"Russian Game Atomic Heart Can Provide Collected User Data With FSB"

[JurandM]

Article is short and descriptive, so leave source link at the beginning.

https://www.gizchina.com/2023/01/25/russian-game-atomic-heart-can-provide-collected-user-data-with-fsb/

Summary

 "privacy policy of the studio allows it to collect user data. Then, it can be transferred to FSB. By the way, the privacy policy is Russian. There is no English version of it."

Source:
1) https://www.gizchina.com/2023/01/25/russian-game-atomic-heart-can-provide-collected-user-data-with-fsb/
2) https://ain.ua/2023/01/25/rosijski-rozrobnyky-atomic-heart-na-svoyemu-sajti-zbyrayut-dani-gejmeriv-dlya-fsb/

[Tan3l6]

That's not good, is it now?

[Budget DIY]

And which games should we avoid? What games did they make?

[da na]

Any clarification on what sort of user data? As in, just device name, OS info ETC or is it like email address, IP, more personally identifying information?

 

  

2 minutes ago, Budget DIY said:

And which games should we avoid? What games did they make?

Well... Atomic Heart. That's the game.

[Murasaki]

Add to firewall, block connection, done.

[Budget DIY]

5 minutes ago, Murasaki said:

Add to firewall, block connection, done.

Or just like... Don't buy anything Russian made.

[Budget DIY]

25 minutes ago, Mel0n. said:

Well... Atomic Heart. That's the game.

Thought that was the studio name. Didn't think such a lame and pointless name, would be the actual game name.

[Radium_Angel]

26 minutes ago, Budget DIY said:

Thought that was the studio name. Didn't think such a lame and pointless name, would be the actual game name.

The game has been in development for many years. The original gameplay trailer made it look very interesting (kind of a blade runner if made by russians but set in the 80s) but the latest trailer makes it look like Fallout, and it's very boring.

[Skiiwee29]

@JurandM Please update your post to comply with the Tech News posting requirements found here:

 

 

[williamcll]

This reads incredibly biased. No technical information on where and what data is being sent.

[Quackers101]

and? should we avoid chinese and american games too? They collect a bit well... or the new companies that unity and unreal have business with?

I guess the last drama was with ironsource and unity. A lot of them do shady stuff and google that allow so much on their google play platform "for safety and security trust us"... ugh. Can we talk about how google wants your ID and to ID you to use their content at times for no needed reason? To american laws that mess with the internet, while some european regulations like GDPR seems to focus a bit more on the whole (not always and not always good). To the chinese gov and tencent going big and their involvement.

 

to countries that only want own media to be the main focus, I guess it was canada, india and many more. Although america does this without issues, from what they promote, who they allow and who they recommend, like "late night shows" to ALL english speaking audiences and how they own that space.

 

So long there is nothing malicious gathering or malicious code in the game, its fine. You could also be worried about stalker or Metro, be it russian or ukrainian and about the war. As seen with other threads here about malicious code being injected from bad actors and saying its for "fighting against someone".

 

but it would be nice for most games to have an english EULA and other parts and if auto-translation works well.

[jagdtigger]

American company collects a whack ton of data via their OS -> gets downplayed and dismissed.
Russian game dev  does it -> pitchforks and torches up in the air.

Yeah, definitely no double standard going on here.....

[Denis Rakhmanov]

The link in the source media that used to lead to russian privacy policy now leads to 404 page.
 

[jagdtigger]

3 minutes ago, Denis Rakhmanov said:

The link in the source media that used to lead to russian privacy policy now leads to 404 page.
 

Too bad for them we have the tools to view what they are trying to hide....
https://web.archive.org/web/20230124133752/https://shop.mundfish.com/ru/privacy-policy/

[Denis Rakhmanov]

15 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

Too bad for them we have the tools to view what they are trying to hide....
https://web.archive.org/web/20230124133752/https://shop.mundfish.com/ru/privacy-policy/

the only place i see mentioning of FSB is this one:
 

Quote

Обработка и обеспечение безопасности Данных в Компании осуществляется в соответствии с требованиями Конституции Российской Федерации, Закона, Трудового кодекса Российской Федерации, подзаконных актов, других определяющих случаи и особенности обработки Данных федеральных законов Российской Федерации, руководящих и методических документов ФСТЭК России и ФСБ России.

which says(I'm russian, so i can read russian) that data collection is being held with accorfing to russian constitution, laws, [other crap] and documents provided by FSB.

we don't acually know what is "according to the documents provided by FSB"

 

they might have clauses like "share all that data with us", but I have honestly no idea

[Obioban]

2 hours ago, Budget DIY said:

Or just like... Don't buy anything Russian made.

