Hiding your activity from friends

[Warp]

Perhaps one of the most-requested changes to Steam is the option to hide your purchases and activity from everybody, including your friends. Yet there is no option for this.

I understand perfectly why Steam announces your purchases to friends: It increases sales. It entices people to try and buy games their friends play. It's a good business model. I understand this.

However, this is a question of privacy. User choice of privacy should always trump advertisement tactics. Bypassing your customer's privacy in order to increase sales is not acceptable.

And no, the answer to not wanting your friends to see that you are playing eg. some naughty dating sim is not "get better friends" or "unfriend them". I shouldn't have to remove anybody from my friend list simply because I don't want to announce to the world what kind of games I'm playing. If I'm embarrassed to play some pervy game, that ought to be a private matter of mine; Steam should not be in the position of advertising it to all my friends. I don't even understand why this is a question.

Even worse, Steam does not make clear what exactly it's showing to your friends. When you buy or start a game, you have no idea what exactly your friends are seeing. Steam does not inform you in any way of this. It all happens behind the scenes without you knowing.

And even worse, the privacy settings of your profile do not stop Steam from announcing your purchases to your friends, or the fact that you are playing a certain game. Even setting your profile to fully private will still allow people in your friends list to know these things; this has been tested.

This is outright misleading. Nowhere does the Steam privacy page tell you about this.

The thing is, Steam is probably selling less of those certain games because of this very reason. Many people are too embarrassed to buy them because Steam breaches their privacy by annoucing their dirty little secrets to all their friends. You can laugh all you like, but that's not cool.


Edit: Nowhere in the Steam Subscriber Agreement, or the Privacy Policy Agreement, is this mentioned. Not even in passing or indirectly, and most certainly not explicitly. This means that as a Steam user, you never agreed to this, not even inadvertently. Which in turn means that if you agree that this is something that Steam should not be doing, you have a legitimate privacy complaint.

If you agree that this is something that Steam should not be doing, you can write a formal complaint to Valve. Go to http://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/ and at the very end of the page there is a "Privacy Feedback" link that will take you to a form that you can use to send a message to Valve.

Please be formal, civil and polite. Make a formal complaint about Steam divulging your personal purchases and other game activities to third-parties in a manner that identifies you as the purchaser, without your consent or knowledge, and that you never agreed to that, because it's not mentioned in the Subscriber Agreement. Express that you do not consent for this private information to be divulged to other people, even if they are in your Steam friends list, and that you shouldn't have to purge your friends list to keep this information private.

Hopefully, if enough people send complaints to Valve, they will do something about it.


Edit 2: Here is a suggestion I have to solve these problems:

Allow games to be bought in "incognito mode". This may be, for example, a tickbox you could select when you buy a game. If it has been selected, then absolutely nothing of you purchasing, owning or playing that game will be broadcast to anybody in your friends list (or any other third party). They wouldn't see anything about you owning the game (even if they own it themselves.) From their perspective it would be exactly as if you hadn't bought nor owned the game at all.

This may be something that could be enabled or disabled by the game publisher, when submitting it to Steam. If the publisher does not wish to allow people to buy their game incognito, they could choose to do so. But some publishers may well want to allow people to buy their game incognito (especially publishers of certain game genres). The option to buy incognito could be presented to the end user when purchasing the game, if the publisher has chosen to allow it.

Also, what is and is not broadcast to people in your friends list should be made explicit, unambiguous and visible, with a concrete list of such things (rather than vague generic statements). At the very least this should be in the Privacy Policy Agreement, but also preferably somewhere even more visible.

[Start_Running]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Black Blade (Card Idleing):

Początkowo opublikowane przez Zeron:

It's a stupid solution to be honest. Stop allowing Valve to be lazy.

Ya it was the point :D: it was referring more to one that says that Valve need to go you the ability, well you have it if you really really really care so much abut it

But honestly i think most here want it more as something that will be nice to have, and no a do it or else

Over all i do agree that if someone wants it, he needs to have that ability, as it harms nothing (but maybe his own friends)
But if someone really want privacy from his friends, why to even have them on his friends list to start with... that is the main point of that answer

That's just it... I've never understood that. Though maybe because the decision process for adding friends resembles the buying process. Friend first ask yourself why later

[Rawex]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Start_Running:

Yes, but again, are you checking the activity page that much? DO you assume others are?

