View Source and Private Profiles

[Dr. Atrocious]

So I noticed you can view some privated information by looking at a profile page's source. Isn't that problematic?

[ShelLuser]

That would depend on the kind of information.

(edit) I just gave this a try myself and I can't find anything out of the ordinary which would reveal something about the profile I'm looking at.

[Dr. Atrocious]

I don't recall which profile I looked at, but I saw the amount of games they owned and how many years they've been on Steam.

[Matt]

Link?

[ShelLuser]

Originally posted by ℛaveÐƵ:

I don't recall which profile I looked at, but I saw the amount of games they owned and how many years they've been on Steam.

Well, that example is way too vague, a private profile isn't necessarily fully locked off; the owner can still decide to share some details. Things like their games and the time on Steam (such as shown on some badges).

It depends on context.

(edit)

Browsers keep a history, so it should be easy to share the link.

[wuddih]

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

Browsers keep a history, so it should be easy to share the link.

rightclick -> view source in client

[Dr. Atrocious]

I'm not trying to expose this guy if his profile is private. There could be many number of reasons for someone to have their profile privated, so I thought it was strange that I could even see that. Anyway, a mod can delete this post if they want.

[ShelLuser]

Pardon a double post but stuff like this intrigues me (it used to be part of my job ;)) and well, I have no idea what you saw but I sincerely doubt it is what you claimed it to be. Well, sorta ;)

See, to have a good reference I started checking out the source for a regular profile (mine and some random ones) and I concentrated on the years on Steam and amount of games. On my profile I can indeed find both parts, however: my profile also shows both Steam badges (for Steam years & game amounts).

If I look at the OP's profile then his years on Steam are no where to be found, however... I can see how many games they own. You probably guessed it: the OP has the badge for game amounts shown on their profile, but not anything indicating years. So this information is hidden for me. If a public profile hides the amount of games you own then why wouldn't a private profile?


I can only conclude that you looked at a private (or semi-private) profile (so level 0) which still listed some badges; to my knowledge this can happen. Well, if 2 of those badges happened to be the game & year badges then this info would obviously also find its way into the source code.

[Yasahi]

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

Pardon a double post but stuff like this intrigues me (it used to be part of my job ;)) and well, I have no idea what you saw but I sincerely doubt it is what you claimed it to be. Well, sorta ;)

See, to have a good reference I started checking out the source for a regular profile (mine and some random ones) and I concentrated on the years on Steam and amount of games. On my profile I can indeed find both parts, however: my profile also shows both Steam badges (for Steam years & game amounts).

If I look at the OP's profile then his years on Steam are no where to be found, however... I can see how many games they own. You probably guessed it: the OP has the badge for game amounts shown on their profile, but not anything indicating years. So this information is hidden for me. If a public profile hides the amount of games you own then why wouldn't a private profile?


I can only conclude that you looked at a private (or semi-private) profile (so level 0) which still listed some badges; to my knowledge this can happen. Well, if 2 of those badges happened to be the game & year badges then this info would obviously also find its way into the source code.

If you go to your profile, choose Edit profile and then privacy settings all the options are there. The part for My profile has three settings. Public, Private and Friends only. If you set that to Private or Friends only, you'll appear as level 0 to the general public and nothing else is shown.

If you leave it at Public, you can still private/friends only your games, inventory and comments. Your badges will be shown when set to public.

There's no settings that would hide the level but show off the badges. There's also no settings that would hide only some of the badges. If there's no Years of Service badge, the account is less than a year old. Also, OP's Years of Service badge is visible, you might have missed it.

[☆ƧQυiяяєL♫]

Originally posted by ℛaveÐƵ:

So I noticed you can view some privated information by looking at a profile page's source. Isn't that problematic?

I do know of a way to look at their screenshots, which will bring up a page with 8 available user-created content tabs from "screenshots" to "greenlight"

Through the URL, you can paste the suffix "/screenshots/"
for example, https://steamcommunity.com/id/<Steam username>/screenshots/

[Satoru]

https://steamcommunity.com/id/tinybuild?xml=1

You can only get certain information if a user is private, generally stuff like bans, or if they're limited or not.

If you view the page source for that developer, like there's nothing there

Originally posted by ℛaveÐƵ:

I don't recall which profile I looked at, but I saw the amount of games they owned and how many years they've been on Steam.

Its likely that it wasnt a private profile then

[Yasahi]

Originally posted by ☆ƧQυiяяєL♫:

Originally posted by ℛaveÐƵ:

So I noticed you can view some privated information by looking at a profile page's source. Isn't that problematic?

:teddy_talk: I do know of a way to look at their screenshots, which will bring up a page with 8 available user-created content tabs from "screenshots" to "greenlight"

Through the URL, you can paste the suffix "/screenshots/"
for example, https://steamcommunity.com/id/<Steam username>/screenshots/

Still shows only the ones set to be public. If you do that with me, you'll get 3 screenshots that I've used to make a point on the Bannerlord hub.

[Muppet among Puppets]

I did not see things in source.
What did you do to see something?

Someone earlier could see coutnry (maybe he gathered it another way) and something about store or purchases. Could be unrelated, but would be additional.

[Satoru]

Originally posted by Muppet among Puppets:

I did not see things in source.
What did you do to see something?

Someone earlier could see coutnry (maybe he gathered it another way) and something about store or purchases. Could be unrelated, but would be additional.

I kinda wonder if they're seeing someone who is 'private except for friends' vs 'private for everyone'?

[☆ƧQυiяяєL♫]

Originally posted by Yasahi:

Still shows only the ones set to be public.

Yup. You're right.

I thought that /screenshot/ suffix would show everything, 'warts and all'