Even more privacy options - the activity feed and hidden games

[E3FxGaming]

First of all let me get one thing off my chest: I very much appreciate the additional privacy options we've got recently, that let us customize our steam profile/inventory privacy. I think the existence of those options already helped a lot in terms of making Steam a better, more comfortable place to spend time.

The activity feed

However, something I simply can not forget, is that the "activity feed" exists. In the steam desktop client in the top bar under your username > "Activity" and in the browser/app version in the sidebar under "You & Friends" > "Activity", there is a feed that logs personal things like achievements earned, games purchased,... (announcements of games you follow also show up there, hence you might not spot your/friends activity immediately).

For this feed you can customize, which activities of friends you want to see (by default everything seems to be checked, you can access the options with the "Friend Activity Settings" button in the top right corner of the feed. What I am missing however are options that lets me customize which of my own activities are shared in the first place. That's not something unreasonable I think - in the same way I would not click the "Share on Facebook" button when I order something at Amazon, I don't want to share my purchase activity in the Steam store.

"Hide game in my library"

Secondly the "Hide game in my library" option in the library. For those who don't know, a quick explanation: When you access your library with the steam desktop client, you can right click individual games or multiple selected games > "Set Categories..." > Tick "Hide this game in my library". This moves the games to a different library location, accessible by hovering over "Library" in the top bar > "Hidden". It does not affect the game being shown in the own profile > "Games" section.

Why does this option limit visibility of games only in the library? Why can't it just be "Hide game", and it hides it everywhere, for me, and for friends that view my profile? I know it could cause confusion, when one reaches a milestone (e.g. 1000 owned games) and the profile would only lists 900-and-something games, but this could easily be tackled by showing "The user has hidden this game"-placeholders in the profile. Additionally hiding games should also prevent the steam algorithms from recommending marked games to friends on the start page of the store on the basis of me owning/having purchased the game, and should not show "A friend owns this game" for a reason why this game might be interesting for friends when they visit the store page of the game.

A few last words

I know a few people here will now think (please read this in Squidward Tentacles' voice) "Ah, that guy only wants to hide his porn games" and you know what - you are correct. Why do I want to hide them you may ask. Well, although I'm an adult, I am friends with minors and do not want to encourage them to acquire games involving primarily violent and/or sexual content. Additionally, while I myself do not feel ashamed for owning and playing such games, I think the sales of such games are harmed by customers not having the option to play them while enjoying privacy.

If any of you fellow Steam customers out there reading this have any additional notes regarding those two topics, if you find them stupid and want to tell me why (maybe you like spying on people, Captain Decency), or if you agree with me and would want those privacy features too, please let me know with a comment.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Everything you post publicly can be viewed even by people on the internet and no Steam account.

You can hide the games you play in your profile privacy settings.

[E3FxGaming]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Everything you post publicly can be viewed even by people on the internet and no Steam account.

You can hide the games you play in your profile privacy settings.

Well the thing is: I do not publicly post my purchase activity - Steam posts it automatically (of course within the set boundaries, which can be "Public", "Friends only" and "Private") and without me explicitly consenting. This thing one gets at the end of Amazon purchases "Click here to post this on Facebook" - there is no "Click here to create an activity message to notify your frirends of your purchase" button at the end of Steam purchases - Steam simply does it.

I do not want to hide all games I play and own - I have friends so that they can join me in games. Hiding all games does not suffice as a privacy option - it's too rough, not precise enough.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Go private until you make your purchase. When you are done, change it back.

[E3FxGaming]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Go private until you make your purchase. When you are done, change it back.

And what about achievements? Am I supposed to go private every time I play such a game? This is at most a band aid fix. What I'm asking for is a new privacy zone (actually a rework of the already existing "hidden games" privacy zone) into which I can move games whose ownership and playing activity simply does not concern anyone but myself.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by E3FxGaming:

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Go private until you make your purchase. When you are done, change it back.

And what about achievements? Am I supposed to go private every time I play such a game? This is at most a band aid fix. What I'm asking for is a new privacy zone (actually a rework of the already existing "hidden games" privacy zone) into which I can move games whose ownership and playing activity simply does not concern anyone but myself.

That is what "Games Details" in your settings are for.

[E3FxGaming]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Originally posted by E3FxGaming:

And what about achievements? Am I supposed to go private every time I play such a game? This is at most a band aid fix. What I'm asking for is a new privacy zone (actually a rework of the already existing "hidden games" privacy zone) into which I can move games whose ownership and playing activity simply does not concern anyone but myself.

That is what "Games Details" in your settings are for.

from the description of Game Details

Game details
This category includes the list of all games on your Steam account, games you’ve wishlisted, your achievements and your playtime. This setting also controls whether you’re seen as "in-game" and the title of the game you are playing.

As I've said, this option does not allow precision. It's an all or nothing option, and while "nothing" sort of makes having friends useless, "all" raises privacy concerns.

Edit: Maybe I should add: Below this "Game Details" option there is a single check-box for total playtime. What I want is basically a second checkbox, that reads

"Always keep your ownership, your activity, your achievements and your playtime of games you've hidden private".

[Tito Shivan]

+100 million active accounts, hundreds of games in lots of those libraries, each with their own privacy settings to be changed at will at any time... That's kind of a nightmare to keep globally updated on real time.
As much as I'm all in for more granularity on our profiles I can see how that would be too much of granularity.

[E3FxGaming]

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

+100 million active accounts, hundreds of games in lots of those libraries, each with their own privacy settings to be changed at will at any time... That's kind of a nightmare to keep globally updated on real time.

In what way? In my opinion, working somewhat professionally with IT on a daily basis, this is something where a good database concept could truely shine. Plus the data doesn't need to be updated all at once, only when changes are made (e.g. the user marks a new game as hidden) or requests are made (e.g. someone requests to view the games-list of a profile).

[plosnati]

Upvoting this.
It could easily be solved by being able to edit your own feed like all other social media lets you do. In the "My activity" section, you should be able to delete an entry, and ideally even be able to choose "do not show activity from this game".
None of the comments above give any solution to this issue, as I'm pretty sure there's no way to do this today. I'd say it's a pretty reasonable request. :)

[Large Tomatoes]

It would be great if we could disable the private/quasi-private telemetry that Steam collects too. The 'Year in Review' is quite alarming, the level of detail they collect on what you do and don't do.

If I'm playing a game or particular type of game a lot, it is none of anybody else's business unless I say it is OK.

[NinjaSmurf]

Yes I think improved privacy options is a better alternative than people avoiding buying certain games, not adding their real life friends at all or getting multiple steam accounts to control what is shared.

[Tray0529]

It's actually ridiculous because if you decide to hide all games from your profile now people cant join your world in all games. I don't see how those things are even connected for one to have to affect the other.

[Large Tomatoes]

Originally posted by Tray0529:

It's actually ridiculous because if you decide to hide all games from your profile now people cant join your world in all games. I don't see how those things are even connected for one to have to affect the other.

Oh come on now, these billionaires need to eat too, surely submitting your private life so they can add some zeroes to their accounts isn't such a big ask, is it?

There is no connection on a technical level, this is purely control.

[Phénomènes Mystiques]

Steam client is one big internet browser...

[Samuel]

This thread was quite old before the recent posts, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.