We are not talking about me and i can't see how it matters if anyone checks his activity page or not, the matter of fact stands that it is widely shared out to all your friends and that it should have an option not to be shared if anyone wishes to, regards of how many watches the activity page or not.

Początkowo opublikowane przez Start_Running:

But yeah, you're not always staring at the Activity page are. I know I've never seen an announcement pop up in any other window pertaining to friend activity. So again unless you are visiting the activity page frequently, you don't really knoiw anything.

It doesn't matter if people visit the activity page frequently or not, the information is still made public available to everyone which you have no control over and shouldn't be the case.

Początkowo opublikowane przez Start_Running:

WHich is unfortunate since that scenario is a very pragmatic concern for quite a few who are.


Bank statements just show Valve. ANd those only come monthly.. How much easier is it for a parent to just look at their activity page. Secondly a kid can get the games through other means, key trading, they can buy their own wallet card etc. And again, if you're going to turn off one of the key social features on steam.. why bother friending anyone on steam anyway?

Bank Statements only come monthly? What are you talking about, anyone can see their bank payment changes everyday and the statements for exactly what only a few days later.

Yes it just shows Valve, but like i already explained to you, then you can easily see via Family Share every title your kid owns and the new ones instantly that he gets.

Why Bother Friending anyone on Steam? let me explain your question why.

Why make such a big fuss out of it? We are just talking about having the Option made available to be able to hide your Steam Game Purchases, no ones talking about hiding your game hours or what games you are currently playing.

What is your problem with getting this Option? Is it because you do have a kid and are too lazy to put on Family Share and keep an eye out on your Bank Statements? Forcing your kid to be friends with you over Steam so "you" can see his purchases that tiny bit easiere, then it doesn't matter that everyone els watches too, very selfish point of view.

Początkowo opublikowane przez Start_Running:

I ask this honestly. You're worried they'll laugh at the games you own, you worry they'll make fun of the hours you play... so... why bother having friends on steam. Just maintain them through facebook. and leave your steam account private.

No again you are trying to turn this around to be personally about me, im not worried about anything, but i understand the fact that some things are meant to have an option to keep privately if you want to.

Why bother having friends on Steam? Let me explain your question why.

Friends are friends, you play, you chat, you have fun with them, but you shouldn't have to be forced to share your information everytime you buy a game.

So to keep what i buy private i have to leave all my friends? Is this seriously your idea of doing things?

Facebook? Then i can't play with my friends? Also what if Facebook did the same thing, where would that leave us?

Początkowo opublikowane przez Start_Running:

Property law trumps privacy law unfortunately. You're under VAlve's roof.

And thats fine, you said it twice now and now i will twice tell you, no one cares about what Valve or any other company or what the guy behind in line, cashier, bank holder, and the person who picks up the phone thinks.. No one cares about them and no one is friend with them on Steam, so they don't matter at all.

Początkowo opublikowane przez Start_Running:

Kids can change their passwords easily enough and secondly, this way does not preclude the parent from checking the hours played. A parent can be at work and see that their kid is playing MGS V even though they are supposed to be doing homework or studying.. The idea that you don't see it means you aren't a parent.

No but it is the easiest, fastest and least intrusive to both parties.

No it's not the fastest and easiest thing, it's just as easy to do the 2 other things i mentioned here, which also works privately and really he can change his password just as easily as he can unfriend you on Steam so that doesn't change a thing to this matter, if the kid wants you not to be looking, there is more ways than just changing the password which you can't do a thing against anyway.

If a kid gets games via key trading and wallet cards and other ways, then you can still see the new games he is getting via Family Share and exactly WHEN he is playing, if he is playing when he should be in school, you don't have to be his Steam Friend to see that.

No one is talking about shutting off any key social features on Steam, no one is talking about Shutting down Activity News section, everyone is just talking about that your Game Purchases should not be announced automatically to your whole friends Activity feed everytime you buy something and its a very easy thing to do, it doesn't change anything or take much work to do.

Początkowo opublikowane przez Start_Running:

Well then again... simply set your profile private. They won't see a thing. bYOu can still have friends, they just won't be able to see what you've got or post anything on what you;'re doing. You can still however chat to them .

