Valve software has updated Steam – its game purchasing and installation software. Now, as well as sending you new games, Steam wants to know what other stuff you have on your hard drive.
Steam has revolutionised game distribution – making purchase, installation and updates a snap and giving parent company Valve a lot of crunchy data about people’s gaming habits that it has used to streamline its products and marketing.
A new version of Steam goes a bit further though – as well as scanning your hardware for compatibility with games, Steam will ask if it can also scan your software – checking what else you have installed on your PC, not just other games but anything from office software to network tools.
It sounds a bit sinister, but Valve are keen to stress that it is entirely opt-in and that they just plan to use the data to better model what its customers use their PCs for.
Ok, it still sounds a bit sinister – but here is what a Valve spokesperson had to say,
“The new software component of our survey helps us understand what else our customers are using their PCs to do, and as a result, what features we can deliver or leverage to make Steam and our games better. PC users, developers and manufacturers will no doubt also find this information useful, so we plan to publish these results and trends over time.”
We aren’t convinced that we want to give this sort of information to Valve – or anyone else really – especially without some kind of incentive. Still, you do have to opt in to take part and who knows, your data might help Valve improve a future version of Portal in some as yet unspecified way. Just make sure you read the fine print the next time Steam asks you a question.
