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Red Shell
Something recently came to light in the gaming world on reddit - and naturally since I typically avoid the place, I didn't hear about it til it hit slashdot today.
Seems games are now starting to come, in addition to excessive drm and/or online connections, with their own spyware in the form of Red Shell. Like the various DRM options, this is code created by a third party and sold to the game companies to include.
Basically the program collects user data from new installs, along with whatever data it can find on your computer like font information, etc.
It actually got a bit of a stir out of some people for once and it seems some game companies are promising to remove it. I don't know the full list of games infected with this shit, but at the very least none of the games I own appear in the list compiled so far. Yay for only playing old and niche games~ (I suppose that's a "Yay for having a shitty computer." but whatever.)
I hope enough people also swarm Valve with complaints about it. Bad enough we have companies that try to hide the fact that they have third party DRM on their games until people catch them with it - at which point they finally put up the "missing" notice on the steam store page. Now we have to wonder what other third party bullshit they're installing that isn't really a part of the shit the customer wants to buy. Personally I'm hoping Valve requires publishers to disclose if they're using tracking software. (As this can really get those companies in some seriously hot water with the new european privacy laws.)
I think the program that surprised people the most on this list was Kerbal Space Program.
Seems games are now starting to come, in addition to excessive drm and/or online connections, with their own spyware in the form of Red Shell. Like the various DRM options, this is code created by a third party and sold to the game companies to include.
Basically the program collects user data from new installs, along with whatever data it can find on your computer like font information, etc.
It actually got a bit of a stir out of some people for once and it seems some game companies are promising to remove it. I don't know the full list of games infected with this shit, but at the very least none of the games I own appear in the list compiled so far. Yay for only playing old and niche games~ (I suppose that's a "Yay for having a shitty computer." but whatever.)
I hope enough people also swarm Valve with complaints about it. Bad enough we have companies that try to hide the fact that they have third party DRM on their games until people catch them with it - at which point they finally put up the "missing" notice on the steam store page. Now we have to wonder what other third party bullshit they're installing that isn't really a part of the shit the customer wants to buy. Personally I'm hoping Valve requires publishers to disclose if they're using tracking software. (As this can really get those companies in some seriously hot water with the new european privacy laws.)
I think the program that surprised people the most on this list was Kerbal Space Program.