You know, I've mostly been indifferent about the Epic Game Store and how they're buying exclusives, but this is shitty and really irritates me. This is Facebook levels of vacuuming up data that I didn't consent to providing, and it's disgusting that companies think they're entitled to any and all data just because. Screw them, I've uninstalled it. A few free games isn't worth having my trust completely violated.
That's stupid "both sides" bullshit. Nobody randomly encrypts all non-critical local information on a system because some rogue spying program could come along and steal it.
I already wasn't intending to ever buy anything from Epic Games due to their unethical business practices, but this thread led me to finally request the deletion of my Epic Games account. Since I am an EU citizen, I requested the GDPR-conform (niche law, lol) deletion of all my personal data as well. If you also want to delete your Epic Games account, you have to use their contact form at https://epicgames.helpshift.com/a/epic-accounts/?s=epic-account-support (top right: "Contact us", then select "Delete Epic Games Account"). This is technically enough to have them delete your account, but if you are an EU citizen, you should paste the following GDPR deletion statement in the text box too:
I am hereby requesting immediate erasure of personal data concerning me according to Article 15 GDPR.
Please erase all personal data concerning me as defined by Article 4(1) GDPR.
I am of the opinion that the requirements set forth in Article 17(1) GDPR are fulfilled.
If I have given consent to the processing of my personal data (e.g. according to Article 6(1) or Article 9(2) GDPR), I am hereby withdrawing said consent.
In addition, I am objecting to the processing of personal data concerning me (which includes profiling), according to Article 21 GDPR.
In case you have disclosed the affected personal data to third parties, you have to communicate my request for erasure of the affected personal data, as well as any references to it, to each recipient as laid down in Article 19 GDPR. Please also inform me about those recipients.
If you object to the requested erasure, you have to justify that to me.
My request explicitly includes any other services and companies for which you are the controller as defined by Article 4(7) GDPR.
As laid down in Article 12(3) GDPR, you have to confirm the erasure to me without undue delay and in any event within one month of receipt of the request.
I am including the following information necessary to identify me:
Email:<your Epic Games email>
Name: <your Epic Games name>
Country:<your country>
If you do not answer my request within the stated period, I am reserving the right to take legal action against you and to lodge a complaint with the responsible supervisory authority.
You will get an automated email that requires you to reply by copying a paragraph from their email and filling in your account information. I'm curious if they will provide any information the above statement requests from them. Probably not, because they don't give a shit about GDPR apparently.
I'd that isn't a gross violation of GDPR I don't know what is. Time to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Authority? I don't recall opting into this type of data sharing.
Don't really want to derail the thread, but my translation (as a native speaker of Russian) of the original tweet that Galyonkin liked would be as follows:
The best thing about this whole EGS conundrum is that the gaming crowd, with its usual entitled attitude towards the developers/publishers, is now finally facing the music and discovering that unpleasant aggressive douchebags with hysterical demands sometimes get told to fuck off.
edit: you could argue that the author does refer to a specific sub-group, but it's not a very easy case to make in English. Basically, in some cases Russian twitter uses an alternative spelling of the word "gamer" ("гэймеры" instead of the traditional "геймеры") to mockingly refer to a subset of entirely-too-overzealous-for-their-own-good members of the gaming community (the same way some ERA users do with posts like "ugh, the gamers are at it again"), and that's the spelling this tweet uses as well. But again, a number of people always use this spelling, even when they are not being sarcastic, so it's not entirely clear who exactly the post is referring to.
I don't get the comparisons to Google or Facebook - These companies are tracking things I post online in their platform etc. It's quite different to a program going through my personal files on my PC!
If this is real, Epic can be in deep shit in the EU if the get reported for GDPR violation, wow. As if there needs to be another reason for avoiding their store.
I don't get the comparisons to Google or Facebook - These companies are tracking things I post online in their platform etc. It's quite different to a program going through my personal files on my PC!
Epic can have any info of mine that's publically published on steam, that's fine. But don't go digging into my local disk drives and rooting through my steam cloud saves that's just rude.
The first part was ironic.
About the landmark titles, Unreal and Gears of War were some titles that set new standards (technologically and gameplay wise respectively), each in their time of release.
