Regarding the SPYWARE in My Time at Portia.

[Miss McPingu]

According to this source My Time at Portia includes the spyware program RED SHELL.

This is illegal as per EU law and I uninstalled the game as a result. I will also seek for a refund unless said program is removed and an apology stated.

Cheers.

[deanbarrett1]

My Bullguard Antivirus picks up no such thing and I havn't seen any other threads about this so not sure where you got that info from. Certainly no problems with said Spyware on my system as I check for viruses and such every couple of days.

[XBL Laberbacke]

Messaggio originale di deanbarrett1:

not sure where

That's why there's a link built into the words "this source". Click it.

[deanbarrett1]

I aint clicking anything you've posted if you've had problems with Spyware, sorry :-)

[XBL Laberbacke]

Ever heard of hover-over?

[Geir]

He could as well be the one trying to spread a virus the same way by making you click a link.

And you have not stated what program did detect it or any details other then a link(which none really should be clicking). So good luck with getting that refund, 52 hours played and now you are trying to push a agenda towards the creators them self.

Right now you are just making accusations by what something you "read" and none can confirm from multiple sources or reliable ones.

[deanbarrett1]

Messaggio originale di NitroChiral:

He could as well be the one trying to spread a virus the same way by making you click a link.

And you have not stated what program did detect it or any details other then a link(which none really should be clicking). So good luck with getting that refund, 52 hours played and now you are trying to push a agenda towards the creators them self.

Right now you are just making accusations by what something you "read" and none can confirm from multiple sources or reliable ones.

yep nitro thats why I went nowhere near it lol

[kommiekat]

Reading through to the Reddit link, it seems that Red Shell is similar to Google analytics. The use of Red Shell is meant as statistical tracking of game ownership and users playing their games, alongside if they're looking up stuff about the game, etc. So it's not going to show up as spyware in an antivirus scan.

The issue is that it has not been disclosed that it is being used nor what data it is collecting from players.

Many companies who use it, have removed it from their games already.

EU's GDPR makes the use of Red Shell, if undeclared and without option to opt-out, illegal.

[Ogami]

He is not wrong, the news came out today on multiple sites:
I quote so nobody needs to click anything.

Red shell is a Spyware that tracks data of your PC and shares it with 3rd parties. On their website they formulate it all in very harmless language, but the fact is that this is software from someone i don't trust and whom i never invited, which is looking at my data and running on my pc against my will. This should have no place in a full price PC game, and in no games if it were up to me.
Other games having it

Civilization VI
All Total War games
Battlerite
AER
Guardians of Ember
My Time At Portia

It's likely safe to assume all games from those publishers could have it too.

It sends at least:

API key (Publishers and/or game identifier?)
User Identifier (SteamID as recommended)
Operating System
Screen resolution
Installed Fonts
Browsers

If true i am a bit disappointed by the devs and the OP is right that this indeed breaks the new EU privacy laws and can get the dev into big trouble.

[SyraW]

https://redshell.io/home

you mean this? That's been around for a long time and isn't actually spyware.

[Miss McPingu]

Messaggio originale di NitroChiral:

He could as well be the one trying to spread a virus the same way by making you click a link.

And you have not stated what program did detect it or any details other then a link(which none really should be clicking). So good luck with getting that refund, 52 hours played and now you are trying to push a agenda towards the creators them self.

Right now you are just making accusations by what something you "read" and none can confirm from multiple sources or reliable ones.

Yes I am trying to spread a virus by getting you all to click on this very obscure dangerous site known as reddit. I think it's the dark web.

My dudes, Portia has Red Shell packaged with it, it compiles user data, you cannot opt out and you're not given any warning. This is ILLEGAL and must be discontinued.

[Miss McPingu]

Messaggio originale di Syrellaris(Syra):

https://redshell.io/home

you mean this? That's been around for a long time and isn't actually spyware.

The current implementation is ILLEGAL as per EU LAW.

[SyraW]

Messaggio originale di McPingu:

Messaggio originale di NitroChiral:

He could as well be the one trying to spread a virus the same way by making you click a link.

And you have not stated what program did detect it or any details other then a link(which none really should be clicking). So good luck with getting that refund, 52 hours played and now you are trying to push a agenda towards the creators them self.

Right now you are just making accusations by what something you "read" and none can confirm from multiple sources or reliable ones.

Yes I am trying to spread a virus by getting you all to click on this very obscure dangerous site known as reddit. I think it's the dark web.

My dudes, Portia has Red Shell packaged with it, it compiles user data, you cannot opt out and you're not given any warning. This is ILLEGAL and must be discontinued.

You know that little user agreement you had to click on? that's you giving permission.

[Miss McPingu]

Messaggio originale di Syrellaris(Syra):

Messaggio originale di McPingu:

Yes I am trying to spread a virus by getting you all to click on this very obscure dangerous site known as reddit. I think it's the dark web.

My dudes, Portia has Red Shell packaged with it, it compiles user data, you cannot opt out and you're not given any warning. This is ILLEGAL and must be discontinued.

You know that little user agreement you had to click on? that's you giving permission.

EULAS are not binding, and will not hold up in court. Per EU law all user data tracking must be stated in layman terms and be presented as an opt in. Neither of the requisites are sufficed by the EULA. Not to mention that an EULA is literally holding you hostage after you have fullfilled your part of contract law until you agree with non-disclosed term on the product thats YOURS.

[IndianaJones]

The article the op links is on reddit and it's very chaotic written.

Bottom line, they claim that in some games there is a Spyware called RedShell.

It uses either of DLLs (executable code).

RedShell.dll
RedShellSDK.dll


'My time at Portia' indeed has such executable in it's folder.
And Unity game engine provides support for RedSehll SDK (https://docs.redshell.io/docs/unity-sdk-quick-start).

RedShellSDK.dll file itself isn't rogue (a virus or malware), but indeed it looks like an SDK for a user tracking service. Well I didn't accept any license allowing RedShell
or Pathea Games to gather any information about me. It might be considered a spyware, since it was installed without user consent and is gathering and sending potentially personally identifiable data to a third party service/company (https://redshell.io/home).

https://www.virustotal.com/#/file/276a0c6215489acfdc119cfa425a21fe8620541f9ef59ee914770a9c41b59b41/detection

[deanbarrett1]

IMHO if it is that type of software it's not really doing any harm. Facebook, Google, Amazon all of them do far worse and are still technically breaking the new EU laws.
The GDPR law is so complicated and difficult to enforce across the web it's really pretty much useless anyway despite what you might think.
And lets face the truth about that law shall we... the only reason the EU even bought it in was because of the uproar over the Cambridge Analytica using your data to effect the US election. Had facebook and others simply continued to sell your data for commercial marketing purposes (as they have done for several years now) and it had not effected the actual politicians in anyway they would have let it continue. It's just hypacritical Bull as far as I can see it.