@ 2K Elizabeth
Hello Elizabeth,
thanks for the info and the patience to still answer some of the questions that arise here.
Two Valve representatives were working with Firaxis in their offices this week and the devs took some time to chat with them about your concerns, and I have three points to make that I think will help a lot of you out.
2. What personally identifiable information does Valve collect with Steam? The only information players are required to provide is a valid email address and a password, and to verify they are older than 13 years of age. All other information is optional, and a player’s profile can be set to private. Valve does track the time spent playing a game, per account, but does not collect information about what other processes are running concurrently on the computer.
Could You please ask them, if there is a chance that Valve will clarify such things in his privacy policy in front of the release. Means list in detail which data can be collected from the customer without his agreement, which data will only be collected with opt in of the customer and which data Valve will never collect. Also what can be done with the data without special user permission and only with (casewise) given user permission (eg hardware/software data in case of a crash will only be given to the developer of the game with permission, but you can also opt in that valve can use the data for an steam intern database)
Also means a privat profil, privat in regard to other valve users or also privat in regard to valve? How privat is privat?
As last point considering the privacy policy and out of curiosity, could You please post Your opinion (and just in case somebody else feels appointed, i really mean only her) about the privacy policy and european rights. It seems - but i´m not sure - that it can be problematic to transfer data from the EU to the USA without having the firm participating in the EU-USA Safe Harbor process. Unlike to one of the privacy policy of one of your competitors i found no indication in the Valve privacy policy that Valve joined this process. Did i missed this information or is Safe Harbor no precondition for a legal data transfer if the purchase of the game happens in the EU. [i know that You can´t give a binding answer]
3. How often do I have to connect with Steam after the activation? Never again, if you choose to play in offline mode. The Steam client will still start, but will not communicate with the servers. A connection is required to activate the game and an update must be applied at that time, but after the initial activation, a player never again has to connect their computer to the Internet. However, if not connected, the players will not be able to receive updates, save to the cloud, play multiplayer, earn achievements, or receive free content.
Only as clarification: I will not be able to patch the game without running steam in the online mode for patching (afterwards i can go back to the offline mode) - means there will be no stand alone patches?
A last question, will there be a special protection of vested rights (no idea if this is the correct phrase, also only considering single player and patching) or (partially) back pay guarantee in the 2K Eula of the game for the case that there will be a change in the steam subscriber agreement, which the purchaser can´t accept and therefore must terminate his/her Steam account? Of course such a protection or guarantee would need some limitation like that the accout is really terminated (or better all accounts of this user).
[Following the steam supportes opinion about the probability of such a case, it should be not too risky to give such a guarantee, even if 1 of 100 purchasers (for some this would be already a ridiculous high percentage) would take this option, it would only be 0.4 - 0.5 $ / € per game copy - or a bit more if a insurance contract is concluded). But certainly such a protection or guarentee would appease others.]
Thanks in advance for the answers
best regards,
T_C
