Does KSP really have spyware in it?

[Stone Blue]

As far as specific device info, they gather make/model of your device, some hardware specs, the device name that you set when installing WIndows...
your OS...

you can go into /user/xxxx/AppData/LocalLow/Squad, and buried in there, youll see a bunch of randomnamed folders... in each are three extensionless files...
you can rename them with .txt file extension, then open in any text reader, to see (at least part), of what data they are sending home...
Pretty sure this is for the Unity Analytics part of it

 

Edited March 9, 2018 by Stone Blue

[MaxwellsDemon]

Look, folks, this is a tempest in a teapot.

People say they want "privacy," whatever that means (and it means something different to every individual), but they also say they want individual attention.  It's like going to the doctor and expecting him to cure you but refusing to tell him any of your symptoms.

Exterior example:  I use a membership card for my grocery store.  Periodically, the store mails me a flyer telling me about specials and sales on the products I tend to buy.  So, I get to buy those things I want for a little less, and the store gets a sale.   Win-win.

A game company wants to know how to improve their product.  But they can't come right out and say, hey, what do you think we should do with the "white.rabbit.obj" module to make it run better on your machine?   First, you have no idea what the "white.rabbit.obj" module is, and second, you don't care, so long as the game runs correctly.   How do you think the company is going to find out how to improve the product?

[JAFO]

Just now, Stone Blue said:

As far as specific device info, they gather make/model of your device, some hardware specs, the device name that you set when installing WIndows...
your OS...

In other words, like with the data Red Shell collects, enough to uniquely "fingerprint" you.. collated with other data from other sources, easily enough to build up a detailed personal profile on you.

[Johnny Wishbone]

3 minutes ago, JAFO said:

Believe me, I'm about to do just that. But I am seriously liquided off that I need to.

Why? Its not like you didn't know it was coming. What do you think all the weeping and gnashing of teeth over the new TOS and PP has been all about for the last 2 weeks? They told you up front they were going to do this; why does it surprise or liquid off anyone?

I don't like it as much as the next guy either, but I'm not going to get "liquided off" about it. This is how video games are done now. If you want that to change, the only way to send that message is to hit them where it hurts: their bottom line. Stop buying and playing games. Period. Go outside. Play sports. Walk. Run. Read a book. Build something. Destroy something. There are countless other things that a person can do to occupy their time.

[MaxwellsDemon]

Just now, JAFO said:

In other words, like with the data Red Shell collects, enough to uniquely "fingerprint" you.. collated with other data from other sources, easily enough to build up a detailed personal profile on you.

Information like this doesn't work like that.   Companies don't give a hoot in heck about individual data points-- they want to aggregate the data to construct a trend.   What percentage of Windows 10 users are having this problem with the software?   That sort of thing.   Individual data points are building blocks; they have no interest in tracking you individually.

[JAFO]

1 minute ago, Johnny Wishbone said:

Why? Its not like you didn't know it was coming. What do you think all the weeping and gnashing of teeth over the new TOS and PP has been all about for the last 2 weeks?

FYI, I only heard about all this today.. didn't even know 1.4 was out until today.

[Stone Blue]

Just now, MaxwellsDemon said:

 Individual data points are building blocks; they have no interest in tracking you individually.

keep telling yourself that

[JAFO]

Just now, MaxwellsDemon said:

Information like this doesn't work like that.   Companies don't give a hoot in heck about individual data points-- they want to aggregate the data to construct a trend.   What percentage of Windows 10 users are having this problem with the software?   That sort of thing.   Individual data points are building blocks; they have no interest in tracking you individually.

Please tell me you're not that naive.. what do you think targeted advertising is all about? You.. specifically.. your every like and dislike.. interests, tastes, what medical conditions you google, the works. Insurance companies are already using peoples medical searches against them.

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

6 minutes ago, MaxwellsDemon said:

A game company wants to know how to improve their product.  But they can't come right out and say, hey, what do you think we should do with the "white.rabbit.obj" module to make it run better on your machine?   First, you have no idea what the "white.rabbit.obj" module is, and second, you don't care, so long as the game runs correctly.   How do you think the company is going to find out how to improve the product?

