BigTuk said:
Probably not as big a deal as most think. For the most part this data is simply used to gauge how well the game performs.
No, it really isn't. As the article points out, one of the big drivers for data collection is advertising. And one of the big trends in advertising is to be as personalised and intrusive as possible.
The Gentleman said:
No company who has access to this data cares what you, as a specific individual, does in a game. You are a data point in a sea of data points, as useful for overarching analysis and pattern spotting as any other random gamer out there.
Sure, they absolutely don't care what you do in game. That's pretty much the whole point - they're far more interested in all the data they can collect about what you do outside the game. As the article notes, that can include things right up to your height, weight, address, and the contents of your living room. No-one gathers that kind of information because they think it will be useful for analysing their game.
And before anyone starts asking why anyone would want to gather that sort of information in the first place, that's actually a large part of the problem. There's an awful lot of data that can be, and often is, collected, that no-one really knows what to do with. They collect it simply because they can, and it's considered to be better to have it and not need it than to not have it and then think of a brilliant way to use it. So there are all kinds of incredibly detailed personal data just sitting around the place waiting for someone to break in and spread it all over the internet.
A game dev might not care about having a 3D map of your living room, but combine that with information about your wealth and the times you're not at home and certain people could be very interested in knowing about it. GPS apps often have a privacy mode that allows you to blank out the area near your house so people can't figure out exactly where you live just by looking you up on Strava, and it's recommended not to put your address on luggage labels because thieves can and do use that information to target houses for burglary.
The point is that this isn't just a matter of whether devs are interested in your personal data. The problem is that a lot of people absolutely are interested in your personal data, and that can lead to all kinds of problems from advertising getting ever more annoying right up to criminals being handed your entire life on a plate. That doesn't mean we should all become hermits and never give any information to anyone, but the more data that is collected and left lying around, the more trouble it can potentially cause. We shouldn't run around panicking about it, but neither should we pretend there is no possible issue at all.
Push come to shove you can simply tell your firewall not to allow the game online communication.
At which point many modern games will simply not work. Like it or not, the trend to have games more and more online is not going to go away. If you want to prevent games accessing the internet you're already somewhat limited in your choice, and that's only going to increase in the future.