EULA Are you kidding me? :: Sid Meier's Civilization VI General Discussions

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1andOnlyPayps Feb 6, 2019 @ 2:31pm

EULA Are you kidding me?

I own every CIV game back to numero uno. This is a tragic disappointment. Will not buy and you shouldn't either. Do not encourage gaming companies to mutate into spyware scumbags. No. Just no.

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Originally posted by Panic Fire:

Originally posted by Cherry:
Originally posted by Panic Fire:
There is no spyware in the game. You have been misinformed.

Oh... so everybody is lying? I want the game though but the reviews and EULA... uh. You know. TakeTwo...

The "EULA" everyone keeps posting is actually Take 2's privacy policy and not actually found in the EULA for this game. (Crazy I know) And take 2's privacy policy covers everything take2 does from Running a forum, technical support, selling products (aka games to you), and all sorts of other things. The points to take home is that all the information gatherd by Take2 in this case are things you directly tell them or that they use to facilitate a direct service to you. (EX giving them your name and credit card information to facilitate an online purchase) Edit: The Privacy policy hasn't changed since last May and the EULA since Last January.

So rather than lying most of the people are misinformed and spreading misinformation "hopefully" by accident.

Civ6 at one point did use a marketing software called RedShell. RedShell created a unique id for a user based on the things a website may ask a user when they visit the website such as windows version, hardware id, ip address, ect. Then it would hash this information and create a unique id that can't be used for anything besides being a unique id (basically none of the information orginally used to create the id could be retrieved only the id could remain)

Adds on the internet with Redshell would create a unique id of the people that clicked on them. Civ6 when launched for the first time after purchase would then also make a unique id and check against the unique ids Redshell had collected looking for a match. If no match was found the unique id would be stored as No conversion. If a match was found the id would be stored as conversion. This allowed Firaxis to track people who see redshell ads who then purchased the game which gave them greater information on which ads were working better than others and where. Basic marketing diagnostics. The controvercy with Civ6 is they didn't tell users that they had installed redshell in the game. Thus it was considered a breach of privacy and trust for many users.

Redshell itself is rather benign and not really somthing to worry about (again not stealing and selling your information) It was however pretty scummy to have that in the game with out informing users. Unfortuantly many people blew this situation out perportion from a perspective of not understanding what Redshell is or does and though Firaxis was stealing and selling peoples information (which they werent)

Thus when take2's privacy policy changed to its current form (due to the new EU laws concerning what privacy policies must state (basically everything) ) they took it as Firaxis stealing peoples information and selling it "again" (despite never doing it in the first place)

So basically long story short.
Take 2 changed there privacy policy based on new EU laws
Firaxis/Take2 did somthing bad
People mistook what they did as somthing far worse
People misrepresented this privacy policy as a new EULA for civ6
People again think Firaxis/Take2 are doing somthing bad when they aren't.

Redshell was removed from the game after the incident blew up and is no longer in the game.
Congrats you are now caught up on the mini forum escapades of Civ6.

Originally posted by SamBC:
Edit that to note that the privacy policy hasn't changed since last May, and EULA since last January (might want to check the EULA, I didn't check the date in the last few hours), and it might be worth me marking it as an 'answer'.

As Requested

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Showing 1-15 of 574 comments

SchnitzelTruck has Sid Meier's Civilization VI

Feb 6, 2019 @ 2:48pm

You will be hard pressed to find an online entity that doesnt save and sell your info. Including steam.

Last edited by SchnitzelTruck; Feb 6, 2019 @ 3:03pm

Despiser

Feb 6, 2019 @ 2:49pm

I assume you don’t have a Facebook account. Every time they get exposed they issue some half baked apology then pick up where they left off. And that’s only things we hear about.

LextheMighty has Sid Meier's Civilization VI

Feb 6, 2019 @ 3:53pm

Could you point me to the part of the EULA that you describe as "spyware." Because I have looked and can not find it. Most likely you just read a review and did not look into it.

