data off steam and using it to earn himself an income...

And I'm supposed to be upset this has stopped?

I think not

His data was used as source to many discussion regards companies lying about numbers and so on. It was a good thing and he was not checking your nude mods or how many screen shots of furry spiderman you have on Skyrim. Nothing someone wouldn't answer if asked to politely.

There is a furry spiderman mod? lol why?

Grunty

This change in user privacy appears in part to be a result of Steam's response to recent EU laws requiring default opt-in protection of personal information.

sayuu

all these people mad/shocked about a website profiting on their public info has me wondering what part of the definition of public they don't understand. . .

AnOldFart

I'm not shocked or upset.

I'm annoyed some people moan like bi***es because steam increased my privacy and it affected their revenue.

This information should never have been public, it's like my bank sharing what purchases I made on my bank account to show which are the more popular shops...

cameltosis

For those that aren't aware, on May 25th the General Data Protection Regulation comes into force. This is a new EU regulation that affects every single business that handles the personal data of EU citizens. 

The GDPR is attempting a massive paradigm shift in the way we think about personal data. It is shifting ownership of personal data back onto the data subjects (us) and companies will now have to explicitly tell us what data they are collecting, where that data is stored and what the data is used for. 

Beyond that, it is enshrining in law 8 new rights that we have over our own personal data. The one most of you will have heard of is the right to be forgotten, but the other 7 are just as important.


So, my expectation is this change to Steam is just Valve getting ready for the GDPR next month. Allowing Steam Spy access to the data if it includes personal data will be against the law soon. A username or a user ID counts as personal data. If Valve want to open up the data again then they will have to anonymise it first. 


The penalties for non-compliance with these new laws are quite severe too. You can be fined up to 20million euros or 4% of global annual turnover, whichever is highest. For a massive company like Valve, the fine would be absolutely massive so they're not going to want to take risks. 

I'm really curious to see how Facebook are going to handle the GDPR as it has the potential to ruin the business. For example, we are gaining new rights regarding automated decision making and profiling and can request that our personal data is not used for this. Automated decision making and profiling is how Facebook's advertising platform works (and is what was exploited to influence the US election) so I would guess that they won't be able to charge as much for advertising as it won't be as targeted as before. Assuming they comply and don't find a loophole....

dave6660

Most of you post your life history on social media.  Since when is privacy a major concern?

Golelorn

AnOldFart said:

I'm not shocked or upset.

I'm annoyed some people moan like bi***es because steam increased my privacy and it affected their revenue.

This information should never have been public, it's like my bank sharing what purchases I made on my bank account to show which are the more popular shops...

I hate to burst your bubble, but they do this in aggregate already.

AnOldFart

Golelorn said:

AnOldFart said:

I'm not shocked or upset.

I'm annoyed some people moan like bi***es because steam increased my privacy and it affected their revenue.

This information should never have been public, it's like my bank sharing what purchases I made on my bank account to show which are the more popular shops...

I hate to burst your bubble, but they do this in aggregate already.

Some banks do, and some.banks are required by law to share the information with other financial establishments if you request them to.

I read the small print and my bank doesn't 

Grunty

sayuu said:

all these people mad/shocked about a website profiting on their public info has me wondering what part of the definition of public they don't understand. . .

Well, there's the rub.  This isn't public information. It's personal information.  The only similarity between the two is both words start with the letter P.

Scorchien

I dont think anyones Privates should be open to Public Scrutiny , unless thats what they choose..

laserit

This shit is getting way out of hand

Glad governments are finally moving on this. If anyone is going to make money on my personal information it is going to be me.

Panther2103

I guess I never thought of Steamspy how everyone else seems to.  I kinda liked the fact I could see how many copies of a game sold. But I guess I understand the privacy concerns as well. 

sayuu

Grunty said:

sayuu said:

all these people mad/shocked about a website profiting on their public info has me wondering what part of the definition of public they don't understand. . .

Well, there's the rub.  This isn't public information. It's personal information.  The only similarity between the two is both words start with the letter P.

when you signed Steam's terms of service before the change it became public by default with the option to make it private.

now, after the change, the information is private between the user and Valve by default with the option to make it public.

Wizardry

Only thing i can think of is that Valve doesn't want negativity numbers on their non popular games because that means less sales..
The popular games feed themselves so that information never mattered.I do not think Valve cares at all about you or your  personal information,they simply follow the in place laws.This imo as usual with big business all about Valve and not about you.

We all have credit ratings,so your information is already sort of shared and you can bet the government has massive computer files on all of us and intercepts millions of terabytes in information everyday.
I also have seen the past few years that when government officials are caught doing something illegal they cry foul about their personal information and want to completely stop it for obvious reasons.
So there is a lot of good and bad about information sharing,if your local government official is a criminal you want to know right?

cameltosis

Panther2103 said:

I guess I never thought of Steamspy how everyone else seems to.  I kinda liked the fact I could see how many copies of a game sold. But I guess I understand the privacy concerns as well. 

I like what Steamspy does too, not that I use it much but it's a good service. 

I think it'll end up coming back, it's just that their method of gathering data is going to have to change. If the data captured didn't include any personal data (i.e. username / ID) then it'd be fine.