No this is the whole thing we are discussing, it's like you just don't get it, Setting your Profile to Private does not do so "they" won't see a thing, everyone can still see EVERYTHING, you BUY.

Only thing you can do is remove all your friends and that cannot be right, that we have to remove all our friends just to buy a game you don't want others to know about and it doesn't matter if you have a valid reason, stupid reason or no reason.

You should always be able to have the choice between if you want display what you buy or not.

Początkowo opublikowane przez Start_Running:

You don't see the paralells. IT's the same thing.. YOu are on STeam's property, STeam is observing you while on their property and is free to use that information gatheered as they so choose. It's right their in the SSA really.. Just as a store can easily annouce over the mic:
"Thank you Mr. Brown on your 100th purchase of Maxtop heavy flow tampons". There is nothing stopping them.

and That is perfectly fine as i told you three times now, THREE whole times, i told you and now i tell you again for a third time, Nobody cares about what Steam, the Store, the guy behind you in line, the Cashier, the banker or that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ guy who picks up the phone thinks.

Nobody and i repeat NOBODY here cares about if Steam is observing you or not.

[Start_Running]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Rawex:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Start_Running:

Property law trumps privacy law unfortunately. You're under VAlve's roof.

And thats fine, you said it twice now and now i will twice tell you, no one cares about what Valve or any other company or what the guy behind in line, cashier, bank holder, and the person who picks up the phone thinks.. No one cares about them and no one is friend with them on Steam, so they don't matter at all.

You seem to iss the point so I will spell it out. <ahem>

The information valve displays about you does not belong to you. It belongs to Valve. Valve is free to do what ever they want with it. Read. It;'s their camera, their property, their film. If you don't want to be on camera, do not enter the premises. So let's get the whole 'right to privacy' thing out of the way,

Początkowo opublikowane przez Start_Running:

Kids can change their passwords easily enough and secondly, this way does not preclude the parent from checking the hours played. A parent can be at work and see that their kid is playing MGS V even though they are supposed to be doing homework or studying.. The idea that you don't see it means you aren't a parent.

No but it is the easiest, fastest and least intrusive to both parties.

No it's not the fastest and easiest thing, it's just as easy to do the 2 other things i mentioned here, which also works privately and really he can change his password just as easily as he can unfriend you on Steam so that doesn't change a thing to this matter.

I dunno, just looking at an actibity page in a client they likjely already have open seems a lot easier. As for unfriending. Thing about that is. The person unfriended knows that they've been unfriended and in the case of a parent or gaurdian that is enough of a reason to raise a few pointed questions that had better have very good answers.

Nobody and i repeat NOBODY here cares about if Steam is observing you or not.

But you care alot about what they do with the information gleaned from the observation. As I said. The data belongs to them. WHat they do with it, is their business.

If they want to show your friends, that's their call.. You kinda gave up teh right to decide what gets done with your usage data the minute you agreed to the SSA.

[Rawex]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Start_Running:

You seem to iss the point so I will spell it out. <ahem>

The information valve displays about you does not belong to you. It belongs to Valve. Valve is free to do what ever they want with it. Read. It;'s their camera, their property, their film. If you don't want to be on camera, do not enter the premises. So let's get the whole 'right to privacy' thing out of the way,

Valve could do alot of things and i never said anything about having right to privacy, i've said it "should" be like that and that there should be an option for it if someone chooses he wants to keep that information privately from his friends.

Valve will still be able to keep track of all your purchases and everything, but there is no need for them to announce it to all your friends, that's simply just a bother they should change and really, it wouldn't hurt their sales at all.

Funny enough i can make my profile private so people can't see what im Playing, but i can't make it so they can't see what im buying? Where is your logic in that.

Początkowo opublikowane przez Start_Running:

I dunno, just looking at an actibity page in a client they likjely already have open seems a lot easier. As for unfriending. Thing about that is. The person unfriended knows that they've been unfriended and in the case of a parent or gaurdian that is enough of a reason to raise a few pointed questions that had better have very good answers.

I still don't see how it's not easiere to just simply turn on Family Share? If he shuts that down, wouldn't that require the same amount of very good answers from him?

