So looks like the Epic Launcher is starting to collect data from other game launchers, engines and even web profiles, basically making it fall in the category of spyware
Here are my sources:
The launcher is collecting all the information from Steam profiles, and even Unity Developers, on top of that, this spy agents make a huge impact in the system performance
I don’t want Epic to invade my privacy and i want to Opt-Out of this data collection, and why they are even collecting this with what purpose?
Epic has a big data leak like a year and a half ago and now they are just collecting whatever data can find? Excepting that this won’t happen again?
I understand the idea of collecting Engine performance, along side with playtime in some cases, even on games made with the Engine that aren’t in the Epic Store, but entire Firefox profiles? Steam Groups? Unity performance? is just a no go, I love the UE4 Engine, but I don’t want to be spy on, I want an explanation
Some epic staff and even Tim Sweeny responded to those threads to explain what people are looking at. I don’t think it’s a cause for alarm, I think hating on EGL is a popular thing right now. Tims’ opinions on privacy and marketplace monopolies have been pretty public (he likes fair markets and privacy), so EGL being spyware is a bit unlikely.
Well I didn’t know about anything of this until I saw OP’s post here, so I am thankful for bringing this to my attention.
And I’m willing to give Epic the benefit of the doubt here and just go along with the notion that they have no idea how to properly handle data security (as they have shown with how the data leak not long ago).
However, this does not explain why Epic needs to know what games were last played on my Steam account, without my permission, and DanDaDaDanDan even outright lying about it not doing that. https://www.reddit.com/r/PhoenixPoin…d_you/eikyt2o/
Everyone keeps bringing up tencent like it is some reason to be wary of EGL. They are a shareholder, Tim has the final say on what epic does.
I did take the time to read through the threads, and the comments in other forums from people who know a bit more about poking around with these kind of things and the consensus was that this is normal stuff.
The problem seems more like a lot of people who don’t know enough, but just enough to be confident, really want to believe that EGL is spyware.
I was sleeping while everyone was responding in this post, timezones hehe
Ok, so, first things first, I feel that Tencent is been more of like a buzzword in this whole situation more like a real argument, after all 40% is not 60%, and we don’t even know what kind of stockholders they are holding, it could be preferable stockholders which means they actually have no voice on Epic’s decisions.
From the Steam frienss situation, why if there is an API for this they copy files from Steam? GoG connect to the Steam API for any transaction relevant to Steam.
I know that there is a lot of trolls on the internet, that’s why I decide to politely ask here for an explanation.
In terms of game sessions and time, those games could have been made with the UE4 so it makes kind of sense that they are collecting engine performance (games like Day by deadlight for example). But if other games made with other engines are involved, then we have a problem.
About Firefox I still a little unsure of what happen, and also the same for unity profiles
I want to give Epic the benefit of the doubt on this