Garry’s Mod April 2019 Update Modifies TOS and Adds New Tracking Tool
302 replies, posted
This is my first legit SH thread so if I did anything wrong then my B. Plus I found out about this recently from a friend and after looking into it I thought it was worth posting.
https://techraptor.net/content/garrys-mod-april-2019-update-modifies-tos-and-adds-new-tracking-tool
Also worthy of note is that according to the free analytics page of GameAnalytics, the company is owned by Mobvista, a Chinese “leading technology platform providing mobile advertising and mobile analytics services to the app developers globally.” Regarding the fact that they offer the service completely free, they explain:
Our popular service means we offer unparalleled insight into the global mobile gaming industry – making us a strategic asset of our parent company, Mobvista.
The last incident involving a tracking tool included in games was last year’s Red Shell fiasco, which was then removed from about 20 games following an outraged response from players. These games include Battlerite, The Elder Scrolls Online, Sid Meier’s Civilization VI, and Conan Exiles. It’s generally expected that online games do some form of tracking or another, but there is a difference between telemetry and spyware, and Red Shell arguably crossed the threshold into spyware. Where exactly GameAnalytics falls is a question that many are asking.
garry wtf m8
Tbh gmod peaked ages ago anyway and it's not like garry gives a shit about the community anyway
If Garry decides to keep the forums you can bet your sweet asses it's because he filled it up with varying degrees of Chinese "telemetry monitoring tools"
GameAnalytics uses http to send data, you can easily packet sniff it.
Even if were updated to use https, fiddler will work
Screencheat used it for the developers to know which weapons/maps/modes people were playing, in order to better understand the players activities in a game so they could drive development better. I'm unsure what Rubat wants to do with gmod data though
Can't wait until Garry throws (another) fit and tells everyone to fuck off.
Like I've said before, garry is a dumbass who got lucky with GMOD. I'm glad he was able to make FP a reality, but cmon man.
Garry's gone senile.
I wonder if this was an attempt to look hip and cool to all the other dumbfucks of the game industry, or if he desperately wanted to know how long literal children like to throw Five Night's at Freddy's ragdolls around.
I'll wait for more knowledgeable people to take a look at it, before getting up in arms
People unironically defending and or not giving a fuck about privacy in that thread
According to Rubat he was asked by Garry to include GameAnalytics. That was on of his replies to a few privacy concerns. A guy even threaded with lawsuit, after earlier concerns were brushed aside or ignored.
I don't really think this makes him a dumbass if it's something he decided on, just exploitative. It's like like GMod is the only game he's made.
And try to shut down the forums.
To be fair though, being able to make a popular product doesn't make you not a dumbass. Rather it means your target audience are dumbasses as well.
man, garry, if you wanted them this badly you could have just asked for my sex pose portfolio.
i guess besing worth 10s of millions of dollars just isn't enough
greedy piece of crap, gamers rise up
cmon man you're better than this
at least you used to be :' (
Gmod wouldn't have been a success without the massive support from his playerbase. He should treat them better than this.
Let's wait for Gmod 2 which won't have this tracking technology, right guys? Right???
Yet another reason to switch to JBMod.
Yeah guys, stop playing Garry's clones of popular concepts and just go to the original games. He really is just a thief, first of entire games and now of your data as well.
If anyone wants to have a giggle or two there's already a 4chan thread /v/.
It's just such a fucking joke tbh. Gmod is only where it is because of the community - people making free content, models, gamemodes, coding shit - Gmod is a game that rides entirely on the dedication of the community behind it yet those are the exact people Garry has basically told to fuck off with this move and the threat of deleting the forums. Garry really needs to be reminded that his game wouldn't be nearly as popular were it not for the community making it worth playing in the first place.
It's kind of ridiculous how Garry's entire mentality of "treat your fanbase like trash, violently lash out against anything that doesn't follow your extremely precise vision and guidelines, get mad if people come up with anything you don't approve of, remove features if people aren't using them the way you want" is the polar opposite of Gmod and why that game is successful. I guess he was either always like this or stopped caring when he realised you can be successful by making a game that chases every popular trend of the time.
Spotted this on Garry's twitter, someone asked him about it: (Read the whole tweet thread)
https://twitter.com/garrynewman/status/1123264680619802635
I sincerely don't care about most (most, not all) analytics and I actually have an informed opinion on the matter.
Analytics =/= surveillance or breach of privacy.
Well then you're on your own. Analytics are always a breach of privacy when they're snuck in throughs ome TOS change and a game update; especially when you've not agreed to them and it wasn't part of the product you initially paid for.
Like, quoting that thread, it only tracks the following properties:
configureBuild, configureUserId, initialize, setEnabledManualSessionHandling, gameAnalyticsStartSession, gameAnalyticsEndSession
Such a terrible breach of privacy. You can even contact them and have your data deleted and your recording disabled. This is a non issue.
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