Początkowo opublikowane przez Start_Running:

But you care alot about what they do with the information gleaned from the observation. As I said. The data belongs to them. WHat they do with it, is their business.

If they want to show your friends, that's their call.. You kinda gave up teh right to decide what gets done with your usage data the minute you agreed to the SSA.

When it comes to Valve, then No i don't really care alot about it, but i can understand it when it comes to being shared out to your friends, it shouldn't be that big of an issue to change and wouldn't change anything in how your friends see your profile or what your playing, they can still follow up just as good, with or without Game Purchase announcements..

Yes we all know this, its not news to anyone and that is exactly why this has been brought up to the Suggestions / Ideas section of the Steam Forum...

If that opinion you just fired of were it, then why even have Steam Support? You have given up your right to decide anything on Steam, it's not even your account and they can shut it off instantly if they want to.

The Data might belong to them and they can do what they want, but that doesn't mean we can't yeld out and ask them to change a few things.

The SSA gets changed all the time and thats mainly because of Steam's Growth and with over 10million users daily on Steam, it must be about time to get somekind of Privacy setting on if you want to share what you purchase with your steam friends or not.

[Start_Running]

There is a privacy setting. It's called Private. Though I still think that shows your friends if you have the game in your inventory..

[Rawex]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Start_Running:

There is a privacy setting. It's called Private. Though I still think that shows your friends if you have the game in your inventory..

No, if you put your Profile on Private, then People cannot see what you are playing, what you are doing, they cannot see your profile on what games you own and they cannot see your inventory either.

but they can STILL see everything you BUY...

and thats where the piggie is, but like i said.. before, its just games, its not really that important and Steam has the right to show everything they want to, Put it on Youtube or Facebook for that matter, but thats Power abuse, they can do it, but they don't.. only sometimes ^^

Still we can choose to make everything els private, but your Steam Purchases and really, there should be an option for that, we are now over 10 million users on Steam and if some wishes for privacy Steam should provide it.

Not saying, SSA, F you, leave all your friends and you have privacy, bye.

[Start_Running]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Rawex:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Start_Running:

There is a privacy setting. It's called Private. Though I still think that shows your friends if you have the game in your inventory..

No, if you put your Profile on Private, then People cannot see what you are playing, what you are doing, they cannot see your profile on what games you own and they cannot see your inventory either.

but they can STILL see everything you BUY...

And that is a problem? No different from someone in the store mentioning they saw your friend buying the item you're looking at.

[Rawex]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Start_Running:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Rawex:

No, if you put your Profile on Private, then People cannot see what you are playing, what you are doing, they cannot see your profile on what games you own and they cannot see your inventory either.

but they can STILL see everything you BUY...

And that is a problem? No different from someone in the store mentioning they saw your friend buying the item you're looking at.

When has there ever been a case where someone is mentioning to their friend that they saw you buying "something" in a store.. and if there was, they are quite rare cases, especially if you are trying to "sneak" buy something or something you don't want others to know about... (Like buying a Christmas present, usually a thing you go out and do privately.. and only share it with those you feel like)

It shouldn't be that much of a problem to have made an option to choose if you wish to share your Steam Purchase with the Activity Feed or not, it's really not that much of a difference from going out and getting a Christmas present.

[Start_Running]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Rawex:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Start_Running:

And that is a problem? No different from someone in the store mentioning they saw your friend buying the item you're looking at.

When has there ever been a case where someone is mentioning to their friend that they saw you buying "something" in a store.. and if there was, they are quite rare cases, especially if you are trying to "sneak" buy something or something you don't want others to know about... (Like buying a Christmas present, usually a thing you go out and do privately.. and only share it with those you feel like)

It's probably more common than you think. I mean how would you know that someone didn't hmm? In serious point it more depends on the size of the community you live in. Live in a small town and trust me, your buying habits are probably well known

It shouldn't be that much of a problem to have made an option to choose if you wish to share your Steam Purchase with the Activity Feed or not, it's really not that much of a difference from going out and getting a Christmas present.

Again, why should steam do this. I mean it is a very effective sales tool. People have been proven to be more likely to purchase brands and items that their friends buy.

Why in the name of the heavens would a business willingly stop doing something that is perfectly legal and proven to increase their sales? Of what tangible benefit would it be for Valve to not do it?

