What's going on with Borderlands 2? Steam is giving it for free, but the game has 23% positive recent reviews.
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I know thats not a risk for you, but this data could genuinely be used by the us government to do that in the near future, for many marginalized populations.
Especially queer people and anyone who could be seen as an immigrant.
Some of us have real problems in life, and have to actually give literally a single fuck about the world.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Yes, the government is going to get you by installing spyware in a game launcher that nobody uses. You won't care a shit about or vet at code level any of the 200+ closed source games you will play in your life because they're all fine in your fantasy land, but one game launcher is out to kidnap you.
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Yes, the government is going to get you by installing spyware in a game launcher that nobody uses. You won't care a shit about or vet at code level any of the 200+ closed source games you will play in your life because they're all fine in your fantasy land, but one game launcher is out to kidnap you.
You know the parent company has military contracts, right?
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There is nuance here. Not every crack is malicious but you have to assume they all are because some of them are. Trusting a source is irrelevant. Many security products will falsely tag cracked software as dangerous just because it’s cracked, not because it found a specific bit of nasty code, and this feeds the idea that you can’t believe when people tell you cracked software is unsafe. But there are many truly bad cracks out there. When in doubt, don’t trust it.
And you should always doubt free shit.
Same is true of any software these days, not just cracks...
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If a game, application, device or EULA changes in a way you find unacceptable, after you've purchased it, you should be able to get your initial purchase price back. And if you paid with your data, you need to be able to demand they delete all your data. I think that law would be entirely reasonable and would do a lot of good.
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Same is true of any software these days, not just cracks...
This is true. Even projects with good reputations get caught up in shit like the XZ back door in Linux.
If you haven’t read up on that fiasco, you really should look into it. It got way too far before being caught all because people suck and ruin things for others.
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They added spyware to it.
No, they didn't.
Just because something sounds outrageous, doesn't mean it is true.
Borderlands 2 hasn't been updated since 2022:
Borderlands - Last updated: 3 August 2016
Borderlands 2 - Last updated: 4 August 2022
Borderlands 3 - Last updated: 8 August 2024No Borderlands titles include anti-cheat: https://areweanticheatyet.com/?search=borderlands
Here is another person, 7 years ago trying the exact same outrage-based engagement farming strategy of linking a TOS update and implying a nefarious intent: https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/8naopt/take_two_a_spyware_apocalypse/ It's exactly the same "Take two is spying on you!!!" content and yet, none of the Borderlands games have added spyware and none have added kernel anti-cheat.
Also, if you read the 2018 and 2025 TOS you will notice notice that the information that they collect in the 2025 TOS ( https://www.take2games.com/legal/en-US/ ) is exactly the same as it was in 2018.
TL;DR - Just because you read it on the Internet, doesn't mean it is true.
I sometimes wonder what I casually believe because I read it while scrolling for something interesting. I don't have the time or inclination to fact check every single detail I come across.
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I sometimes wonder what I casually believe because I read it while scrolling for something interesting. I don't have the time or inclination to fact check every single detail I come across.
Totally. And then these rebuttals are time consuming to fact check too.
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I sometimes wonder what I casually believe because I read it while scrolling for something interesting. I don't have the time or inclination to fact check every single detail I come across.
I'm sure I believe a lot of nonsense from reading the Internet.
That's okay, we're just human. The problem is when people try to 'inform' people of things that they 'know' from reading social media. That's how these situations are created, so many people believe this because so many other people believe it and then repeat it as fact without themselves ever checking.
It's like a feedback loop of ignorance, caused entirely by people who care more about getting social credit for talking and less about saying things that are true.
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They added spyware to it.
No, they didn't.
Just because something sounds outrageous, doesn't mean it is true.
Borderlands 2 hasn't been updated since 2022:
Borderlands - Last updated: 3 August 2016
Borderlands 2 - Last updated: 4 August 2022
Borderlands 3 - Last updated: 8 August 2024No Borderlands titles include anti-cheat: https://areweanticheatyet.com/?search=borderlands
Here is another person, 7 years ago trying the exact same outrage-based engagement farming strategy of linking a TOS update and implying a nefarious intent: https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/8naopt/take_two_a_spyware_apocalypse/ It's exactly the same "Take two is spying on you!!!" content and yet, none of the Borderlands games have added spyware and none have added kernel anti-cheat.
Also, if you read the 2018 and 2025 TOS you will notice notice that the information that they collect in the 2025 TOS ( https://www.take2games.com/legal/en-US/ ) is exactly the same as it was in 2018.
