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Activity Feed • Gameplay Stats • Personalization


UPDATE: We've added a new option to the Privacy settings in GOG Profiles - from now on you can turn off your profile on GOG entirely, so no one can see any kind of information that is shown on the profile page. This also means that when you turn off your profile, you won’t be visible on your friends’ friends lists, even if they decide to keep their profiles visible.
The option to enable/disable your GOG Profile can be found in your account „Privacy & Settings” options, under „Privacy” tab.



We just introduced a new feature on GOG.COM: User Profiles – a social way to share what you and your friends are up to. See what your friends on GOG are playing, achieving, and sharing across four sections – Feed, Profile, Games and Friends.

Your Feed is the centerpiece of your Profile. Here, you’ll see which games your friends have been playing, all sorts of achievements and milestones, as well as general thoughts, screenshots, and forum activity. You can dispense your approval at whim and share your own stuff as well!

Your Profile is all about you and your gaming accomplishments. It's a summary of your activity, like the time you've spent in your games , your latest achievements (and just how rare they are among other users), as well as a glimpse at what your most active friends have been up to.

If you want to know more about your Games, you need to hit the the third tab. It contains a list of all the games you own on GOG, together with stats like time spent in-game and your progress towards unlocking the achievements. Sort the list, compare stats with your friends, and get some healthy competition going.

Finally – your Friends: get a general summary of their achievements and hours played. Here you'll also see which games are the most popular among your friends right now, so you can join them in multiplayer or find something you might enjoy yourself.

Of course, your profile comes with some sweet personalization options, choose a wallpaper from your game collection and share a few words with the world.

User Profiles are available for all GOG.COM users. Your personal gameplay stats like achievements, time played and milestones depend on GOG Galaxy, but if you’re not using the optional client you can still use the feed, post in it and interact with your friends.

Launching profiles also means adding new privacy settings on our end. You'll find three new Privacy options in your account's „Privacy & settings” area. These settings allow you to set the visibility for your profile summary, your games, your friends, etc.
So what are you waiting for? There's so much room for activities!
Is there a way to upload screenshots to the cloud for private use (i.e. not publicly visible)?
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TentacleMayor: Is there a way to upload screenshots to the cloud for private use (i.e. not publicly visible)?
Which cloud do you mean?
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TentacleMayor: Is there a way to upload screenshots to the cloud for private use (i.e. not publicly visible)?
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Trilarion: Which cloud do you mean?
The one where cloud saves are stored, I suppose. Steam can do this, when you upload a screenshot you're asked whether to set it to private, public or friends-only. Looks like on Galaxy you can only keep it in a local folder or broadcast it to everyone in your activity feed. Well, it's no big deal, just a nitpick.
Post edited May 23, 2018 by TentacleMayor
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Zrevnur: ... Edit: Just to make clear: I also dont believe what they are doing is compliant with the new EU privacy laws.
Problem is that you would probably have to be ready to go to court for changing that.

What happens really is that GOG changes from selling a product to selling an "experience". Sorry, but no. I don't want to buy an "experience", I want to buy a product that's mine from the point of buying on. The polite answer is simply, no, thanks, but no. GOG doesn't want my money. That's okay.
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Trilarion: Which cloud do you mean?
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TentacleMayor: The one where cloud saves are stored, I suppose. Steam can do this, when you upload a screenshot you're asked whether to set it to private, public or friends-only. Looks like on Galaxy you can only keep it in a local folder or broadcast it to everyone in your activity feed. Well, it's no big deal, just a nitpick.
Sorry, don't know anything about it. You could contact GOG and ask about that. Their reaction time is usually quite fast. Maybe they can even see it as a feature request.
Post edited May 23, 2018 by Trilarion
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Trilarion: And, oh man am I happy that I never used Galaxy.
Same here! :D
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Zrevnur: ... Edit: Just to make clear: I also dont believe what they are doing is compliant with the new EU privacy laws.
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Trilarion: Problem is that you would probably have to be ready to go to court for changing that.
This may not be necessary: Art. 77 GDPR: "Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority".
Unfortunately I have no idea how this works in practice - if it is necessary to get a lawyer with detail information to write a complaint or whatever.

Somewhat related - not directly referring to the profile default settings here: Anyway at this point I dont have detail knowledge of GDPR but based on reading parts of it I cant imagine GOG being able to actually fulfill everything in there. Whats in there (some of the parts which I have read) looks like its pretty much incompatible to what a company like GOG does. Cant give examples though - just my impression.

But: Art. 1 GDPR is pretty clear: "This Regulation protects fundamental rights and freedoms of natural persons and in particular their right to the protection of personal data."
From my POV this means: If what GOG does is not in breach of GDPR then the new law would have to be an utter failure.
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Trilarion: You could contact GOG and ask about that. Their reaction time is usually quite fast. Maybe they can even see it as a feature request.
This is the most beautiful thing I've read this month. Perhaps even this year. Thank you.
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TentacleMayor: Is there a way to upload screenshots to the cloud for private use (i.e. not publicly visible)?
These screenshots are uploaded to your profile (feed) page. If this page is private then the screenshots are also private. If not then your screenshots can be viewed by any person who has access to your profile (feed) page (and by any person that has a direct link to the screenshots under consideration). Right now it is impossible to mark an individual screenshot as 'private', 'friends only' or 'GOG users', this setting is for all screenshots (and other materials on your profile).
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Trilarion: You could contact GOG and ask about that. Their reaction time is usually quite fast. Maybe they can even see it as a feature request.
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Dalthnock: This is the most beautiful thing I've read this month. Perhaps even this year. Thank you.
You're welcome. I'm always happy to be of service.
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HypersomniacLive: ... Is this GAG's actual response, or are you paraphrasing? If the latter, I'd be interested in the exact wording regarding the part I highlighted - is it "they'd like to have the right", or "they have the right, just don't act on it (yet)"?
No, it was not the actual response. I was summarizing it and interpreting it. I will attach the exact wordings. I think they mean "they have the right, they just don't act on it yet" (even though they didn't say so exactly).

