Red Shell spyware integrated into Civ 6 code?!

Started by solops, June 13, 2018, 07:18:03 PM

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Nefaro

#30
Quote from: mirth on June 14, 2018, 10:17:32 AM
Who the hell knows what other games has the thing.

This RedShell spyware thing sounds like another secret personal info sales deal through the backdoor of games.

These game producers must've jumped at the idea of making a little extra income off selling their customers' behavioral data to marketing companies via this middle man.  ::)

Unfortunately, I think this has been going on for awhile.  I'm sure many of you have noticed times when you clicked on a YT video, or hovered your mouse over an online shop link to a specific item, and began noticing targeted advertising with the same or similar products showing up in record time, not long afterward.  Just for you, and what you looked at within the last day.

Jarhead0331

Not excusing this bullcrap in anyway, but today, unless you unplug totally and go off of the grid, all of your daily activities, monetary expenditures, electronic and utility usage is all being tracked. Heck, they are even recording all of your God damn telephone conversations. This app is probably one of the less intrusive of privacy invasions we are subjected to each day. Again, not saying this should be tolerated, or that action shouldn't be taken against, just making a general comment of the state of life affairs these days.

The data collection cat is definitely out of the bag. The privacy ship has already sailed. There is no going back. Its only going to get worse. 
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


Gusington

Definitely true, but there is a lot the regular guy is not aware of. At least we are aware in this case.


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

Barthheart


solops

I refuse to quietly give up my privacy to the intruders, however impossible the task. Fighting back in any way I can is the only option. I am digging a hole in the back yard. I need to find a camo tarp to put over it and I am worried that the tarp will knock off my foil hat.
"I could have conquered Europe, all of it, but I had women in my life." - King Henry II of England
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly. - Winston Churchill
Wine is sure proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. - Benjamin Franklin

Gusington

Never give up, never surrender.

-Solops, before his disappearance


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

solops

From CA_Grace, 20 minutes ago on reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/totalwar/co...e_explanation/
Red Shell is a program we use to measure the effectiveness of our advertising. It's not spyware.
It's a marketing attribution tool. It helps us determine which of our adverts are most effective. It does this in a similar way to other analytics tools by using cookies to generate a unique token from device information, and comparing that with data taken from our marketing campaigns and game activations. In this way we can see which adverts are more effective. You can find out more about it here: https://redshell.io/home
If you like, you can opt-out of web-based and cookie-based tracking by managing your cookie preferences: https://redshell.io/optout.
Whilst Red Shell is only used to measure the effectiveness of our advertising, we can see that players are clearly concerned about it and it will be difficult for us to entirely reassure every player. So, from the next update we will remove the implementation of Red Shell from those Total War games that use it.
------------------------
I'm sorry, but "a program we use to measure the effectiveness of our advertising... It's a marketing attribution tool. It helps us determine which of our adverts are most effective. It does this in a similar way to other analytics tools by using cookies to generate a unique token from device information, and comparing that with data taken from our marketing campaigns and game activations. In this way we can see which adverts are more effective"  is the very DEFINITION of spyware!!!
"I could have conquered Europe, all of it, but I had women in my life." - King Henry II of England
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly. - Winston Churchill
Wine is sure proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. - Benjamin Franklin

mirth

"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus

OJsDad

What does my hardware have to do with their advertising?  I can see them wanting information on my hardware to know if they should add more features to a game, or up the specs.  But to be honest, I base almost all of my game purchases on discussion here. 
I've got 17 games in my Steam Wishlist.  Two are Paradox titles, one of which is DLC.  One is Railroad Tycoon II, which I used to have a long time ago.  the other 14 are all games you guys have talked about and spoken highly that I've got some interest in.  I may never buy them all, but that has nothing to do with any advertising that the publishers are doing. 
'Here at NASA we all pee the same color.'  Al Harrison from the movie Hidden Figures.

mirth

Quote from: OJsDad on June 14, 2018, 11:50:20 AM
What does my hardware have to do with their advertising?

They want to be able to identify your machine (and you). That way they know that Steam user "OJsDad" is playing games X,Y,Z on his PC. They can also follow your behavior on other platforms. They know what you're watching on Twitch, Youtube, etc. It's all so they can build a profile of you and then market to you or sell your data.
"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus

jamus34

Quote from: mirth on June 14, 2018, 11:57:49 AM
Quote from: OJsDad on June 14, 2018, 11:50:20 AM
What does my hardware have to do with their advertising?

They want to be able to identify your machine (and you). That way they know that Steam user "OJsDad" is playing games X,Y,Z on his PC. They can also follow your behavior on other platforms. They know what you're watching on Twitch, Youtube, etc. It's all so they can build a profile of you and then market to you or sell your data.

At this point in time is there really a difference? In reality it comes down to someone coming up with an idea, and all the bottomfeeders coming in to build ways to monetize said idea.

JH is right in that unless you go full tinfoil hat and unplug from the grid someone somewhere will be trying to make money off of you. I imagine identity thieves would salvatate at that as they have a perfect victim. Someone who has or wants any way to check if their identity is being used elsewhere.
Insert witty comment here.

mirth

Quote from: jamus34 on June 14, 2018, 12:16:25 PM
JH is right in that unless you go full tinfoil hat and unplug from the grid someone somewhere will be trying to make money off of you. I imagine identity thieves would salvatate at that as they have a perfect victim. Someone who has or wants any way to check if their identity is being used elsewhere.

JH is right. Doesn't mean we should just throw up our hands accept this crap. And there are some simple, common sense ways to minimize your exposure to the tracking. One being to not let your games spy on you.
"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus

Pete Dero

Steam updated Warhammer I & II and the RedShell files are gone.

Kerbal still has the SDK version.

mirth

"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus

SirAndrewD

Raising voices might not stop the inevitable march of this kind of spyware, but it might slow it down. 

So yeah, I think there's value to fighting the good fight. 

Look at the loot box thing.  When everyone began to lose their mind over Battlefront II, a lot of the push back from the industry and some media was that this kind of thing was inevitable, and this was basically the service model that we should start expecting.  EA certainly believed that or they wouldn't have been so egregious in the system they put in Battlefront. 

Lo and behold though, push back from Joe and Jane gamer worked.  EA had to backtrack, and as a result right now loot boxes are a pariah word for developers.  We may not have stopped it, but it's absolutely been slowed down.  If people had been quiet about Battlefront 2, just imagine what E3 would look like right now.  If they think they can get away with bad business practices, they WILL try.

So yeah, we should be mad about this, and we should let them know.   This should be making people just as mad as the lootboxpocalypse. 
"These men do not want a happy ship. They are deeply sick and try to compensate by making me feel miserable. Last week was my birthday. Nobody even said "happy birthday" to me. Someday this tape will be played and then they'll feel sorry."  - Sgt. Pinback