RE: [GD-General] Collecting info from players

[Matt N. <mat...@ni...>]

I've got nothing against philosophy / ethics discussions but I think =
perhaps people are taking this a bit too philosophically when a more =
pragmatic approach would be sensible. In the UK (and Europe as a whole I =
think?) the Data Protection Act already puts fairly strict limitations =
on what kind of information it's legal to collect and retain with and =
without the user's permission. It seems to me that 99.9%+ of users will =
be quite happy for a games company to collect anonymous system =
information for the purpose of more accurately determining what their =
target system spec should be. Whilst there's all kinds of other =
information that a games company might *like* to collect about users =
most of it would be illegal in many countries and probably most users =
wouldn't be happy about it being collected. Since the majority of users =
just click their way through the default options without really reading =
the details and the tiny (but vocal) minority of users who would object =
to system specs being collected are almost certainly a strict subset of =
the minority of users who actually look at the options being offered =
during setup there is a straightforward solution that will satisfy =
almost everyone:

When installing or first running the game, have a screen that tells the =
user that anonymous system information will be collected for the =
purposes of improving the developer's future products and that this will =
be transmitted if they don't object. Have the default option (the 'Next' =
button or whatever) simply send this information as a plain text file to =
the developers. Offer an option to view the information being sent and =
an option to send no information but make it unlikely to be clicked by =
the 'don't care' users whilst still easy to find for the paranoid types.

Job done. The only people who will object to this are those who are =
hardcore privacy advocates who also believe that every one else should =
be as well and it's their duty to educate the world in that respect. =
They've got enough on their plate with that as it is so they probably =
won't have much time to hassle you :-)

Matt.

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