steam survey....

[Blondi]

i just got a survey application from steam, but i saw that it also sends my info on all other installed programs, is it really needed to see wich pokerroom i use, or wich games or applications i have installed that im using outside steam ?

thats almost like a supermarket survey would ask you what gasstation(brand) you use the most to fill up your car.....

not coming with conspiracy crap of somesort, but does valve/steam really need to know what i exactly have installed as they can consider "3rd party"programs??

that has not much to do with the general working of the system right ? ( individual cases ofcourse, if there are problems, and you made a support ticket ok), but just in general information i find it kinda intrusive they want to know that. if they only wanted some like driver info or something.

is that me beeing paranoid or ? :D

[Persephone Sapphora]

It's aggregate data so they don't know or care who submits it. All they care about is gathering that data. It can be used to determine what are the common applications people use so they can deal with any incompatibilities between their software or partners software (Steam/Games) and the software commonly installed on PCs. Yes, you are paranoid and there is nothing to be concerned over. You can also opt out of taking the survey any who.

[Tito Shivan]

Автор сообщения: ゆき

You can also opt out of taking the survey any who.

In fact, the survey is Opt-In. He has to purposelly send it to Valve, otherwise it's not sent.

[Trade-01]

What is a big secret about what you have installed? It's not like it's looking for your hanky panky movies collection.

Really, I cannot come up with an idea which program I would like to hide from anyone. Hacking programs are always portable anyway. Actually, I know! I would be ashamed if anyone found out that I am using a turd called McAffe. Just kidding.

[pennarguy]

Автор сообщения: Tito Shivan

Автор сообщения: ゆき

You can also opt out of taking the survey any who.

In fact, the survey is Opt-In. He has to purposelly send it to Valve, otherwise it's not sent.

Quite right, but as he questioned about being paranoid, I would like to say: being paranoid is a million miles away from being careful, which is what he is being.

[Tito Shivan]

Автор сообщения: arniesan

Quite right, but as he questioned about being paranoid, I would like to say: being paranoid is a million miles away from being careful, which is what he is being.

And if he's the average Joe, he'll be probably sharing more important info on other social networks. People always choose the wrong thing to be paranoid about.

To add another bit of information. Steam does not 'scan' anything to get that list. He just asks windows for the 'Add/Remove programs' list. So, software that does not show on that list won't show on the Steam Survey either.

[Blondi]

hahah no its not about hacking or cheating programs hahah

and no im not on facebook too and such haha, i dont see really a need for it, i like gaming, but i dont care baout stuff that other people do every day hahah

but yeah, must be me beeing paranoid :D

[aiusepsi]

There are all sorts of programs which can interfere with Steam; a recent example was the Nvidia Experience app badly catching XInput and stopping the 360 controller Guide Button from opening Big Picture Mode.

If you only ask for stats about particular applications you already know about, you lose a lot of the power of the survey because you can only find what you expect to find. You end up missing things which are, for example, common in Russia but unknown in the US.

[M8DNanite]

As long as the 'Installed aplications' data is gathered and sent on the survey. I will not be sending any survey data,

[Vitdom]

They do this to map what kind of software Steam-users use, e.g. for eventual compliance issues and Steam feature inclusion ideas. 100% anonymous

If your installed application is of sensitive nature, the developer may hide it from the global System Application list. I e.g. have 1 piece of sensitive software installed and it does not show up on the gathered application list.

Автор сообщения: Tito Shivan

To add another bit of information. Steam does not 'scan' anything to get that list. He just asks windows for the 'Add/Remove programs' list. So, software that does not show on that list won't show on the Steam Survey either.

I don't think so. It shows up on the Add/Remove programs list, but not in the gathered applications list.

[Blondi]

yes, ofcourse it sounds logical, and it is, but you can never bee too carefull nowadays with giving info away on what you do/use/think.........

not that im a reincarnated hitler or stalin that secretly tries to takeo ver the world

but still, im always kinda carefull with such info, dont know to wich end, but just to be sure....

ya never know what law will be passed to use info/share info between company's to fight"illegal"software and pirated stuff, not that i have a googleplex terrabyte on pirated software hahah, but still, one piece of software, used in the past, forgotten about, you never know,....

the thing is, if valve has that info, the step to ban people cuz of a simple pirated game is again one step closer to reality.( that doesnt mean they couldnt do it without my agreement, but thats a whole another can of worms.)

( i can give examples how they did it in the healthcare sector, nowadays it all gets privatized, and people are doing all those cool check ur health stuff things that are free without reading up on that they can use their medical info for almost any reason, also to rip you a new one, when you have lungcancer, and smoked 15 years ago while you stopped 14 years ago.......... you can never be too carefull with things liek this, the world is getting more twisted by the day)

[Laptop]

Ever heard of PRISM? They already have all your info anyway, so there's nothing left to take.

Send the survery if you want, or don't. It doesn't matter.

[Blondi]

yeah ur right with that, i cant really debate that if im honest

haahha