Why is my profile on a website called steamid? (+suggestion to improve privacy)

[Luna]

My profile has never been public, but I can still find it on a website, it is: steamid uk.
I'm new here, I've never logged in to any website. Is this a scam? Or who put my account there?

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Update (based on the feedback until 2023-10-16):

I would be happy to have a toggle (an option: on / off) to set my steam profile linkable.
This would be an improved version of the current privacy setting(s).

Toogle on (linkable): This means that my profile is reachable/available via the profile URL: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561199562780592/

Toggle off (not linkable): The Steam server should give back the standard not found response: "The specified profile could not be found."

3rd party websites shouldn't be able to find out (determine) whether such a profile exists or not.
Neither the profile nor any content on it should be reachable via URLs / links.

I understand that the steamID (that numeric identifier) is important. My suggestion is to leave the steam identifier untouched (because some other systems might depend on it (eg. anti cheat?)).

My suggestion is only about the reachability of a profile on the Internet. Because I don't think it's a positive situation that 3rd party websites and search engines can easily collect information which I don't want to be collected, processed or linked. I lose control over such information (e.g. let's assume I just draw an anime character (which is not personal data), I don't want the steam ID website to save my creative anime art forever).

[Brian9824]

They scrape steam's site and gather info and archive it. Its not a scam and they grab all the accounts for steam.

Also your profile is public, the details might be private though

[Luna]

Privacy settings -> My profile : Private

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by Yuna:

Privacy settings -> My profile : Private

Your profile - https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561199562780592

The info they have is the parts of your profile like your steam id that is not private. There isnt any personal info scraped by the site as they can't see it, but they can see the public stuff

https://steamid.uk/profile/76561199562780592

[Luna]

But if it's not a scam site, how (why) are they allowed to collect information about all the users? Is this legally okay?
I've never given permission to a website to collect this kind of information about me (steam identifier or community id).
That's why I was scared at first.

Is there any way to get my profile removed from that website, completely?

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by Yuna:

But if it's not a scam site, how (why) are they allowed to collect information about all the users? Is this legally okay?
I've never given permission to a website to collect this kind of information about me (steam identifier or community id).
That's why I was scared at first.

Is there any way to get my profile removed from that website, completely?

It is legal to scrape public stuff on the internet.

Your SteamID is not nor was never private.

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by Yuna:

But if it's not a scam site, how (why) are they allowed to collect information about all the users? Is this legally okay?
I've never given permission to a website to collect this kind of information about me (steam identifier or community id).
That's why I was scared at first.

Is there any way to get my profile removed from that website, completely?

You made a profile on a public website, other sites can scrape that data (aka collect visible data). Its the same data anyone can see right now if they go to your profile. They don't need permission to gather public information.

You don't own your steam id and there isn't anything you can do to force them to remove it. Its literally just your public ID, there isn't anything remotely personal about it that would violate any rules.

[Mad Scientist]

You made the account only recently, there's nothing to worry about for that site though it's useful to identify alts and other activity. SteamIDs are just a unique identifier.
It's all legal, no different than scraping normal webpages.

[Crazy Tiger]

Originally posted by Yuna:

But if it's not a scam site, how (why) are they allowed to collect information about all the users? Is this legally okay?
I've never given permission to a website to collect this kind of information about me (steam identifier or community id).
That's why I was scared at first.

Is there any way to get my profile removed from that website, completely?

They merely collect the public information that everybody can see. You don't have to give permission since such information is public anyway. Yes, your SteamID is always public.

You can try asking the site to remove it, but next time they'll scrape it'll likely be readded again.

[Luna]

"Your SteamID is not nor was never private."

It's a unique number, which is used to identify a profile.
What about the right to be forgotten and the GDPR?

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by Yuna:

"Your SteamID is not nor was never private."

It's a unique number, which is used to identify a profile.
What about the right to be forgotten and the GDPR?

You can ask for removal but it's still scraped on occasions. The better question is why are you even worried about it if you just made the account today?

[Luna]

I don't see where this is legal, Mad Scientist even writes that it is used to "identify alts and other activity". So it is used indirectly to identify a person.
If I am correct this goes against the law.

[DC-GS]

You said it yourself:

Originally posted by Yuna:

It's a unique number, which is used to identify a profile.

It's not personal information.

[Luna]

Originally posted by DC-GS:

You said it yourself:

Originally posted by Yuna:

It's a unique number, which is used to identify a profile.

It's not personal information.

Steam profiles are not personal?? So what are they then? I am not a bot.

[DC-GS]

Steam profiles are property of Valve.
You are using them. They are not you and do not identify you as a person.

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by Yuna:

I don't see where this is legal, Mad Scientist even writes that it is used to "identify alts and other activity". So it is used indirectly to identify a person.
If I am correct this goes against the law.

Nothing about it is illegal, period.
SteamIDs are just a public unique identifier, like how any youtube video link goes to a specific video or channel. That is why game servers can ban by SteamID in addition to their normal tools. They don't have any actual private info which is between you and steam for purchases.