 

 

Quote

...The information we collect may include personal information such as your first and/or last name, e-mail address, phone number, photo, mailing address, geolocation, or payment information. In addition, we may collect your age, gender, date of birth, zip code, hardware configuration, console ID, software products played, survey data, purchases, IP address and the systems you have played on. We may combine the information with your personal information and across other computers or devices that you may use.

Yeah, that's all just about improving KSP.

Edited March 9, 2018 by Brainlord Mesomorph

[MaxwellsDemon]

Hate to break it to you, but your address is public information.  Always has been, always will be.   (For that matter, how much you paid for the house you're living in is public information.  If you don't believe me, check with your county auditor's department.)

4 minutes ago, JAFO said:

Please tell me you're not that naive.. what do you think targeted advertising is all about? You.. specifically.. your every like and dislike.. interests, tastes, what medical conditions you google, the works. Insurance companies are already using peoples medical searches against them.

It's not "naive," it's fact.   I have personal experience in this area.   Sure, I could track one of my customers individually and see their every purchase, but what do I get from that?  At most, I get confirmation from one data point that a larger algorithm is working correctly.

Edited March 9, 2018 by MaxwellsDemon

[Stone Blue]

5 minutes ago, MaxwellsDemon said:

Sure, I could track one of my customers individually and see their every purchase, but what do I get from that?

you get $$MONEY$$ ... when you sell that all to another company that wants it

and before someone says "well, Squad wouldnt do that..."
I would bet that Squad is using third party analytics companies to do this for them...
altho, to be fair Squad *IS* actually a marketing company, isnt it?

Edited March 9, 2018 by Stone Blue

[LordFerret]

Someone here mentioned v1.2.2 being the end of the line for them. I kind of agree. Same.

All good things come to an end. You're witnessing it.

 

[MaxwellsDemon]

Nobody is interested in buying one data point.   You, as an individual customer, don't count.   You only count as a part of an aggregate.

[JAFO]

Just now, MaxwellsDemon said:

Hate to break it to you, but your address is public information.  Always has been, always will be.

But the rest of my life is off-limits.

I hold political opinions that are strongly disliked by every government on this planet. As governments everywhere get more and more repressive, how long until that will be used against me, if they can connect what I express to me personally?

The problem with letting corporations and/or governments insert the thin edge of the wedge is, they  e v e r   s o   s l o w l y  insert it deeper and deeper, until one day you wake up to find they've cut your throat with it.

Read Snow Crash some time, and see if you want to live in that kind of world. Because we're being taken quite deliberately in that direction.

[MaxwellsDemon]

3 minutes ago, JAFO said:

But the rest of my life is off-limits.

Please don't tell me you're that naive.  You don't get to make that call.   There's a whole society of people around you that have to get along with you.   Unless you go off and live in a hole in the desert, that's how it's always going to be.

[JAFO]

2 minutes ago, MaxwellsDemon said:

Nobody is interested in buying one data point.   You, as an individual customer, don't count.   You only count as a part of an aggregate.

Garbage. They might tell you that, but it's not true.. 

Just had a deck installed out the back? Maybe you'd be up for a new BBQ to go with it.. Got a taste for fine red wines? There's loads of companies would love to know that, and pitch their own wines to you.. You're what's called a "qualified" lead.. far more valuable than some random person off the street, because you've already demonstrated that you're interested in the kind of product they want to push.

The more you know about the likes and dislikes of an individual, the more you can tailor your efforts to extract money from that individual. And if you can't use that info, there's someone else out there who can, and most importantly, is willing to pay for it.

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

7 minutes ago, LordFerret said:

Someone here mentioned v1.2.2 being the end of the line for them. I kind of agree. Same.

All good things come to an end. You're witnessing it.

 

I just backed up my 1.3.1

[JAFO]

1 minute ago, MaxwellsDemon said:

You don't get to make that call.

Why not? It's my life, and if I'm not hurting anyone, what I do or don't do is nobody else's business.

[MaxwellsDemon]

Just now, JAFO said:

Garbage. They might tell you that, but it's not true.. 

Not garbage at all.   No company makes a profit with one sale. 

