You literally posted the answer to your question. Here is an expansion of the details.
I haven’t read the new TOS but if this review is correct it looks like a GDPR nightmare for them. Good luck to them explaining why they need to collect all that personal data.
The “collected data types” in that comment seems to be copy/pasted from the privacy policy
That might be US only, where the companies have freedom to get all the customer’s data and do with it as they will.
The list where this doesn’t apply seems to basically be every country with consumer protection laws.
They obviously know this won’t fly pretty much anywhere other than the US so that’s all they’re trying to push.
Most people don’t care about privacy.
Most people in the western civilized world are on Facebook, so…
but ask those same people whether facebook should be allowed to collect and use all that data, and people will generally say ‘no’.
Do we know this is a thing in the EU?
Due to Steam’s tos updates a few months ago, isn’t take-two opening itself up to a massive lawsuit?
Hm… Ok. Thats crazy. Someone wants to create a new branch of income it seems.
Thats a fucking shame. Now I need to reconsider my plans to buy Borderlands4.
But how will they do it? Which information is gathered from which source? Most of my accounts only hold as little informations as possible. Also my Os knows nothing about me. My MS account neither.
On the other hand my steam 2FA need some mobile information.
Checkout Jump Ship? It’s some weird borderlands, Star citizen, (insert other generic shooter) type game. Pretty neat, was recommended to me by a shooter fanatic friend of mine. I trust his shooting game opinion
oh cool, I can see that it’s similar Borderlands by the screenshots, and I can see that it’s like Star Citizen because it’s not actually released yet and they’re taking money for early access.
Hah exactly :D
Happy cake day
😂😂
Unless you use Linux, your OS knows a ton about you. On top of that, with root access to your computer they can do whatever they want and if their system gets hacked you become a member of a bot farm or crypto mine.
Well I use Linux, but not on my gaming pc. I would switch to it because its all amd, but I don’t want to because it lacks the driver suite for my gpu (adrenaline) and I don’t want to install a bunch of small applications to gain a small fraction of options it offers.
It’s a pitty. Because I realy want to ditch windows since its newest iteration.
Doesn’t the screenshot you posted explain what’s going on?
Don’t just review bomb it
Report it to steam as SPYWARE, with the little flag icon on the product page
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Steam has a history of removing things people don’t like (for example: banning ad-ridden games)
So if all these reports can bring them to add this to their TOS, it’s worth it
absolutely. Steam is not to mess with and takes such matters quite seriously.
Fun fact, it’s called a parliament! I regret that I am not an owl.
That. The content of the screenshot you posted. That is what’s going on.
- Did the EULA change? ✅
- Were all Take Two games automatically updated in secret and now hijack your machine with root access to spy on everything you do? ❌
- Do Take Two games contain code to report telemetry and user information(including application/system activity) to a home server? ✅
- Is this EULA change extraordinary and particularly egregious in comparison to others that most people have probably already agreed to? ❌(IMO)
- Are people riled up because e a YouTube video went a little viral and now they’re all playing telephone to the point where it’s now gotten to the point of random dumdums are review booming a 13 year old game claiming it’s turned into literal spyware? ✅(again, IMO)
- Should you be surprised by any of this if you’ve been even remotely paying attention for any period of the last 30-40 years? ❌
- Do we need more than just angry idiots in the battle against corpatocracy? ✅
We should be done coddling the late comers at this point. Yes welcome them and accept them, but at a certain point your level of ignorance became a detriment to your community and you should be made aware of that fact.
Its a bit more than that:
Precise location information? Wtf for?
Hyper Localized Advertising. Welcome to the future :(
I just saw an advertisement for a custom T-shirt:
“That’s right, I’m a December dad, who lives at 62a, with size 10 feet and prescription glasses…”/S
“By scrolling past, you agree to sharing with us (and our affiliates) the following collected data types: …”
They use the same terms of service for mobile games and they just dont bother to change it for pc games.