Or, more importantly, Chinese.

[Brooksie359]

7 hours ago, Obioban said:

Or, more importantly, Chinese.

Good luck with that. A crazy amount of things are made in China and that isn't even considering things that have parts that are made in China. If they include those it's basically impossible to avoid things that were made in China. 

[Quackers101]

2 hours ago, kumicota said:

- I don't agree with the war but this argument is extremely dumb.

 

- and no one says to stop buying from them

not always, there should always be some kind of concern.

More so it being in control of big superpowers, like the whole drama around tiktok to the goals of data collection or more.

 

That you will just get less of, with other ones. So being aware of it, its pretty good and nobody likes spyware, more so when its used with bad intentions.

But most superpowers and other countries have their faults and ways to gather data, never should such shady practices be allowed or encouraged, depending on how or why its used. To the security concerns it raises, just like the added security risks that intel did for their hardware and software. Where competition can help.

[LAwLz]

I think it's sad to see such an obvious FUD article, and all the racism in the comments.

 

No mention of the game actually collecting any data or if it's just an overly broad privacy policy (like basically every single software company in the world has).

No mention of what data is collected, if it's like scanning your PC in the background and uploading all your pictures, or if it's mundane things like which version of the game you're playing.

It seems like the privacy policy only mentions that they will share the information if required by law, which is the same as basically all other companies.

 

 

The game doesn't even seem to be from Russia since the game studio is now located in Cyprus, possibly to flee the war. Them having some Russian investors does not exactly sound like grounds for a boycott.

 

 

 

Everyone sure seems to have a rage boner for anything Russian these days. I understand why, but you have to realize that not everything Russian is automatically bad. I understand that people are (rightfully) pissed about the war, but maybe we shouldn't mistreat every Russian person, especially those who fled the country after the war started, as if they are evil pests and should be avoided. I know it's a wild and foreign concept for some people to not view the world as a Saturday morning cartoon, but the world is a bit more complicated than "Russians are villains".

[xAcid9]

Front Side Bus? 

 

[suicidalfranco]

4 hours ago, LAwLz said:

Everyone sure seems to have a rage boner for anything Russian these days.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-allows-posts-violence-against-russian-invaders/

I mean from the people we have allowed to regulate what kind of speech is allowed.

But I remember this same forum telling me their platform their rules, so you rip what you sow I guess

[Vishera]

This is fearmongering,

Video games collecting telemetry data is nothing new, It happens with games from all over the world.

Whether it's from the USA, China, Japan, the EU, Russia or any other place in the world - It is a common widespread practice in the industry.

It's a populist fearmongering nonsense to act like when a Russian developer does this suddenly it's not OK just because of the War in Ukraine...

Also why punish the average Russian citizen for actions their government took?

 

The whole thing is a herd mentality nonsense.

[Taf the Ghost]

TikTok will eventually be banned in a lot more places because it's an actual backdoor into your phone. Let's not talk about Apple and Google tracking or that the NSA has employees embedded in most American tech companies. 

 

Yes, war is vile; and this post is basically pure agitprop. 

[Taf the Ghost]

@LAwLz

 

Very technically the rage boner stretches back to factional fighting from the 1800s. I wish that was a joke, but it's not. What we're seeing, right now, is simply turning on the 2 Minute Rage and allowing people to express their vile desires onto others. It's just "acceptable" right now because they're Russians. If it was anyone else, well, you know how it goes.

[suicidalfranco]

5 minutes ago, Taf the Ghost said:

@LAwLz

 

Very technically the rage boner stretches back to factional fighting from the 1800s. I wish that was a joke, but it's not. What we're seeing, right now, is simply turning on the 2 Minute Rage and allowing people to express their vile desires onto others. It's just "acceptable" right now because they're Russians. If it was anyone else, well, you know how it goes.

pretty much this, happened during the coof against those who didn't comply, now it's russians because of the war, tomorrow it will those who don't reduce their emissions. 

keeps the mass busy and allows the powerful to do their act on their wishes without anyone interrupting them