My inquiry

"Dear Sir or Madam,

I do not fully understand the Privacy policy (https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articles/212632109-Privacy-Policy). Is the classic installer part of GOG services and does GOG collect information beyond the point of downloading a classic installer game (no Galaxy client installed)? If yes, what kind of information is collected?

Sincerely,
Trilarion"

Their response

"Hello,
Classic installers are indeed part of GOG services, as is anything offered by us.
Regarding information - download attempts. Once files downloaded, no further information is collected in case, where Galaxy is not installed/used for the game.
Let us know in case of any further questions."

The privacy issue about it

From the response "Classic installers are indeed part of GOG services, as is anything offered by us."
Anything they offer is part of GOG services? My games too?

From the Privacy policy 4.2.(b) Details of your use of GOG services including

Which summarizes to: They may collect anything about the usage of their services and anything offered by them is regarded by them as a service. Now don't tell me this doesn't mean the right of total observation of everything including but not limited to the right to track user playing behavior. ;)
Post edited May 24, 2018 by Trilarion
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Just for reference, this is Paizo's email. Do note the "We've reset all of your settings and you have to opt back in" wording:
Dear Mike,

We wanted to let you know that we've updated our privacy policy and email options. We're making these changes as new European privacy regulations begin to come into effect. Although you may not live in the EU, the changes we've made will impact everyone with a paizo.com account.

Email from Paizo
We've refreshed the email options available to you through paizo.com, which means that you've been unsubscribed from our email marketing lists. To continue receiving email notifications about the latest Paizo products and news, you'll need to login to your account and update your Email Preferences.

Privacy Policy
Paizo believes in transparency about how we use your data, and we've given you additional ways to see what data we collect and what we do with it. We will not sell your data to another company. You can learn more by reading the updated policy here.

Our new Privacy Policy takes effect on May 25, 2018. By continuing to visit paizo.com on or after that date, you agree to the changes within our policy. If you questions, please contact us at customer.service@paizo.com.

Thank you for your continued support! Game On!

—The Paizo Team
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It has begun..

GDPR takes effect and official complaints are swiftly filed against Google, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44252327

I'm sure that others will follow

I continue to believe that GOG is violating users' privacy by making their profiles visible unless they opt-out and not even notifying them that they have a profile in the first place.
Secondly by using the green 'online' light to indicate when users are logged-in to the site, giving them no way to opt out of that
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Not even Steam does that.
Not Facebook, not Google, not Twitter. Not WhatsApp
Of all the sites I use regularly, or know about, only GOG violates users' privacy in this way.

Just as an example of how to do things, here is an excerpt from an email I received recently from a company.:

"For users in Europe, you will see a pop-up around May 25 and be asked to read and accept our new Privacy Policy. While the GDPR applies specifically to people located in European Union member states, we’re implementing product changes for all users.
We know that people who read and write on ..... place their trust in us and we will continue working to earn it."

Read that, GOG, and learn.

Updated to make a correction to my original post, thanks to Zrevnur..
Post edited May 26, 2018 by ZenWan
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ZenWan: GDPR takes effect and lawsuits are swiftly filed against Google, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44252327
Thanks for the link. It is complaints (presumably to national agencies) and not lawsuits though.

One quote from there - I have read similar layman explanations elsewhere: The GDPR explicitly allows any data processing that is strictly necessary for the service - but using the data additionally for advertisement or to sell it on needs the users' free opt-in consent," said noyb.eu in a statement.
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ZenWan: GDPR takes effect and lawsuits are swiftly filed against Google, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44252327
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Zrevnur: Thanks for the link. It is complaints (presumably to national agencies) and not lawsuits though.

One quote from there - I have read similar layman explanations elsewhere: The GDPR explicitly allows any data processing that is strictly necessary for the service - but using the data additionally for advertisement or to sell it on needs the users' free opt-in consent," said noyb.eu in a statement.
Thank you for that, I have amended my original post. I guess I am so used to lawsuits being the first step that I misread the story. I am sure that lawsuits won't be far behind if changes aren't made, though.

Yes, that is an interesting quote - can GOG really hold fast to the opinion that opt-out user profiles and online green buttons are strictly necessary for the service? Hard to see how they can do that.

One other privacy issue I have: why are we not able to choose to hide the country where we live, if we want to?
Users who want that option are forced to choose 'Other', or just pick any old country from the list.

But when I do that, every few weeks, the 'Other' option resets, and the country where I live now shows up on my profile again.

Not a biggie, to be sure, but one more way that GOG does not respect its users' privacy.
When the hell this goddamn gog bear will be replaced by something sane!? I'm losing my shit...