Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
This is not a great time to be tone deaf about privacy. Between Facebook's rapid fall from grace to the grand launch of the EU's GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) privacy legislation next month, people are more sensitive than ever about their personal information.
Into this climate, Warsaw-based GOG -- Good Old Games, owned by CD Projekt Group -- launched a user profiles feature that many feel lacks important privacy guards, such as the ability to completely hide your profile, as well as the fact that it's opt-out rather than opt-in, and that the site announced it in a forum post (where many won't see it) rather than a blast email.
Source: GOG debuts profiles feature, users flip out
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GOG Debuts Profiles Feature, Users Flip Out
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by MostCynical on Wednesday April 25 2018, @10:11PM (5 children)
may e it is cultural. If the company employees have grown up with no expectation of privacy, why would they bother?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 5, Touché) by takyon on Wednesday April 25 2018, @10:30PM (4 children)
Is this a Godwin or Stalin?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 25 2018, @10:34PM
A clown stood in front of a group of six kids and a woman in an ordinary fenced-in backyard. If one were to observe the backyard, they would see balloons of various colors, party hats, cake, and toys. Yes, this was a small birthday party. The clown - who was clearly very passionate about his work - began performing his routine with practiced precision.
However, nothing happen. No one was reacting. The clown was using his best jokes and tricks, but no one laughed or gasped. In fact, no one made any sounds at all; the yard was deathly silent. The clown - whose name was Boboson - began to sweat; he had never seen such a tough crowd. Boboson thought and thought, but he could not fathom why no one was reacting to anything. "Oh! That's right!" Boboson exclaimed. Yes, he remembered the real reason why this place was so silent; it was all too simple.
Not a single hair on the heads of the children or woman moved even a millimeter. Why was this? It was simple: Boboson had played with the children and mother before he began his act. To be more precise, he had forced them to play 'privates' with him. And, as what usually happened when he played that game, he had accidentally gotten a bit too playful. Yes, he was too playful, and so their necks snapped. "Damnit! Why does this always happen!?" the clown yelled in frustration, as he lamented the fact that women and children were so fragile. Then, as Boboson was thinking this, he recalled that he had another children's party to get to. It was time to depart.
The happy-go-lucky clown giggled and bid the inhabitants of the backyard his farewell. Boboson got in his little car in the most showy way possible, and drove off to his next destination. The things in that backyard - the naked corpses of the woman and children - were left behind to slowly decay and rot away. But at least they had played with Boboson.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Wednesday April 25 2018, @10:50PM (1 child)
Can you Putin a discussion, or just an election?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 25 2018, @11:12PM
"Alright! I'm all ready!" the man said jubilantly. After he said this, he placed it on his target, and slowly pressed forward. The man's fat member fully entered the little boy's rectum, inducing pain and tears. This man, Alfredson, widened his eyes in shock. Alfredson exclaimed, "This is too good!" Yes, to Alfredson, this was the best yet.
The man viciously moved his hips back and forth, completely ignoring the child's crying and screaming. Alfredson could also hear a female screaming in the background, but he paid it no heed; he would enjoy this little boy to the fullest extent. The man extracted all of the entertainment the boy had to offer with his penis, fists, and hands. As time went by, the level of violence the man used increased. As time went by, the boy's cries became ever quieter. As time went by, the man's satisfaction increased. Then, the man noticed that the boy's motion was gone. At some point, the child had stopped moving and breathing entirely. "That was excellent!" said the man.
When the mother - who was tied to a nearby chair and forced to watch all of this - noticed that her little boy had become one with silence, her screams became ever louder. "Well, if it's any consolation, your child felt way too good!" the kind man said, as he flashed her an angelic smile. "Well then, I suppose I need to focus my attention on you now. I'm going to have so much fun!" said the man, as he slowly walked towards the bound and crying woman.
Hours later, Alfredson walked out of a certain house with a satisfied look on his face. The man thought to himself that he would be a good teacher. Yes, he would be a good teacher indeed; he had tought a little boy and a woman all about men's rights that day.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday April 26 2018, @05:56PM
Is this a Godwin or Stalin?
