SSA question on 'for any other purpose' concerning VPN use.

[concrete consumer]

Hello everyone,

I used a VPN in the past just to check my steam account when I am at school or vacation where they have bad wifi. Well I am not sure if I did it because I honestly can't remember the following: I have maybe used a VPN to make a steam community market purchase. Now my question is: Will my account be at risk and should I contact steam support about this? Because I heard people got their account suspended for using a VPN.

[concrete consumer]

Publicado originalmente por speedvoltage:

Suspend the VPN temporarily.

Well I deinstalled the VPN now. I am not planning to use it again or what do you mean with suspending the VPN?

[Peter Brev]

Disable the VPN momentarily while processing a payment.

[concrete consumer]

Publicado originalmente por speedvoltage:

Disable the VPN momentarily while processing a payment.

Okay, I will remember. But I did accept some trades in the past while my VPN was on. But that was like 3 months ago or longer. But does that put my account at risk?

[Peter Brev]

If it's not relevant enough to take action against you, then you're fine, but keep it off any time you use Steam.

Just remember that some operations on Steam have more impact than others. Purchasing has significantly more impact on your account than trading since if you purchase with a VPN on, you clearly breach the SSA.

The best advice I can give is to keep anything spoofing your "Internet identity" away.

I know VPNs are extremely useful at encrypting your data so that you don't have any problems on the Internet, but they can cause substantial damage to an account if you're not diligent.

[concrete consumer]

Publicado originalmente por speedvoltage:

If it's not relevant enough to take action against you, then you're fine, but keep it off any time you use Steam.

Just remember that some operations on Steam have more impact than others. Purchasing has significantly more impact on your account than trading since if you purchase with a VPN on, you clearly breach the SSA.

What do you mean with not relevant enough? And do I still have a chance of a suspension even it was like months ago that it happened? And also once again. I don't think I made a purchase or sell listening while using the VPN.

[Peter Brev]

If you haven't purchased or sold anything with a VPN, then you're all fine.

Keep it off at all times when using Steam. VPNs are so discreet that it's easy to forget it was on.

[concrete consumer]

Publicado originalmente por speedvoltage:

If you haven't purchased or sold anything with a VPN, then you're all fine.

Keep it off at all times when using Steam. VPNs are so discreet that it's easy to forget it was on.

What about trading tho?

[Peter Brev]

The Steam Subscriber is pretty clear about the use use of VPN or proxies.

Publicado originalmente por Steam Subscriber Agreement:

You agree that you will not use IP proxying or other methods to disguise the place of your residence, whether to circumvent geographical restrictions on game content, to purchase at pricing not applicable to your geography, or for any other purpose. If you do this, Valve may terminate your access to your Account.

[concrete consumer]

Publicado originalmente por speedvoltage:

The Steam Subscriber is pretty clear about the use use of VPN or proxies.

Publicado originalmente por Steam Subscriber Agreement:

You agree that you will not use IP proxying or other methods to disguise the place of your residence, whether to circumvent geographical restrictions on game content, to purchase at pricing not applicable to your geography, or for any other purpose. If you do this, Valve may terminate your access to your Account.

But will I risk an account suspension now? What can I do to fix this? Can it still affect me even if I did those actions months ago? A bit of help would be amazing!

[Peter Brev]

No. Action would've been taken by now.

[concrete consumer]

Publicado originalmente por speedvoltage:

No. Action would've been taken by now.

Well thanks alot for the help then mate. I will not use a VPN anymore.

[BossGalaga]

Publicado originalmente por speedvoltage:

No. Action would've been taken by now.

Not necessarily. Steam has been known to catch up with people at later time who were abusing VPN for making game purchases.

OP's statements seem a bit suspect. Purchasing games outside the country associated to your account would take more than using a VPN. You would have to use a VPN and then intentionally change the country associated to your account.

I have traveled around the world and simply being in another country doesn't change your Steam store. My Steam store always remains the US Steam store. I would have to change my client's country and be in the country or appear to be through use of a VPN to purchase games outside of the US Steam store.

So if OP purchased games from another region then he intentionally exploited the Steam store which is very much against Steam's terms of use.

[cinedine]

Publicado originalmente por BossGalaga:

Publicado originalmente por Funniezept:

Hello everyone,

I used a VPN in the past just to check my steam account when I am at school or vacation where they have bad wifi.

If your connection is bad then how is routing a bad connection through another connection going to make it better? That makes no sense. Your connection is still going to be bad. If you route a bad connection through another connection, it's still going to be a bad connection.

More importantly: how does using a VPN fix a bad WiFi? That's the same logic as putting on a jacket yourself because your wife is freezing.

Anyway the OP has been answered in the very first post:
Did you use it to circumvent regional pricing and purchase something that was not intented to be purchased in your region?
No - you're fine
Yes - you're in trouble

[concrete consumer]

Publicado originalmente por BossGalaga:

Publicado originalmente por speedvoltage:

No. Action would've been taken by now.

Not necessarily. Steam has been known to catch up with people at later time who were abusing VPN for making game purchases.

OP's statements seem a bit suspect. Purchasing games outside the country associated to your account would take more than using a VPN. You would have to use a VPN and then intentionally change the country associated to your account.

I have traveled around the world and simply being in another country doesn't change your Steam store. My Steam store always remains the US Steam store. I would have to change my client's country and be in the country or appear to be through use of a VPN to purchase games outside of the US Steam store.

So if OP purchased games from another region then he intentionally exploited the Steam store which is very much against Steam's terms of use.

Publicado originalmente por cinedine:

Publicado originalmente por BossGalaga:

If your connection is bad then how is routing a bad connection through another connection going to make it better? That makes no sense. Your connection is still going to be bad. If you route a bad connection through another connection, it's still going to be a bad connection.

More importantly: how does using a VPN fix a bad WiFi? That's the same logic as putting on a jacket yourself because your wife is freezing.

Anyway the OP has been answered in the very first post:
Did you use it to circumvent regional pricing and purchase something that was not intented to be purchased in your region?
No - you're fine
Yes - you're in trouble

You mean like gifts that are not available in a specific country? No, I haven't done that. But just reasking this to be 100 % sure. If I have used it to trade at my school im fine?

[Peter Brev]

You answered to yourself by saying you didn't circumvent the system. You're fine. If you end up in trouble, it means you didn't tell us everything.