[Silent_Killer01]

+1

[Rawex]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Start_Running:

Again, why should steam do this. I mean it is a very effective sales tool. People have been proven to be more likely to purchase brands and items that their friends buy.

Why in the name of the heavens would a business willingly stop doing something that is perfectly legal and proven to increase their sales? Of what tangible benefit would it be for Valve to not do it?

Because it is affecting privacy, thats why we are talking about this and why steam should do it.

It wouldn't effect the sales at all, people can still watch and see what their friends are playing and have bought, but there is no need for it to be displayed instantly out when you buy it.

It has the benefit of making their users that bit more happy about using their client and doesn't have any downside at all, making an option for something like this won't decrease sales.

[Start_Running]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Rawex:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Start_Running:

Again, why should steam do this. I mean it is a very effective sales tool. People have been proven to be more likely to purchase brands and items that their friends buy.

Why in the name of the heavens would a business willingly stop doing something that is perfectly legal and proven to increase their sales? Of what tangible benefit would it be for Valve to not do it?

Because it is affecting privacy, thats why we are talking about this and why steam should do it.

Mmm-hmmmm. And they should care about your privacy... why? JUst pointing out the obviou; Most companies don't give too licks about their customer's personal problems or insecurities.. unless they have something they can sell them for it,

It wouldn't effect the sales at all, people can still watch and see what their friends are playing and have bought, but there is no need for it to be displayed instantly out when you buy it.

Why does the delay in display matter, the only ones who'd know it was instant are those that just happened to be looking athe activuity page at that precise moment

It has the benefit of making their users that bit more happy about using their client and doesn't have any downside at all, making an option for something like this won't decrease sales.

One less user using it means up to 5 other users don't get the product push. which reduces the chance of them buying it. SO yeah, effect on sales.

[Rawex]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Start_Running:

Mmm-hmmmm. And they should care about your privacy... why? JUst pointing out the obviou; Most companies don't give too licks about their customer's personal problems or insecurities.. unless they have something they can sell them for it,

Maybe, but thats why we have this forum obviously..

Początkowo opublikowane przez Start_Running:

Why does the delay in display matter, the only ones who'd know it was instant are those that just happened to be looking athe activuity page at that precise moment

No you don't have to look at that precise moment, you can easily check back up to 2 days and more to check what has happend and what news goes around between your friends.

It doesn't matter why it matters, maybe, because you don't want your girlfriend to know you bought Witcher 3 afterall, it's really none of anyones business why someone would like to hide it.

The point is that it's a privacy breach and if people don't want to show others when they spent their money, then thats up to them.

Początkowo opublikowane przez Start_Running:

One less user using it means up to 5 other users don't get the product push. which reduces the chance of them buying it. SO yeah, effect on sales.

There won't be anything with one less user to decrease sales, it's an issue you are inventing and let me explain why.

There will still be the same amount of users seeing what you are playing and when you are playing it, regardless of an announcement or not.

Like you said, who watches the Activity News anyway? You said it yourself, if no one is watching it, then how will sales decrease? Players notice and buy games after what they notice that their friends are currently playing, not based on what they notice their friends just purchased.

There itsn't any need of your purchase being published to all your friends, it wont increase sales the slightest, no one watches it anyway and if i turn my Profile full hidden everytime i play, then no one will be able to notice me playing and hench wont be buying the game anyway then?

There won't be any damage done by making an option to hide an purchase from the activity feed.

More damage is actually done when you have to make your Profile fully hidden (Then friends can't see what you are playing at all, but still see your purchases, like this will encourage them to purchase the same game by only seeing you buying it in the activity feed, but not knowing if you actually play it?)

or if you unfriend all your friends to get privacy that way, then you share abselutely nothing.

The easiest, friendliest solution would be to make it optional to show what you purchase.

[The Dictator]

Why wouldn't you want your friends to see the games you have purchased?

[Rawex]

Początkowo opublikowane przez PC Elitist:

Why wouldn't you want your friends to see the games you have purchased?

Maybe your girlfriend is angry at you for playing too much lately and you don't want her to know you just bought Witcher 3 since it would start an arguement you would like to avoid, who knows, who really cares, but there's one valid reason for you :)