RED SHELL Spyware in Steam Games

Really crappy situation, good that someone found out about it and things are "changing now".

The tracked data doesn't seem to be that bad. It still sucks that they didn't even bother to tell the users that they got tracked.

Oh noes, they gonna find my hidden p**n

Good thing ASF protects me from such malware, unlike apparenly every AntiVirus out there. :P

Thank you for making this thread and raising awareness about this issue!

E.g. VAC is technically also tracking "outside of game" (with going into DNS cache and whatnot), and seems more intrusive about it (without really telling) - and if one gets banned for playing one of hundreds of games using VAC, perhaps because someone at Valve decided that Uplay, GOG, or Origin is clearly a cheating program, or because someone in an internet cafe infected a terminal previously and the program kept running, or ..., then one gets it nicely visible for everyone on the account profile page without really any details about it. All of which simply because casual gaming is considered very serious business.

That doesn't mean that e.g. Red Shell would be alright because in comparison not as intrusive. But if nothing else, in case of Red Shell one can at least Opt-out:
https://redshell.io/optout
and/or block the domains it is using without fear of getting a ban and/or no more access to the paid-for content.

And if one wants to fight that "fight", the issue is way broader, with as mentioned e.g. VAC not coming with a pop-up at least on first launch of a game that would say something as: "Do you agree that by playing this game we will totally scan your computer and tell all your friends that you are a cheater if we somewhat mysteriously decide that you are?".

At least they are honest with the title of the next game haha.. Holy Potatoes! A Spy Story?! Available: Sneaking Soon

Thank you for the information.

In a similar story, the application for Android has incorporated a considerable proportion of FB API and gathered information.
I forgot the details. XD

Uninstalled Sid Meier's Civilization VI

Cheers for the heads up weiro565. Much appreciated :-)

Thanks for raising awareness. I already blackholled their adress.
if anyone still want to play their games without beying spyed on, I suggest you do the same.
for the curious, this is my hosts file:

0.0.0.0 redshell.io api.redshell.io
0.0.0.0 treasuredata.com api.treasuredata.com
0.0.0.0 config.uca.cloud.unity3d.com
0.0.0.0 cdp.cloud.unity3d.com

EDIT: I'm using linux btw, you might need to put things diferently on windows.

Creative assembly has removed redshell from total war games.

The only game I have on that list is Kerbal Space Program. I deleted the RedShellSDK.dll and the game still works. It was already blocked on my firewall, so it couldn't send data to them anyway. I searched my entire system for redshell* and there are no other traces of it.

bump

Kerbal Space Program just downloaded an update that removes RedShell.

Thank you, uninstalled civ 6 too !

Did anyone check that "Cousine Royale" yet?

Decided not to buy Holy Potatoes series because of this. Shame, because I liked them.

I've played Holy Potatoes( and uninstalled after playing) :O just ran a search and came up empty so just edited hosts file as a precaution. I did not expect this scummy practice from games but guess I should've known better.

take that, red shell 😠

View attached image.

"Fortunately, many developers already said they will remove the spyware in their games, but I still think of it as a breach of trust."

I agree, they did not hesitate to trample on consumer rights, how can we trust them not to try Scarlet Shell or Burgundy Shell next time, or whatever damn colour of shell they may think they could get away with? I do not want to support developers like that if I can help it. There are plenty of good games made by decent people who do their best not to rip us off or try to manipulate us through collected data. I'd rather give my money to them.

The developers who pledged to remove this spyware from their games, how many of them would have removed it had they not been exposed? How many of them will truly not use the data they already collected?

In my opinion games on Steam are potentially riddled with spyware. The reasoning for them is to see the gaming/purchasing patterns, pretty much like what facebook is tracking. I have a facebook account but I do not use it, only when its required. I am not sure how safe GoG is but you do not need to play their DRM-Free games online. Download and play, just like old times.

My question is, if you have a question why not just post an AMA to the gamers rather than doing things sheepishly? Reach out and learn from people whom actually plays your game and take in constructive arguments. Even with the data you've gathered do not tell you the whole story.

Cheers~