content: Steam Proprietary Malware Steam has been found to scan users DNS cache, revealing what sites are being visited. “What's more is that the way Valve appears to be hashing isn't good enough to keep anything effectively secret. You might not care if Valve knows what your favourite sites are, but if the US government comes knocking, that information isn't staying private.” [1] Steam could be monitoring any files across the entirety of users hard drives as well as all contents running in memory, including Valve tracking your HDD serial. These can be logged (though they are hashed) and sent to Valve. [1] [2] NSA chief of Tailored Access Operations commented regarding Steam as a suitable exploit. “Even a laptop running Valve's Steam gaming service can make a nice point of entry for Joyce's NSA buddies, [Joyce] says.” [1] For those who wish to dismiss this, do you think NSA do not care about gaming software? [1] Steam betrays publicly whether you are online or offline, how long you have been in your session and your current activity even if you select “appear offline” mode. Visitors need only view your profile page (or their friends list, if friended) to circumvent this “privacy”. [1] In addition to Steam client’s usual snooping, steampowered also employs common www.google-analytics.com as well as steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net and steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net to track users and visitors. In contrast with your usual browser, one cannot prevent this tracking in the client itself (only if it is blocked globally via the hosts file). The hardware survey, which gathers more than most realize, may be “opt-in” but information is likely still recorded; Help > System Information [1] Valve’s Steam phone app has been found to utilize four trackers and at least two sensitive application permissions. [1] Support for payments of Steam software with Bitcoin was dropped, forcing users to now provide their address in order to make purchases. [1] [2] Having consented to give Steam such unconditional access to one’s entire system, Steam has understandably become a coveted target. And, like any software, Steam maintains no exception to security issues. Malacious actors have been able to invoke Steam commands by exploiting external URL handling. [1] [2] Steam users have been deceived into opening malacious screenshots containing executable SCR files which target the Steam client. [1] Malware targeting gamers, Eskimo, quietly installs in the background and can take control of a user's Steam account. [1] Valve can, and has in the past, removed games from Steam as well as retroactively revoked them from user’s libraries. [1] [2] [3] Did you really think you own the games you buy through Steam? [1] [2] [3] In addition to Valve, developers of Steam games also have the ability to abuse Steam's DRM by revoking buyer's game keys at any time (or simply because they do not like your opinion). [1] [2] (Added 18-10-20) Steam chat operates a topic & language filter which cannot be deactivated and whose arbitrary target terms are not disclosed. [1] [2] [3] All links to news articles by torrentfreak.com, mega.nz, thepiratebay and kickasstorrents are banned by Steam as "potentially malicious". [1] [2] [3] Steam suppresses reviews from users who did not purchase directly through Steam under the guise of improving review scoring. [1] Under threat of permanently deactivating user accounts without refund, Steam forces new subscriber agreement upon gamers. [1] Valve forces Steam users to run proprietary platforms in order to trade Steam items without trade hold restrictions. [1] Steam prevents the purchase of certain software from within restricted regions. [1] Steam forces subscribers to submit to terms disallowing anyone to file class action lawsuits. [1] Many Steam games require the non-optional Steam client to be running in order to launch. This does not even include the vast selection of third party DRM included in many Steam games. [1] [2] [3] Steam requires remote authentication for all games employing a CEG “protection” scheme. [1] Steam “Offline Mode” first requires authentication and an internet connection in order to function. Even still, Offline Mode has proven less than reliable. [1] [2] Tags: “Is Steam spyware?” "Is Steam malware?" "Is Steam trustworthy?"