This mistake makes sense to make as a mistake. But also, that’s fuckin asinine
It isn’t a mistake. Writing different EULA for each game costs more money than writing an overly aggressive one that covers most cases.
So that they can have a back door to as many private computers as possible.
Would it shock you to know that ALL of these are in the Steam terms of service also?
The only really sus one to me is the forced arbitration clause, and Steam also had that til they were pressured to remove it by multiple legal cases, including a class action brought to them by Steam users just last September. It is only sus because it’s outdated - companies are generally removing them now rather than adding them. https://www.legal.io/articles/5540864/Valve-Removes-Mandatory-Arbitration-from-Steam-Subscriber-Agreement
RE: remaining top 5 bullet points, 3 of the remaining 4 bullet points are uncontroversial bullet points about anticheat. The fourth is banning modding, which is also just a heavy handed anticheat attempt, and not uncommon for online games to add to their ToS to allow banning at their discretion. Either way its clumsy at the least as some mods can be harmless eg HUD mods for colourblind people and deserves some negativity - but not to this level, given everything else is just so boilerplate.
Collected data types: these are all for if you buy stuff with a credit card / paypal / etc off 2k/parent company Take 2. Remember, they sell games with in-game purchases. They also have an app which has location permissions option which is what the precise location is about.
So yes - again, as OP said, this is nothing controversial if you have paid attention to ToS meaning and content over the past 20 years.
Aside from the forced arbitration crap - which Steam, Microsoft, Amazon, Lyft, Uber, Google, AT&T - and hundreds of other major companies all snuck into their ToS over the years, and many have now been legally pressured to remove by consumer rights group. That is stupid because it shows their legal team is behind the times, companies are mostly removing their forced arbitration clauses nowadays because it has been the cause of many lost class actions.
A bit more than what, not really sure what your point here is? All of those bullet points are similar if not identical to terms in other EULAs half the people in this thread have already clicked thru.
I’ll say it again, if you think this is anything new you haven’t been paying attention. I’m all for calling this fuckery out and pushing for something better. But like where yall been?
Still no actual answers from anyone on how this is ‘more’ than what I described in my op. Sure it’s a more detailed list, but it’s really not the “gotcha” everyone seems to think it is. That is, if youve been paying attention.
Let’s ride the wave. Turn this into a huge controversy known industry-wide. Then, next game that comes out with EULA like this, we say “THIS GAME HAS A BORDERLANDS-STYLE EULA”. Pretend it’s new to exploit the shock value and get the gamers riled up. Then, the industry gets better.
Tell the frog that the pot wasn’t always this hot.
Thank you for an actually constructive response. You’ve honestly brought me around a bit with this.
I see this kind of comment before and I will never understand it - “other companies do it so just bend over and let us do it to you too!”
People say this all the time about Denuvo too: “Other games already have Denuvo, why are you crying about it here when you’re playing other games?”
And see, that’s the problem - we aren’t playing those other Denuvo games. And same thing applies here, guess what, a lot of us aren’t buying games from gross companies like EA with these shit terms. So when a company we are doing business with suddenly changes their terms to be shit, that’s a valid complaint. Some of us have already been boycotting bad business practices in the industry, so the idea of company changing terms towards the boycott after we’ve already invested in the game feels like a betrayal because it is.
So maybe stop focusing on what you assume the rest of audience is doing and instead go back to focusing on what the people at the goddamn podium are trying to pull?
Why does everyone insist on adding the ‘so just bend over and take’ part whenever someone points out another source of wrongdoing? Like what do yall always take it to mean that the speaker is implying a whataboutism argument? And not maybe as ‘oh shit this has been going on longer than just this maybe we should learn about that too and we might figure out why it hasn’t been stopped yet.’
If “everyone” keeps reading a sentiment you did not intend out of your message, perhaps it is time to consider that you are doing a poor job of communicating your point.
Or you’re being disingenuous and just don’t like being calling on your hissy fit.
I dunno, take your pick.