I already wasn't intending to ever buy anything from Epic Games due to their unethical business practices, but this thread led me to finally request the deletion of my Epic Games account. Since I am an EU citizen, I requested the GDPR-conform (niche law, lol) deletion of all my personal data as well. If you also want to delete your Epic Games account, you have to use their contact form at https://epicgames.helpshift.com/a/epic-accounts/?s=epic-account-support (top right: "Contact us", then select "Delete Epic Games Account"). This is technically enough to have them delete your account, but if you are an EU citizen, you should paste the following GDPR deletion statement in the text box too:
You will get an automated email that requires you to reply by copying a paragraph from their email and filling in your account information. I'm curious if they will provide any information the above statement requests from them. Probably not, because they don't give a shit about GDPR apparently.
Took me six months to get my account deleted after about 30 emails and constantly being told they would delete it and not doing so.
I was getting about 3 emails a day about how my account was trying to be accessed (hacked) and even that wasn't even enough to hurry them up.
They don't give a damn apparently, they just want to keep people on their service as much as possible, that's why they make it so difficult to delete accounts.
Honestly Epic are shady and I have been beating this drum for months now, they can't be trusted and Steam having a poor attitude towards curation isn't an excuse to ignore what Epic are doing, their blatant corruption and greed and illegal behaviour is unacceptable and anti-consumer.
Worst part is, games journalists are turning a blind eye to what Epic are doing because they dislike Steam it seems.
I mean, like, probably half of all the games I've ever owned run on one version or the other of UE, Unreal and UT were massive titles back in the day, and Gears of War codified the cover shooter. There's definitely reason to be upset by Epic going to lengths to steal data out of competition.
I doubt they can get in trouble in the EU because of RGPD, nicknames and games are not sensitive information, but I hope Valve can sue the living hell out of them.
I dont know enough about this stuff to make a judgement. I am fine waiting for Kotaku/Eurogamer etc to a do a proper story and a follow up with Epic. Its not like I have it installed on my PC and need to act immediately.
You literally just handwaved clear facts repeatable by yourself in favour of "a proper story" to be made to agree with. That's some straight up head in sand there mate.
I doubt they can get in trouble in the EU because of RGPD, nicknames and games are not sensitive information, but I hope Valve can sue the living hell out of them.
It is information that you can opt to make private, and they are breaching that privacy. Much like saying no to cookies on a website and the website continues to still collect your cookies.
...are you seriously suggesting that people should be operating under the assumption that they should have stuff like their Word files or pictures encrypted?
If it would be problematic for you if those files were out in the public space? Yes. If not then just realize that data just isn't safe and live your life? But you do you.
I doubt they can get in trouble in the EU because of RGPD, nicknames and games are not sensitive information, but I hope Valve can sue the living hell out of them.
Nicknames are personal data too and you never consented to this specific case of data collection. I also know many Steam users who use their real names.
This removes the final shred of doubt about skipping their launcher. It's never happening now no matter how many idies they 1-year money hat. Money hatting is slimy and this is slimy too. They're cleary operating under a mentality I disagree with. Steam has problems, but this is not how you beat them.
I dont know enough about this stuff to make a judgement. I am fine waiting for Kotaku/Eurogamer etc to a do a proper story and a follow up with Epic. Its not like I have it installed on my PC and need to act immediately.
It's freaking incredible some here are ok with this. This is the very definition of malware, it behaves like a Trojan.
And this is all that has been digged. For all we know it could be able to read your CC info if you're running Steam and EGS at the same time.
It's an immense breach of trust. Maybe if I mention that hat Epic is partially owned by Tencent, an almost China-government owned company, they will care?
I already wasn't intending to ever buy anything from Epic Games due to their unethical business practices, but this thread led me to finally request the deletion of my Epic Games account. Since I am an EU citizen, I requested the GDPR-conform (niche law, lol) deletion of all my personal data as well. If you also want to delete your Epic Games account, you have to use their contact form at https://epicgames.helpshift.com/a/epic-accounts/?s=epic-account-support (top right: "Contact us", then select "Delete Epic Games Account"). This is technically enough to have them delete your account, but if you are an EU citizen, you should paste the following GDPR deletion statement in the text box too:
You will get an automated email that requires you to reply by copying a paragraph from their email and filling in your account information. I'm curious if they will provide any information the above statement requests from them. Probably not, because they don't give a shit about GDPR apparently.