TL;DR - Just because you read it on the Internet, doesn't mean it is true.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Interesting. So the terms of service have not changed, and yet people are saying that they did. I wonder if there are criticisms that are still valid. For example, the terms of service that you linked:
- do not let me use a VPN (¶6.4)
- do not let me use glitches (¶6.4)
- do not let me own the copy of the game that I bought, but instead give me a limited license to it (¶2.1-2.2)
- do not inform me about future updates to their terms of service (¶10.2)
- force me to enter arbitration and do not let me be part of a class action lawsuit or have a trial by jury (¶17.5)
- link to their privacy policy, which:
- does not let me opt out of having my data bought, merged, and sold through ad networks or data brokers (§ Categories of Information Collected, § How We Use Information and Our Legal Grounds, § Sources of Information We Collect, and § When We Share Information ¶ 5— all sources combined)
- does not attempt to deliberately minimize data collection to protect my data. With the only exception of children's data, their purposes are extremely vague (§ How We Use Information and Our Legal Grounds, as well as the entire document, because they do not attempt to do this in their privacy policy)
- does not attempt to anonymize my data (I cannot provide a citation because there is no attempt to do this in their privacy policy)
- does not specify the purposes of gathering and using information about any installed application on my device (§ Categories of Information Collected— this is especially worrying)
- does not let me opt-out of data collection categories for specific purposes (cannot give a direct citation because they simply do not do it; instead, they wrote vague types of information they collect —such as "details about... other information related to installed applications" in § Categories of Information Collected, as well as vague purposes in § How We Use Information)
So, coming back to the original claim you were debunking:
They added spyware to it.
Your response was
No, they didn’t.
And I agree with you, now that I have read their terms of service and their privacy policy. Of course, we're assuming that they haven't changed their terms of service. If we assume that, then their spyware clauses weren't added. No. They were always there. They have always said that they gather "details about... other information related to installed applications" on my device for purposes that can include merging and selling my data to data brokers and ad networks.
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Interesting. So the terms of service have not changed, and yet people are saying that they did. I wonder if there are criticisms that are still valid. For example, the terms of service that you linked:
- do not let me use a VPN (¶6.4)
- do not let me use glitches (¶6.4)
- do not let me own the copy of the game that I bought, but instead give me a limited license to it (¶2.1-2.2)
- do not inform me about future updates to their terms of service (¶10.2)
- force me to enter arbitration and do not let me be part of a class action lawsuit or have a trial by jury (¶17.5)
- link to their privacy policy, which:
- does not let me opt out of having my data bought, merged, and sold through ad networks or data brokers (§ Categories of Information Collected, § How We Use Information and Our Legal Grounds, § Sources of Information We Collect, and § When We Share Information ¶ 5— all sources combined)
- does not attempt to deliberately minimize data collection to protect my data. With the only exception of children's data, their purposes are extremely vague (§ How We Use Information and Our Legal Grounds, as well as the entire document, because they do not attempt to do this in their privacy policy)
- does not attempt to anonymize my data (I cannot provide a citation because there is no attempt to do this in their privacy policy)
- does not specify the purposes of gathering and using information about any installed application on my device (§ Categories of Information Collected— this is especially worrying)
- does not let me opt-out of data collection categories for specific purposes (cannot give a direct citation because they simply do not do it; instead, they wrote vague types of information they collect —such as "details about... other information related to installed applications" in § Categories of Information Collected, as well as vague purposes in § How We Use Information)
So, coming back to the original claim you were debunking:
They added spyware to it.
Your response was
No, they didn’t.
And I agree with you, now that I have read their terms of service and their privacy policy. Of course, we're assuming that they haven't changed their terms of service. If we assume that, then their spyware clauses weren't added. No. They were always there. They have always said that they gather "details about... other information related to installed applications" on my device for purposes that can include merging and selling my data to data brokers and ad networks.
The language about collecting and using data have been in TOSs for basically every online service since the early '00s.
I'm not saying that this is okay. The data that these services collect, which we've given them unlimited rights to, has only become more valuable and the incentives for these companies are always for them to gather more data about you.
You can use archive.org if you want to look at older policies from the same company. But, if you pull up any other game with an online component you will see that they all are essentially "Don't cheat our services or hide your identity, We're going to collect your data and use it how we want, and you have to enter into binding arbitration" with various levels of detail and verbosity.