Now... if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to my daytime job of malevolently collecting data on how our customers like our product.   Because, you know... evil.

[JAFO]

14 minutes ago, MaxwellsDemon said:

No company makes a profit with one sale. 

Oh please.. profits come from a whole lot of "one sales". A business might, for tactical/strategic reasons, take a loss on a sale here or there in anticipation of a bigger sale down the track, but in toto, if they didn't make a profit on every sale, they'd be out of business PDQ.

29 minutes ago, MaxwellsDemon said:

It's not "naive," it's fact.   I have personal experience in this area.   Sure, I could track one of my customers individually and see their every purchase, but what do I get from that?  At most, I get confirmation from one data point that a larger algorithm is working correctly.

But it's not just one customer, is it?

When you can track everything about every single one of your customers, at next to zero effort, that becomes powerfully useful information.. and the information that isn't useful to you personally can be sold to other businesses..

Just because you're not doing so, in your particular market, whatever that may be, doesn't mean it's not going on. It's a huge growth industry, as you'd know if you took the time to investigate it yourself.

Edited March 9, 2018 by JAFO

[linuxgurugamer]

1 hour ago, Brainlord Mesomorph said:

WHAT? 

I don't know what you're talking about. I've never even heard of TT before this week when I started read their EULA.

Is not liking that "having an axe to grind?"

/And I would expect a "linuxguru"gamer to understand that. 

EDIT: do you make any money from that streaming you advertise in your sig? That's specifically disallowed in the new EULA.

No, I don't.  People contribute to me via Patreon, I get nothing (so far) from Twitch.

And, I really don't think they are going to stop twitch streamers, it's free advertising for them.

Yes, I am a Linux guru.  But that doesn't mean I am fanatical about it.  For me, Linux is a tool.  Windows is a tool.  OSX is a tool.  I use the tool which does the job best, which, in the case of KSP, means playing it on Windows.  Before it was stable on 64 bit on windows, I did used to play on Linux

My day job is Linux, but I also touch Windows systems as necessary.

 

1 hour ago, Brainlord Mesomorph said:

I don't know what you're talking about. I've never even heard of TT before this week when I started read their EULA.

You apparently didn't know that TT bought KSP about a year ago? 

So, all of a sudden, you learn that TT bought KSP, they changed the EULA, and you start panicking, throwing around inflammatory words, etc?

I'm doing my best here not to laugh.

[Mr. Peabody]

I must say this is a titanic disappointment. And meanwhile, Squad hides in the shadows hoping this will blow over. It will not. They would have been more than happy if they could have slipped this to us without our knowing.

[John FX]

I use a raspberry pi running Pi-Hole as my DHCP and DNS server.

It looks at all the DNS requests any device connected to my network makes and just does not pass through any that are on your blacklist. Mostly I use it to stop ads. Works with tablets, phones, PCs, anything that uses DNS and DHCP.

It speeds up the internet too because about 27% of the requests my PC wants to make to the internet are marketing, adverts, trackers and so forth. You get a handy web interface with graphs and things. Very nice. Lots of control.

Just added the two addresses to stop KSP phoning home too. Or any other program that uses that service.

On top, Windows asks me if any program can use the internet, I will just say `no` like always.

Then I will not think about it again.

[JAFO]

2 minutes ago, linuxgurugamer said:

People contribute to me via Patreon

Yep.. I'm one of 'em. Wish I could afford to contribute more, to be honest.. I love your mods, but until I'm fully employed again, can only do so much. (don't watch twitch though.. timezone differences make that difficult)

 

1 minute ago, linuxgurugamer said:

And, I really don't think they are going to stop twitch streamers, it's free advertising for them.

I don't see that happening either, to be honest. Especially given that even though the FAQ on the KSP site has removed the bit about being free to install on multiple computers, they've kept the part about them being more than happy for people to monetise streaming the game, so long as due credit is given.

[linuxgurugamer]

2 minutes ago, JAFO said:

Yep.. I'm one of 'em. Wish I could afford to contribute more, to be honest.. I love your mods, but until I'm fully employed again, can only do so much. (don't watch twitch though.. timezone differences make that difficult

Greatly appreciated.