If you have a private profile, why is it private?

[EXE]

Just curious. This isn't exactly Facebook. What is it about your Steam profile that you feel the need to set it to private?

[𝕊𝕋𝕌ℝ𝕄-𝕂𝔸𝕋]

Why are you even asking this question?...

The whole reason behind it is because they want it to remain their business and not yours, which instantly defeats the purpose of this thread.

Goodbye.

[EXE]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Master Dan:

The whole reason behind it is because they want it to remain their business and not yours, which instantly defeats the purpose of this thread.

LOL, there's a huge difference between asking for the contents of someone's private profile, versus simply asking why it's private in the first place.

If people don't want to answer, that's fine. But I'm sure some people want to provide some feedback, such as them not wanting others to see how many games they own or how much time they spend playing games. There could be a variety of reasons, and I'm simply curious to know.

[Jade]

Here you go:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3098544

[Bearded Dream]

The question should be if your steam profile is public then why is it public?

By default you shouldn't give strangers or Internet databases any information about you that you don't need to divulge in order to accomplish your goals. If you don't have a reason to share information about yourself on the Internet then you shouldn't do it. It's that simple. It doesn't matter whether the information is as trivial as your favorite breakfast cereal or as important as your social security number. You should never share it in any way that creates a permanent record beyond your control without a good reason.

[Dreakon13]

Ursprungligen skrivet av An Invisible Hand:

By default you shouldn't give strangers or Internet databases any information about you that you don't need to divulge in order to accomplish your goals. If you don't have a reason to share information about yourself on the Internet then you shouldn't do it. It's that simple. It doesn't matter whether the information is as trivial as your favorite breakfast cereal or as important as your social security number. You should never share it in any way that creates a permanent record beyond your control without a good reason.

I really don't think it's a security breach to have your favorite breakfast cereal permanently rotting in the depths of the internet. Just sayin'.

[Marble]

I have no issue with my profile being public, but it's nice to know that the choice is there in case I change my mind.

[Eric Andrew]

Mine is only private to non steam members.

[Dreakon13]

Ursprungligen skrivet av GeorgePatton:

What right do you have to see it?

I don't think the OP ever claimed to have the right to see it.

He's just wondering why some people consider fairly unobtrusive information like your video game collection needs to be private. Unlike Facebook and social networking sites, where your real name and information may be used (as well as those of close friends), knowing that someone spent 200+ hours on Dead Island is relatively harmless... and may even be helpful just to be able to justify your position/knowledge in a game when debating or when trying to help people on these (or any) forums. That's what the forums are here for after all.

While you may even put real information on your Steam account, you aren't encouraged to like other sites. Privacy, in regards to important information, can be maintained with common sense... even if the private profile functionality never existed.

My guess is that people might dislike the possibility of their gaming habits being criticized... meaning the types of games they play, how frequently they spend money on them and/or how much time they spend playing them. That or they're just overly cautious online, which isn't a bad thing.

Personally, I keep mine public because I frequent other sites that require certain game related information to be accessible from time to time. That and I don't really care how many people know what I play. Like I said, having it on display has it's benefits.

[Dreakon13]

Ursprungligen skrivet av 19delta3:

Ask yourself this, why does it interest you what complete strangers do or not do?

I find gaming habits interesting, personally. It's interesting to see when someone has 100+ hours in a game, and what game it is. Or 1000+ hours for that matter. It's interesting seeing what achievements people have and don't have in games I like, and how much of a game a random person has completed. How many hours a random person has played in 2 weeks.

I expect others have similar curiosities, and it's completely harmless. I expect others have looked at my profile, and it's interesting when something I've played or "achieved" in a game comes up on a random forum conversation as a result of it. That's part of the reason I keep it public.

However, I'm not interested in you being my friend. I'm not interested in what your name is, or where you live. I'm not interested in your other hobbies. This is where people are getting mixed up. You think video games have some personal connection to you, like your home town or your SSN. They don't. Your Steam account is just a statistic, a number.

Numbers and statistics are interesting. You personally, are not.

[Dreakon13]

Ursprungligen skrivet av 19delta3:

Good points.

I can see why access to anothers profile could be interesting at times - trading, fuller context of an issue one may be having in a thread, etc.

For all of my years on Steam, the general attitude by a lot of folks regarding those who keep their profiles private is generally not positive, I don't think this is the case in TinyTim's thread, so I took the time to give an honest opinion.

Who better to get a response from then someone who does keep their profile private. Whether or not someone agrees with it is entirely irrelevant, as it is my opinion and my reasoning.

Steam is for the introvert, the extrovert - and the 'mid'trovert. It is all good.

Fair enough. I'm just saying that the attitude of people questioning this "question" is, why are you interested in what I'm doing?

The important thing here isn't you. It could be anyone. You aren't interesting. The stats that Steam stores behind the scenes are. To me at least. The fact they are your stats is inconsequential.

[ohnoD]

I like my privacy and I don't like annoying users sifting through my groups, friends list, or games I own. If I had the option to I'd make my avatar appear as friends only as well. IMO there needs to be more privacy options. No this isn't facebook but I expect a decent variety of options regarding privacy. If you had any common sense you'd know that some people like having privacy away from random internet users.

[Dreakon13]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Thomson R:

If I had the option to I'd make my avatar appear as friends only as well.

I guess this is where people are losing me. Why? Why would you need your avatar to be something private?

Common sense to me are the obvious things. Don't tell anyone your name, address, credit card info, passwords... avatar?

One of these things is not like the other.

There's a certain sense of undeserved arrogance that comes with folks who insist on that unnecessary level of privacy and actually get mad or insulting (claiming someone lacks common sense) when simply asked "why?"... You're welcome to your privacy, but either ignore the topic or answer the question without the attitude. Quit being a bunch of brats.

[Dreakon13]

Ursprungligen skrivet av GeorgePatton:

You act like its your right to see my information. Entitled gamer much?

Why would I want to see your information? There are thousands of other public accounts I could look at, and more than likely I will look at over time.

I'm not particularly bothered that I can't see your profile (for all I know it may be public and you're just jerking me around, I haven't even tried)... but rather the arrogant attitude towards it that you're putting on display here. Like even ASKING about private profiles is some sort of crime. The attitude in the answers here has only made me more curious why the kids around here are so paranoid.


Anywhoo... if you insist on such a staunch level of privacy, why even post on here? I'd say you're probably telling me more about you in your last two or three posts, then I would ever be able to tell just looking at your games.

[Laptop]

Because it is. I set it like that a year ago and haven't changed it back yet.

[Ryan]

Because I want my friendslist to be private atm, my profile is visible to friends of my friends so it's not completely secluded.