Epic Games Launcher appears to collect your steam friends & play history

RCJayce

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Madjoki from Resetera forum wrote this, kudos to him.


"So this comes originaly from Reddit, I found out via lashman Metacounil post.
(This is not endorsement of those findings)

But I tried to replicate those and found out that Epic Games Launcher on start up searches for Steam install
and proceeds to get list of files in your Steam Cloud (this includes mostly game saves for every user that has logged in on your PC)

Steam Cloud is stored under userdata\[account id]\ if you wanna check

It will also create encrypted copy of config\localconfig.vdf.
This file contains your steam friends, their name history (groups you're part of, are considered "friends").

It seems friends might be used for friends suggestions, but I don't even use that feature and it collects more than that.

While it's called "localhistory" it is synced from cloud

It will read, encrypt and then write copy to: C:\ProgramData\Epic\SocialBackup\RANDOM HEX CODE_STEAM ACCOUNT ID.bak
It will also keep historical entries there.

As for contents of file:

Example of friends entry:

MEgXCG2.png



Play history, will contain last playtime

5peS608.png



300 = Day of Defeat

Code:
"300"
{
"LastPlayed" "1384125348"
}
(1384125348 is unix timestamp near end of 2013). Apparently I have played this then.

To replicate these findings you can use Microsofts Process Explorer:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

To replicate these findings you can use Microsofts Process Monitor:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon

It's recommended to add filter: "ProcessName is EpicGamesLauncher.exe" otherwise there will be tons of crap. Also you can set Drop Filtered events to save on memory.

First step is finding out where Steam is:

TYgs6Hg.png



Then it will enumerate everything in Steam Cloud.

It doesn't seem to read anything, but just names of all your saves of games

s7aZl70.png



Then it will read localconfig.vdf

qpgGA4s.png



after it's done:

8pGAeFK.png



42834588 = steam account id

76561197960265728 + account id = steam id = 76561198003100316 (this is my account)"


Source: https://www.resetera.com/threads/de...llect-your-steam-friends-play-history.105385/
 
Last edited by RCJayce,

RCJayce

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Ah, so it's intrusive as well? Not saying this is, in any capacity, a bad thing. Just weird they do this without letting the user know?... Or did I miss this?
Literally Spyware, This is done before you use the "Find my friends of Steam" This happens after your install and run the client, then it starts to scan your files.
 

RCJayce

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Epic's VP Of Engineering Response:



Daniel Vogel VP of Engineering Epic Games said:
We use a tracking pixel (tracking.js) for our Support-A-Creator program so we can pay creators. We also track page statistics.


The launcher sends a hardware survey (CPU, GPU, and the like) at a regular interval as outlined in our privacy policy (see the “Information We Collect or Receive” section). You can find the code here.


The UDP traffic highlighted in this post is a launcher feature for communication with the Unreal Editor. The source of the underlying system is available on github.


The majority of the launcher UI is implemented using web technology that is being rendered by Chromium (which is open source). The root certificate and cookie access mentioned above is a result of normal web browser start up.


The launcher scans your active processes to prevent updating games that are currently running. This information is not sent to Epic.


We only import your Steam friends with your explicit permission. The launcher makes an encrypted local copy of your localconfig.vdf Steam file. However information from this file is only sent to Epic if you choose to import your Steam friends, and then only hashed ids of your friends are sent and no other information from the file.


Epic is controlled by Tim Sweeney. We have lots of external shareholders, none of whom have access to customer data.


Daniel Vogel

VP of Engineering

Epic Games Inc.
 
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Taffy

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"The launcher makes an encrypted local copy of your localconfig.vdf Steam file. However information from this file is only sent to Epic if you choose to import your Steam friends, and then only hashed ids of your friends are sent and no other information from the file."

Seems reasonable enough... but I'd rather you not touch my stuff to begin with unless I say you can Mr. Engineer.
 
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Xzi

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So, they try to justify it with the "none of your information is shared" shtick but don't make it obvious they're doing this? Like pointing you toward some hidden (read: not in your face as you register) jargon makes this okay?
None of your info is shared...buuut we'll collect as much of it as possible anyway. Just "in case." ;)
 

RCJayce

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"The launcher makes an encrypted local copy of your localconfig.vdf Steam file. However information from this file is only sent to Epic if you choose to import your Steam friends, and then only hashed ids of your friends are sent and no other information from the file."

Seems reasonable enough... but I'd rather you not touch my stuff to begin with unless I say you can Mr. Engineer.
t0RLReb_d.jpg
 

Minox

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"The launcher makes an encrypted local copy of your localconfig.vdf Steam file. However information from this file is only sent to Epic if you choose to import your Steam friends, and then only hashed ids of your friends are sent and no other information from the file."

Seems reasonable enough... but I'd rather you not touch my stuff to begin with unless I say you can Mr. Engineer.
I don't find it reasonable that they collect data before it's actually requested. Collection should take place after user consent, not before.
 

Taffy

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I don't find it reasonable that they collect data before it's actually requested. Collection should take place after user consent, not before.

I forgot to bold the last part lmao

"Sure, I guess that makes sense but why the hell are you accessing the data at all before I say you can or can't"

Because people don't like that! me included.
 
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D

Deleted-443739

Guest
lol that's sick

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

i say sick and based

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

epic games should retire
 
D

Deleted-443739

Guest
I forgot to bold the last part lmao

"Sure, I guess that makes sense but why the hell are you accessing the data at all before I say you can or can't"

Because people don't like that! me included.
i last what you said friend

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

yet another reason not to play fortFAD
gosh i hate that game too
 

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