UG || Pilot007 has Sid Meier's Civilization VI

Feb 6, 2019 @ 4:58pm

Yeah, dont throw the term spyware around where it isn't needed. Also nearly every company collects data

Last edited by UG || Pilot007; Feb 6, 2019 @ 4:59pm

Fabulous Jewfro has Sid Meier's Civilization VI

Feb 6, 2019 @ 5:01pm

What's with the EULA?

I was browsing reviews for this game and I heard about the accusations of spyware and information collection. Is there any truth in this?

tulle040657 has Sid Meier's Civilization VI

Feb 6, 2019 @ 5:05pm

Originally posted by 1andOnlyPayps:
I own every CIV game back to numero uno. This is a tragic disappointment. Will not buy and you shouldn't either. Do not encourage gaming companies to mutate into spyware scumbags. No. Just no.

and to

microsoft
google
facebook
steam

the only way to not have your data collected is to stay off the internet. I get my revenge by giving them an eyefull of grossness

SchnitzelTruck has Sid Meier's Civilization VI

Feb 6, 2019 @ 5:44pm

EULA thread #12063

Redshell, a statistical tracking program was in civ6 and tons of other games. It saved and exported user stats for companies to use in marketing. EULA said user preferences, computer specs, games played, etc would be collected. People complained, Redshell was removed. Fast forward to today, people still complaining.

Last edited by SchnitzelTruck; Feb 6, 2019 @ 5:46pm

GZSTG

Feb 6, 2019 @ 5:53pm

how many threads about this has been created now? were just arguing in circles at this point.

WimpyTheWarrior has Sid Meier's Civilization VI

Feb 7, 2019 @ 2:21am

Originally posted by Fabulous Jewfro:
Is there any truth in this?

Your profile shows a Finish flag; you're covered by the European GDPR and Finland recently updated their national legislation Data Protection Act (tietosuojalaki) so you also have that protection.

Under GDPR you can contact Take2 and request ALL the data they hold on you. That will be the conclusive answer.

Calorie Mate Feb 7, 2019 @ 4:15am

Originally posted by SchnitzelTruck:
Redshell was removed. Fast forward to today, people still complaining.

Not quite. Redshell was removed, which made people happy. THEN they lowkey updated the EULA to include gathering data on your IP, purchases, systems you play on, accounts, personal adresses and zip codes, as well as phone numbers and photos of you.

That's what made people angry. Removing redshell only to include this per backdoor, was just a terrible move.

Originally posted by Scheneighnay:
boy are those people going to be pissed when they find out about everything else that's on the internet

They know about those things. That's exactly why they'd love not being spied on when they want to play a game.

#10

SamBC

Feb 7, 2019 @ 4:34am

Originally posted by Calorie Mate:
Originally posted by SchnitzelTruck:
Redshell was removed. Fast forward to today, people still complaining.

Not quite. Redshell was removed, which made people happy. THEN they lowkey updated the EULA to include gathering data on your IP, purchases, systems you play on, accounts, personal adresses and zip codes, as well as phone numbers and photos of you.

That's what made people angry. Removing redshell only to include this per backdoor, was just a terrible move.

No, the privacy policy said that all through the redshell debacle. The privacy policy has no technical capability. They can't collect information by saying they may collect information. The privacy policy covers all Take2 products in one go, which is not good practice, but that's why it says they collect all that - across all of their products, which include web stores selling physical products, they gather that information.

#11

Welcome to Idiocracy 2023 has Sid Meier's Civilization VI

Feb 7, 2019 @ 5:53am

I have refused to buy the game while it had redshell and now when it is on sale again they are starting the same data collecting ♥♥♥♥ again.
Looks like they do not want my money...

#12

Lemurian1972 has Sid Meier's Civilization VI

Feb 7, 2019 @ 6:32am

Originally posted by (((Angela Kazmierczak))):
I have refused to buy the game while it had redshell and now when it is on sale again they are starting the same data collecting ♥♥♥♥ again.
Looks like they do not want my money...

This isn't some sudden change to the EULA that happened after they took out Redshell, something like it has been there since the beginning. It's just legal coverage for what happens if you sign up for a 2k account as part of the game. Don't want to worry about it? Don't sign up for the online account.

#13