What exactly can family members see and do, if I share my games with them?

[Gorgiesgonewild]

I would like to share my games with a family member, but I cannot find any official information on what exactly can and cannot be seen when you "share." For example, can they interact with, in ANY WAY including viewing my screenshots?

Can they see my profile, though I always keep it private from others? Can they see my forum posts? Our accounts have all sorts of information, as well as access to things. Would they for example be able to post something under my name? Can they see what groups I am in, or who my friends are? I love the idea of sharing games, but what else exactly are we sharing in the process?

Does anyone have any information based either on experience, or an official source (for the "black and white" information)? If so, please link it for reading. I have searched before and tried this weekend but cannot find anything except Valve's vague description in the sharing "window" of the program.

**I am looking for information, not opinions. I posted a long time ago and the few replies were all opinions about who I should and should not trust. Again, I am seeking information only. Thanks to anyone who knows!**

[mimizukari]

you have to give them your username/password.. so they're gonna see everything. that's why it's a family share and not a friend share. No reason to be secretive with your family. They have to log onto your account on their own PC in order to be eligible for family share.

[Seretti]

Originally posted by Kurumi Tokisaki:

you have to give them your username/password.. so they're gonna see everything. that's why it's a family share and not a friend share. No reason to be secretive with your family. They have to log onto your account on their own PC in order to be eligible for family share.

BS. YOU log in on the computer on which you'd like to share your games. You should not give your login credentials to anyone.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3784-QLBM-5731&l=

[Cathulhu]

Originally posted by Seretti:

BS. YOU log in on the computer on which you'd like to share your games. You must not give your login credentials to anyone.

https://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/english/

Fixed that for you.

[Gorgiesgonewild]

I saw this article! It says down at the "What if a borrower is caught cheating or committing fraud while playing my shared games?" section: "We recommend you only authorize familiar Steam Accounts and familiar computers you know to be secure. And as always, never give your password to anyone." So, there is no password sharing.

My fam member has their own PC and I think they would enjoy games I don't play that much. I thought we could share that way somehow. Maybe you can but ONLY if you do it the way Kurumi is stating which is not really by using fam sharing, but just giving full account access (which I will not do for anyone).

I wonder if you can share games on different computers through Steam, or if you both have to use the same PC. That idea sucks...

[Crazy Tiger]

Originally posted by Gorgiesgonewild:

I wonder if you can share games on different computers through Steam, or if you both have to use the same PC. That idea sucks...

You can, that is exactly what family sharing is.

You authorise another device and account to access your library.

https://store.steampowered.com/promotion/familysharing

[Kargor]

Originally posted by Gorgiesgonewild:

I wonder if you can share games on different computers through Steam, or if you both have to use the same PC. That idea sucks...

Contrary to how licenses work on Steam, "family share" authorizes specific users ON SPECIFIC COMPUTERS to use your games. That's the "family" part -- the idea is that, if you can actually log in on that box to authorize the user, you're probably close enough to deserve *family* sharing.

[♥♥tutor♥♥tαrα♥♥]

Originally posted by Gorgiesgonewild:

I would like to share my games with a family member, but I cannot find any official information on what exactly can and cannot be seen when you "share." For example, can they interact with, in ANY WAY including viewing my screenshots?

Can they see my profile, though I always keep it private from others? Can they see my forum posts? Our accounts have all sorts of information, as well as access to things. Would they for example be able to post something under my name? Can they see what groups I am in, or who my friends are? I love the idea of sharing games, but what else exactly are we sharing in the process?

Does anyone have any information based either on experience, or an official source (for the "black and white" information)? If so, please link it for reading. I have searched before and tried this weekend but cannot find anything except Valve's vague description in the sharing "window" of the program.

**I am looking for information, not opinions. I posted a long time ago and the few replies were all opinions about who I should and should not trust. Again, I am seeking information only. Thanks to anyone who knows!**

Family sharing only shares your library with the other account. It is not sharing your account so, no, they cannot access anything that you have not set to public or friends only (assuming their account is on your Steam friends list).

Family Sharing allows family members to share games while keeping their accounts separate.

From Steam's Family Library Sharing Knowledge Base article: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3784-QLBM-5731

So a family shared account will not be able to see screenshots or artwork that are set to private. I checked if you have public screenshots. You do not. You do, however, have 13 public artworks. I mention that in case you did not know, and you want to change them to friends only or private.

Family shared accounts cannot make a forum post using your account, and family sharing does not let those accounts see more about your account's post history than any other random person.

But anyone can see your Steam discussions post history by going to a post you made in a Steam discussion and clicking on your profile name to select "View Posts," or by adding /posthistory to your Steam account URL (and there is a browser extension called Augmented Steam that adds a "View post history" in the menu under the More button on Steam profiles in that browser). Your Steam discussions posts are public no matter what privacy settings you choose for your Steam profile.