It’s the first one, I’m terrible at effectively communicating nuanced points.
And I mean yall could interrogate the statement instead of reaching a conclusion and then responding but I get it.
But also, fuck that. Do more work as the reader.
Also, piss off with your infantilizing ‘hissy fit’ bullshit.
If more folks are waking up and shaking a stick at it or doing something but blindly click through (thus legally unenforceable) EULAs I’m all for it.
Better late than never.
I get that and agree, this is just a crappy and kinda dumb stick to be wasting the energy on because it makes the side opposing the injustice look like petulant children instead of enabling effective action.
So…if Steam is running in a Flatpak, and Borderlands is launched from Steam, how much can they even see…really?
They know I use Linux and that means they know too much
Not a lot. Even when it isn’t a flatpak windows software running on linux won’t be able to interact with the system anywhere near as deeply as on windows.
They’ll be able to tell it’s linux, though.
So…if Steam is running in a Flatpak, and Borderlands is launched from Steam, how much can they even see…really?
Without using exploits to escape the container, not much. A very empty Windows environment with a single game installed, your network interfaces and any directories that the Flatpak has access to (usually just the SteamLibrary directories).
The TOS (https://www.take2games.com/legal/en-US/) changes are mostly related to data that they collect via their interfacing with Steam and through their website. This idea that they’re requiring you to agree to a root level access or installing a spyware rootkit is just nonsense.
You can install an application like Flatseal (https://flathub.org/apps/com.github.tchx84.Flatseal) to inspect the permissions for a flatpak.
How locked down a flatpak is depends entirely on the developer and what permissions they request. By default, they can’t really see much. For example, they can’t even see the processes running on your host or your user and system files.
Flatpak does not do anything about network access though, it can only do no access or full access, no in between. The data they can collect on Linux in a Flatpak is very limited but it does not prevent them from calling home.
New to linux…are flatpaks like sandboxed?
They are somewhat isolated but not sandboxed.
Sort of. They can be, but are not always.
Pirates are winning over my empathy.
They’ve been my best friend for years
Piracy never gave me up, never let me down
They would never turn around and desert me
Might maroon me for fucking up the FOSS though.
I just don’t understand anticheat or copy protection on PvE games. I can understand it if you don’t want to play against a cheater, but this is a cooperative shooter.
See you’re looking at it from the point of view that it would serve the player experience, but that’s not what it’s for, it’s to mine your data
We haven’t gotten another Middle Earth game because it had an online requirement
Now look where we are
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Hey, you posted this twice. Pretty easy to do, if your initial post does not go through and you hit Reply again…
It’s for precedent on future games and to sneak in shit for later. Wittle down your expectations and privacy, make it “normal”.
Need to protect those purchasing opportunities from cheaters.
🏴☠️ is free and without shenanigans.
Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Owns Rockstar Games, Zynga and 2K. So if that’s all their games, it includes at least these: Bioshock series, Borderlands series, Civilization series, Grand Theft Auto series, Mafia series, Max Payne series, NBA 2K series, PGA Tour 2K series, Red Dead series, WWE 2K series and XCOM series.
Amazing stuff!
That’s just a list of games that used to be good and now suck.
I object to that for XCOM
True, it was always bad :p
A government that cares for is people would ban this shit and procecute any company trying to find ways around it.
I sometimes wonder what will happen when EAC, that has root access to millions of PCs, gets compromised or has grunty employee and pushes malicious update
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That’s right. I’m not lying at all when I say that none of my friends care about privacy. It’s actually quite frustrating.
Yup, same here. As long as it’s convenient, my friends/family don’t care what is taken from them.
It probably spys on you already.
The company that makes the Overwolf game launcher is an Israli cyber security company that gets money from the US.
Tencent spys on people for China through a lot of the games they own.
Holy fuck I did not know about Overwolf. That’s the last time I download something from my, apparently, dipshit friend (no, this is not the only stupid thing he’s done).
