Topic: I wasn't aware Steam is now tracking other installed software

[idolminds]

But hey, look at that!

Its like "New! Now with spyware!"

[Quemaqua]

*sigh*

[idolminds]

Well, in Valves defense the survey is opt-in and entirely voluntary (well, at least thats what they say. Who knows if they monitor things any other time). My problem is how well known did they make this new change? Whenever the hardware survey window pops up I automatically just hit Deny, but I imagine there are a lot of people that just automatically hit the Allow button without reading what the window says. I'm sure a large portion of the people were completely unaware of this new change, saw the "Hardware Survey" window and clicked OK since its the hardware survey.

Not...wrong, but tricky.

EDIT
It was explained to me:

It's a separate opt-in from the normal hardware survey, so it wasn't just snuck in there with the hope that people would accept it along with the normal survey without reading it.  They also used very clear language to specify exactly what the software survey was, and in addition to all of that, they show the specific listing of software that they are about to send up to the service before you confirm.

So not sneaky, thats good. I still wonder how useful this information will actually be to developers. Hardware and OS, thats useful info. The fact that WinRAR is the most popular decompression program....how does that help anyone for game development?

[Ghandi]

Meh. Steam is just doing what everyone else is doing.

Even by browsing the web you are giving this sort of info away. Many people don't realize that companies make a living by monitoring your browsing habits and selling the data to third parties. It's easy to protect yourself if you know how, but most don't.

[ren]

Meh. Steam is just doing what everyone else is doing.

Even by browsing the web you are giving this sort of info away. Many people don't realize that companies make a living by monitoring your browsing habits and selling the data to third parties. It's easy to protect yourself if you know how, but most don't.

How can I protect myself?

[Quemaqua]

Bring a bat.

[Cobra951]

Haha!

But seriously, NoScript, Adblock Plus, firewall, good antivirus.

[scottws]

Does NoScript block cookies?  I always block "*.doubleclick.net" cookies.

[idolminds]

I use an addon called CookieSafe and only allow cookies from certain sites.

[Cobra951]

Heh.  One more addon to try out then.

[Ghandi]

Haha!

But seriously, NoScript, Adblock Plus, firewall, good antivirus.

I use these, but you also need to get this and this and if you want this. I also use Keyscrambler although if you type too fast it shows scrambled keys instead of what you typed.

Request policy is actually far more robust than NoScript in many ways, but like NoScript you start from scratch and have to set everything. Worth it though.

[Cobra951]

BetterPrivacy (2nd "this") is an eye opener.  It found 585 LSOs dating back years on Sandy's laptop.  I like the methodology of allowing everything to work without interference until browser exit.  It doesn't block anything.  It does prevent Flash cookies from staying there forever, except those you whitelist.  TACO (3rd "this") apparently can cause some serious issues, so I'm avoiding it for now.  RequestPolicy (1st "this") looks like something I'll want to try on my system.  Like NoScript, it's a hands-on thing which will likely baffle the less technically inclined.  So I won't install it here.  Looks good, though.  Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

[scottws]

Yeah, looks like TACO just doesn't block cookies in Firefox.  People are complaining that it affects Chrome and IE too and it doesn't go away after uninstalling the add-in.  The Keyscrambler one kind of scares me.  You can install a browser plugin that gets under the keyboard driver?  That's crazy.

[Ghandi]

  RequestPolicy (1st "this") looks like something I'll want to try on my system.  Like NoScript, it's a hands-on thing which will likely baffle the less technically inclined.  So I won't install it here.  Looks good, though. 

I was amazed at the depth of the addon after I installed it - it blocks ALL cross-site requests. I went to this site after installing and every avatar / icon was blocked that wasn't on the site - I had to allow the requests to access the images.

The Keyscrambler one kind of scares me.  You can install a browser plugin that gets under the keyboard driver?  That's crazy.

Yeah, this addon actually installs software on your computer. It's worked fine for me and I haven't seen anything negative against it other than the morons out there. Obviously it won't protect you against serious key loggers acting on the kernel level (below this, since I'm pretty sure that's where it operates) but it's just a little something extra.

Edit: Also, you can completely avoid ads in online videos at most sites with Request Policy.

[scottws]

Yeah, this addon actually installs software on your computer. It's worked fine for me and I haven't seen anything negative against it other than the morons out there. Obviously it won't protect you against serious key loggers acting on the kernel level (below this, since I'm pretty sure that's where it operates) but it's just a little something extra.

It's not really the fact that it isn't good for one reason or another.  For me it is just the mere fact that browser plugins can get under drivers like that.  It's a browser plugin, you know?