Adopt an option for discord-like level of rich presence.

[mimizukari]

Often times I'll be in a game, such as Guild Wars 2, Battlefield V, Madden NFL 19, You name it [off-steam title], and I won't be able to respond to messages and people will just think I'm ignoring them... Give us discord level of rich presence where it says Playing Guild Wars 2, and so forth. [and obviously make it an option to be visible so that people who don't want this don't have to opt-in]

[wuddih]

games -> add non-Steam game....

[mimizukari]

Автор сообщения: wuddih

games -> add non-Steam game....

I don't want to utilize overlay in these games; and some are entirely impossible to add, like windows store games which are all encrypted (think forza motorsport 7/horizon 4, gow, etc)

[obliviondoll]

Alternatively, keep Steam away from Discord's behaviour that's arguably on the side of legal privacy violations in many countries. Discord does what it does by actively tracking software running on your PC, and reporting it publicly to all other users. There's some room for dispute about whether that information, which is DEFINITELY gathered by the software even when you opt out, is actually passed on to Discord's servers - and if it is, that relects rather badly on them as a company and leaves room for dispute about whether what they're doing is even legal.

If they do add such a feature to Steam, I would make some pretty harsh compaints unless it's:

1. opt-in only. Not opt-out. You have to turn the function ON in order for it to take effect. It doesn't start that way.
2. ENTIRELY disabled when you don't opt in, or when you have opted out. The system should ONLY track things if you specifically activate it to do so. It should NOT track your data without express specific opted-in permission to do so, and only while you're opted in for that functionality.

Even then, I don't think it's really worth the effort, since many people will shut down Steam as an unnecessary background app when playing non-Steam games anyway, or won't want to have to bring up Steam to reply to someone messaging them about "hey is that game good?" when they're playing it on another service. And if you do, you can set up a way to do that by adding the game to your Steam library and playing it through the client that way.

[mimizukari]

well yeah, i said opt-in, but really you wanna bring privacy violations in just for knowing what you're playing? pretty bizarre. I know that EU has some whack privacy laws but we've used steam for 13+ years with it telling other people what we're playing and what not.

[obliviondoll]

Автор сообщения: Liezerota

well yeah, i said opt-in, but really you wanna bring privacy violations in just for knowing what you're playing? pretty bizarre. I know that EU has some whack privacy laws but we've used steam for 13+ years with it telling other people what we're playing and what not.

There's a difference between:

1. Steam knowing the programs which it's actively incorporated into when you're running them through the client
2. Steam being directly authorised by the user to actively run software you have connected to it so it acts as a launcher for the program
3. Steam actively scanning your system on its own and reporting whatever random programs it finds running and feels the impulse to define as a game

Discord actively scans all software that you run on your PC, and picks out the things it recognises as games or game-related software (like streaming programs), then reports that information publicly if you haven't opted out of it doing so. Even when you opt out, it still scans everything. The concern for many people is that, with it scanning everything - and with it scanning everything EVEN IF YOU OPT OUT - there's reason to suspect it's actually passing that information on - again, even if you opt out - to the servers, and that opting out is only opting out of PUBLICLY sharing that information, and there's no way to opt out of Discord gathering records of everything you ever do on your PC. If Steam creates the same concerns, that's not a good thing in my eyes.

[Hanomaly]

Автор сообщения: obliviondoll

Discord actively scans all software that you run on your PC, and picks out the things it recognises as games or game-related software (like streaming programs), then reports that information publicly if you haven't opted out of it doing so. Even when you opt out, it still scans everything. The concern for many people is that, with it scanning everything - and with it scanning everything EVEN IF YOU OPT OUT - there's reason to suspect it's actually passing that information on - again, even if you opt out - to the servers, and that opting out is only opting out of PUBLICLY sharing that information, and there's no way to opt out of Discord gathering records of everything you ever do on your PC.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaat is this true? O.O if so today might be my last day using discord.

[obliviondoll]

Автор сообщения: Hanomaly

Whaaaaaaaaaaaat is this true? O.O if so today might be my last day using discord.

If you start Discord up on default settings, it:

-Scans your system for ALL active applications that are running.
-Identifies games and streaming software.
-Monitors what the streaming software is doing.
-Shares a list of played games with the user of the account on their home page and several other pages within the app.
-Reports on whether you're playing a game and/or streaming to a publicly-visible list on any Discord server you're a member of.

If you opt out of sharing your data, it:

-Scans your system for ALL active applications that are running.
-Identifies games and streaming software.
-Monitors what the streaming software is doing.
-Shares a list of played games with the user of the account on their home page and several other pages within the app.

How much irrelevant information it stores (recording the names/paths/other details of any non-game non-recording software it detects) is not confirmed by any source I know of. Some people suspect - given that it definitely collects such information - that it might store it somewhere. How much of the collected information it sends to Discord's servers regardless of whether it's set to share the information publicly or not is also not something anyone I know about has tested.

The fact that such potential functionality hasn't been tested means it's up to you how far you trust the privacy policy (which doesn't say that any such information is collected or stored by the company) and the software's proper functionality. My experience with it leads me to believe that there's PROBABLY no real cause for concern, but I don't think it's an unreasonable position to disagree with that assessment. And whether you think it's a problem or not, I think it's worth making sure people are aware that the program CAN and DOES gather a LOT of information about your system and CAN and DOES broadcast some of that information over the internet, so how far it might go with that in the background is open for people to question.

[Hanomaly]

Thanks for your response and additional information, obliviondoll. You gave me a lot to think about that i didn’t know at all. And don’t think most of my friends know either about what Discord does.