It must be one of them because it certainly doesn't reflect Poland's privacy laws which have been in effect since 1998 and are far superior to the complete lack of privacy protections in the US.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 25 2018, @10:33PM (4 children)
Don't use their stupid launcher, download and install the games yourself!
Still, sad to see the no DRM site falling into the devil's hands.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 25 2018, @10:44PM (1 child)
That's only going to stop it tracking what you're playing and when. The website still has your username, email, number of games owned, to share. I think it says by default you can search for people by email.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 26 2018, @01:57PM
Yes, the "search you by your email" is enabled by default.
Someone could send a bunch of requests to GOG with a list of emails they have from wherever and link your email to you GOG account (if you used the same one).
It doesn't show your email on the profile page though.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 25 2018, @10:44PM (1 child)
For those of us who grew up in the 'Media is tangible proof of your ownership/license'. Everybody else can revoke you at will now, but only GOG purchases or pirated copies of games are 'future proof' as far as installation and playability goes.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 25 2018, @11:23PM
Yup! That is why I buy from them as much as possible and I'm sure it is the same for many users. That mentality probably overlaps the privacy oriented pretty heavily.
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Wednesday April 25 2018, @11:28PM (2 children)
I've an account there but honestly it has been so long since I logged in I can't even remember what the UI looked like. I am sure I did not give them much info, I am a paranoid SoB.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't me they are NOT after you...
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 26 2018, @01:33AM (1 child)
doesn't mean you won't wish you had been when they pile up the privacy invading evidence against you because you weren't paranoid enough when it counted.
The thing about privacy, like free will, is that once you've given it up, it is almost impossible to claw it back, short of an act of god or a complete change of course of the whole of society. And if slavery in the US is any example it can take anywhere from 150-300 years to regain it, far more lifetimes than most people will remember, and have allowed all kinds of forms of institutionalized near-slavery in the meantime.
Giving up your privacy willingly should never be considered acceptable behavior by a free person who wishes to remain free.
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Thursday April 26 2018, @02:50AM
I was a DBA for a Teradata system installed at a large financial institution, and they participated in a national data sharing program. I'd regularly see the kind of information they could aggregate on individuals from all the participant entities and it scared me. The last thing I did before leaving that job was scrub my own name from the combines sources, and then somehow the logging clique disks covering that time frame had a catastrophic failure that coincided with the expiration of the offsite copies. I called it my Harry Harrison 'stainless steel rat' tribute. I've never used my real name online, and to this day a search on my real name is extremely sparse....
Slippery Jim Degriz
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Snospar on Thursday April 26 2018, @09:03AM (4 children)
Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Went and checked my account and sure enough there were Privacy settings that had me opted in to sharing my details with any "GOG.com visitors". Couple of clicks later and I'm hopefully back to sharing my details with nobody again.
I liked that there was a mid-ground option to share things with just your "friends" - obviously doesn't impact me as I have none.
Huge thanks to all the Soylent volunteers without whom this community (and this post) would not be possible.
(Score: 5, Informative) by TheRaven on Thursday April 26 2018, @09:19AM (3 children)
I suggest that everyone who is unhappy with this development email them.
sudo mod me up
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Snospar on Thursday April 26 2018, @09:52AM (1 child)
Good point, I'd read that mail and skimmed the Privacy Policy for any major changes but if they mention the "Profile Sharing" I must have missed it. E-mail has been sent expressing my disappointment and requesting any future defaults be set to "Private".
Huge thanks to all the Soylent volunteers without whom this community (and this post) would not be possible.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 27 2018, @12:10PM
GOG haven't emailed any users about the profiles or new privacy settings.
They pre-warned the forum go-ers the Friday before the launch (where the privacy concerns were immediately raised and they got warned within a couple of posts that it was going to blow up in their face!) and an item in their site news feed on launch, which is 3 articles away from dropping off the front page at this time.
(Score: 2) by boltronics on Friday April 27 2018, @03:18AM
Or to put another way, your newsletter couldn't display in my e-mail client properly. I don't waste time clicking on links and giving up my privacy to read e-mails from people who can't even be bothered to include a plain text version of their message. So yeah, I didn't know about this. But screw GOG.
It's GNU/Linux dammit!