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PC Gaming Era | March 2019 - The Ides of Smarch

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Deleted member 1849

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Morrigan said:
Yes, scanning Steam directories is sketchy, I agree. But scanning various directories on your PC is not necessarily a huge red flag...
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It isn't, but I wanted to explain the behavior. I guess I made it a bit too general, but hopefully you now see what I was getting at.

After all, an anti-virus scanner also has access to your entire drive, and that is not a red flag. You should always be asking what exactly does it need access to in order to work, and what does its scanning behavior tell you about what it is actually doing.
 
Nabs

Nabs

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Oct 26, 2017
15,692
Madjoki said:
Interesting. So I tried Epic Launcher and it searches for Steam

Then proceeds to enumerate all files in Steam Cloud (for every user that has ever logged in)

Then it will read file containing your steam play history, friends and groups

For me this is 13.50 megabytes

then writes something encrypted to "C:\ProgramData\Epic\SocialBackup\RANDOM HEX CODE_STEAM ACCOUNT ID.bak"
totaling 13.51 megabytes
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Oh great.
 
.exe

.exe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,212
Madjoki said:
Interesting. So I tried Epic Launcher and it searches for Steam

Then proceeds to enumerate all files in Steam Cloud (for every user that has ever logged in)

Then it will read file containing your steam play history, friends and groups

For me this is 13.50 megabytes

then writes something encrypted to "C:\ProgramData\Epic\SocialBackup\RANDOM HEX CODE_STEAM ACCOUNT ID.bak"
totaling 13.51 megabytes
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Huh. How would you go about replicating this?
 
YuSuzzune

YuSuzzune

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Nov 21, 2018
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Kurt Russell said:
I checked that location on my PC and they've been doing it for a while, it seems:

IYflfXB.png
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Literally Steam Spy :D
 
Dan L

Dan L

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Oct 28, 2017
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Yeah have no legal knowledge at all but looked through the EULA and nothing in there about scanning other folders on your system. seems like not just shady but seems like something that should be illegal. I can't believe they are doing this.
 
Ganado

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Oct 25, 2017
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MJunioR said:
I don't like this at all. Does it search and create this report only for Steam, or also for Origin and other launchers? Not that it matters though, this is a """""bit""""" over the line anyway.
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It got 80MB of data on my Steam account but there is nothing on my Origin or uPlay afaik.
 

Deleted member 1849

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Lashley said:
Well, would you look at that
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And I understand their reasons. We have 2 mods in here posting fairly reasonably about it.

That being said, based on the content being posted here, I think there is a case for having it re-opened. Maybe with the Reddit/MC post just a link with a disclaimer and more content focusing on the Steam user scanning.
 
YuSuzzune

YuSuzzune

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Nov 21, 2018
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At least now it's clear why Epic hired Sergei, so he can develop a software which literally steals data to send it to Epic, maybe they see the most wishlisted games and try to moneyhat the developers with that data.
 

Deleted member 32374

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YuSuzzune said:
At least now it's clear why Epic hired Sergei, so he can develop a software which literally steals data to send it to Epic, maybe they see the most wishlisted games and try to moneyhat the developers with that data.
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Exactly. If steam spy is legal, then I'm sure where in the area where it is legal to use this information for future deals.

Doesn't leave the best taste in your mouth though.
 
Dan L

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At least with steamspy it requires you to have your privacy opened up so it can see the data, with this back door method it doesn't matter what your privacy settings are. not at all cool
 

TheTrain

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Oct 27, 2017
610
jkm23 said:
Exactly. If steam spy is legal, then I'm sure where in the area where it is legal to use this information for future deals.

Doesn't leave the best taste in your mouth though.
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No wait, steamspy take the data from a public api. Here they are taking your personal data about the usage of your pc (specifically what you are doing whit steam, and not only that but whatever) , its a deeply different thing
 
zkylon

zkylon

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Oct 25, 2017
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Flips said:
You can claim the freebies online? No reason to keep this trash installed then.
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yeah you can just do it at the website

what's annoying is that the epic launcher is required for unreal devs and i've been watching it slowly grow and i really hope it doesn't get as annoying as it was to use gamemaker on steam. like when you're doing dev work you don't need a launcher making things difficult for you, these programs are shaky enough

anyways, this particular bad faith move just feels so unnecessary, it's kind of crazy
 
Chance Hale

Chance Hale

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Oct 26, 2017
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Epic stan RPS on the steam link news
To me, this feels like an escalation after Epic made their cross-platform networking tools available to everyone, but I see no reason to complain. With both companies putting better tools and professionally maintained infrastructure in the hands of even smaller developers, everyone seems to come out a winner here. Developers initially, but if Valve's claims of lower pings and DDOS protection are accurate, then players may yet feel some improvements in time, too.
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Edit: just beat my bad
 

Deleted member 1849

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Do these reporters know that Steam have provided plenty of open source projects before, including projects for easy game networking?

Do these people have any idea how long it takes to work on these things?

But yeah, lets all thank Epic for Valve continuing to do what they were already doing.
 

Deleted member 32374

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TheTrain said:
No wait, steamspy take the data from a public api. Here they are taking your personal data about the usage of your pc (specifically what you are doing whit steam, and not only that but whatever) , its a deeply different thing
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I was talking directly about Steam Spy, not whatever this is. Client Datamining? I guess that's a better term.

You're correct. People may want to know about this, maybe we can get someone with some knowledge if there is a reddit post and there is a thread there.

For me, I accept that Facebook uses some of my info, (a lot) but only because I know about it and I use it for a specific purpose, to communicate with a local group that I'm pretty heavily involved in. People should know about it (by this I mean the EGS client system datamining) . I may accept that it's just the cost of business, just as with Win 10, AWS, Google, Facebook but not everyone will and that's fine. I'll bow out of the upcoming thread but I support spreading the news.
 
Wok

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Oct 26, 2017
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Madjoki said:
Interesting. So I tried Epic Launcher and it searches for Steam

Then proceeds to enumerate all files in Steam Cloud (for every user that has ever logged in)

Then it will read file containing your steam play history, friends and groups

For me this is 13.50 megabytes

then writes something encrypted to "C:\ProgramData\Epic\SocialBackup\RANDOM HEX CODE_STEAM ACCOUNT ID.bak"
totaling 13.51 megabytes
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

"Friends" would be to suggest new friends. Collecting the rest is weird though.

ZfSzedw.png
 
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Delusibeta

Delusibeta

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5,648
BronsonLee said:
But those two things don't even do the same thing?
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I am going to call foul on our end, since the quote is in reference to the ability for devs to use Valve's servers for ping reduction and encryption.

With that said, it's still a stupid quote, as Epic's cross-platform API is still non-existent, and work on this almost certainly pre-dates EGS' announcement (and I am now fulling expecting Xbox Live to beat Epic to the punch, and I do now expect Steam to be included in XBL's plans).
 
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