Hey, maybe your friend didn’t know either!(nor did i😭)
Yes that’s the problem, he doesn’t know a lot of things. He also doesn’t seem very keen on learning them.
He’s young, so I still have hope for him but god damnit he’s stupid and a potential hazard apparently.
Crowdstrike 2.0
I apparently love downvotes but here goes: All the Borderlands games (annoying childish cell-shaded skinner-box) and everything Gearbox is and has ever created it utter shit. The CEO is a garbage person, and thier dealings with Epic is Capitalist-Oink-Piggy shite! "“FUCK YOU 2K & GEARBOX, AND FUCK YOU BORDERLANDS!”
Apart from the politics, the Borderlands games themselves are hardly utter shit for the most part.
The writing is garbage but,… it’s a game for edgy teenagers. It would be.
The gameplay for me is Diablo with guns. It would suck for anyone not into that. If anyone isn’t into that, don’t buy Borderlands games.
Got to argue, I’m a 39 year old gamer, started with PCs back in 90s.
The games are casual fun, they work great as co-op shooters. Story is what it is, but the games themselves are lighthearted and just pure entertaining fun.
Not masterpieces. Just good.
The first felt really fresh at the time. FPS was dominated by various milsim shooters and Halo, and the irreverence and clever cell shading style worked well.
Two dialed things up in scope and scale and added some nice environmental variety.
But the rest? The presequel? The 3rd? I just couldn’t. It was more of the same, tired, repetitive, the jokes started really scraping the bottom of the barrel. I had fun early on, but I’m out.
I liked 1 and 2. Got bored for the prequel and 3 early on.
Tiny Tinas I did play and really enjoyed that game. It felt like a reasonable advancement over BL 1 and 2. It felt like they stagnated for a bit and raised the bar slightly with Tinas.
I really wanted an MMO style Borderlands with 4, and I wouldn’t value 4 any higher than Tinas launch price. But I am interested in what the game has to offer.
If you liked only the first two, def give Tina’s a try, if it has a good sale.
I loved the gameplay of pre sequel. But the writing for that was constantly throwing me for a loop on how any of it was greenlit. I didn’t mind the writing in 1 and 2, I got a few chuckles out of that. Pre sequel just made me groan, moan and yawn.
What are you arguing with? I don’t see your comment as contradictory to theirs at all.
I guess his premise, that it’s for edgy teens. Heck, half the pop references were ancient on launch.
You would’ve been 16 years old on launch if you’re 39 now though.
True, but I’ve been couch-cooping them only recently.
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You’re definitely right about Pitchford or w/e dingleberry’s name is.
everything Gearbox is and has ever created it utter shit
OpFor was good, Blue Shift was alright too.
Everything since they stole the whole idea of Borderlands has been bad though.
Yes, but it should still be illegal for a company to do this. Don’t let them blame the users for accepting this bullshit. As Louis Rossmann would say, they have the mentality of a rapist.
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Except lawbreakers but he tainted it by supporting it and made ppl against it
Bro thank you for mentioning Lawbreakers. Such a fun game that was cut short.
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I’m sorry, but Battleborn was brilliant. Deadlock is the first game to re-capture (and expand on) the mix of mechanics Battleborn put together.
Didn’t stop Gearbox from shutting it down so that no-one who bought it could ever play again. Not even the story campaign.
I checked the Steam depots. It seems the game files haven’t been updated since 2022. All that seems to have changed is some license agreement in February. Seems to be a thing across take two games, and not specific to borderlands 2.
Basically nothing has changed in real terms for this game. Maybe borderlands 4 might have draconian DRM, who knows.
They can drop updates anytime after they made sure to have you accept the spyware.
I doubt it though, the game will be 13 years old this year. It wouldn’t make financial sense for them to bother.
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I only play AAA games on GeForce Now (cloud). If the game can’t run on my Linux system or on the cloud, I ain’t touching it. Also, there are so many wonderful games that do not require a colonoscopy into your personal data to be played.
