[Website] Privacy policy violation

[tazdu29]

Hello,

In factorio.com's privacy policy, it's said that :

Third party disclosure
We don't provide any of user information (including the email) to third parties.
We will never do this unless we are ordered to do so by law.

But your website uses google analytics*, which is a third party, and not knwon for it's privacy measures...

Can you remove the script, or update the privacy policy?
Thanks for reading this.

* It also uses a script from ajax.google.com, another way to give data to 3rd parties.

[Jap2.0]

It'd be interesting to see the dev's response to this, but I think that the privacy policy is referring to the game and your account. So, for example, I doubt they share your email with Google. I would guess that it's for tracking website traffic or something.

Note: Am not a lawyer.

[DaveMcW]

Wrong place to ask.

Accesing privacy information

If you would like any more information or details regarding the privacy policy please contact us at support@factorio.com

[olafthecat]

I am surprised you noticed.
Most people just ignore the policies and just sign them.
I may be one of them

[Klonan]

We don't send any private information to Google, and the only information recorded with the analytics is the IP used to access the website.
I don't feel like this is in anyway contrary to our privacy policy, which is only concerned with private user data, such as email address, username etc.

I won't be making any changes or amendments to our website or privacy policy.

[tazdu29]

We don't send any private information to Google

I know ! But since there is a (tracking) script from google, They grab it anyways, as long as the script is on the page.

the only information recorded with the analytics is the IP used to access the website.

Why using Google analytics, then? you can directly get it from the http requests!

I doubt they share your email with Google.

As I said earlier, just the fact that the scipt is here, means that they can spy on the page, and it's content.


I'm probably a bit annoying about this, but privacy is getting a big concern, and I try to avoid as much as possible being "data-mined".
Thanks for your kind understanding.

[Jap2.0]

We don't send any private information to Google

I know ! But since there is a (tracking) script from google, They grab it anyways, as long as the script is on the page.

the only information recorded with the analytics is the IP used to access the website.

Why using Google analytics, then? you can directly get it from the http requests!

I doubt they share your email with Google.

As I said earlier, just the fact that the scipt is here, means that they can spy on the page, and it's content.


I'm probably a bit annoying about this, but privacy is getting a big concern, and I try to avoid as much as possible being "data-mined".
Thanks for your kind understanding.

I don't think you understand this. Are you insulting Google or the developers?

[tazdu29]

I don't think you understand this. Are you insulting Google or the developers?

I'm not insulting anyone !

[Jap2.0]

I don't think you understand this. Are you insulting Google or the developers?

I'm not insulting anyone !

It sounds like either:

• 1. You're saying that the developers are taking our information via this script, then lying to us about it.
  2. You're saying that the developers put a script on their site without knowing what it does.
  3. You're saying that the developers put the script on their website only to monitor IPs, but Google is taking all our other information without the knowledge of the developers.

All of those are either an insult to the developers or Google. Possibly even defamation or whatever the corporate equivalent is.

[Koub]

[Koub] Please chill people, let's stay civilized.
There's no insulting going on here. Privacy is not taken with the same level of seriousness depending on the geographic location. People in Europe seem far more concerned about what is made with their personal data than, for example, people do in the US.
Never forget that Google's business model mainly relys on making profit with your personal data (like most companies that "offer" you a great service at no cost). And you have very little to no control on what data is used by whom.

@OP : Google analytics and ajax library are present in so many sites that it's almost a standard now. If your THAT worried about your privacy, the only thing left for you is get yourself browser (other than Chrome, Edge, ...), that supports mods, and get yourself a mod (like noscript) that blocks external contents on a site. Brace yourself winter is coming for a painful browsing though : I gave up using noscript because most of the websites I browsed got broken because of these restrictions.

[Jap2.0]

Sorry if any of that sounded a little insulting there. I just kind of thought that the developers probably knew how their own website worked. As for the whole privacy thing, I'm somewhat concerned with my privacy (I try not to tell too much on the internet), but I'm sure that there are plenty of people who are more worried than me. (Also, sometimes I'm lazy, so that doesn't really help the whole situation).

[olafthecat]

Privacy is a big issue in the modern world.
I can understand your concerns, but I trust the developers to respect our privacy.
Either way, security often trumps over privacy and although other websites may be sneaky, I do not believe that this one would send our information to google.
Anyway lets just settle down a bit, okay?

[tazdu29]

Wow x) intense chatting here !

I just meant that the use of google analytics is not mentioned in the privacy policy. That's all !

[olafthecat]

Luckily, it cannot come to physical blows

[Optera]

Using a google data collection library just for IP collection is overkill and clashes with any privacy concerns.

Even if legally sound it leaves a bad aftertaste having google collect whatever they want through their scripts on a site stating it doesn't "provide any of user information (including the email) to third parties." As even IPs are user information.

[Koub]

Actually IP is only a personal data when it is related to it's owner. Else it's an anonymous data.

[withers]

I've been the moderator of a forum once upon a time. If this board is the same, they can probably see your IP at the bottom of every post you make. Not a big deal. It's actually one of the tools they have to fight spam. Very common.

Do a google search for "what is my IP", youll get a link telling you your IP.

[Koub]

Afaik, only mods and admins have access to the information of the poster's IP. I have already been obliged to ban IPs because of spambots that kept creating accounts and posting over and over from the same IP.

[Jap2.0]

Afaik, only mods and admins have access to the information of the poster's IP. I have already been obliged to ban IPs because of spambots that kept creating accounts and posting over and over from the same IP.

Can confirm us lowly normal people cannot see IPs. Don't know if devs are included in the mods and admins category.

[Optera]

Afaik, only mods and admins have access to the information of the poster's IP. I have already been obliged to ban IPs because of spambots that kept creating accounts and posting over and over from the same IP.

Banning single IPs will only block bots until they cycle their IP and is likely to block innocent other users in that ISPs IP range.
Very few ISP have a large enough range of IPv4 addresses to assign static IPs to all users. Therefore users get a fresh IP each time they "dial in".
This might change when ISPs only assign IPv6 addresses, but I don't see them removing backward compatibility.