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PlayStation can delete all your digital games after 3 years of inactivity (EU)

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Re: PlayStation can delete all your digital games after 3 years of inactivity (EU)

#31

Post by computomatic »

cccbbbaaa wrote: post #10
computomatic wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there evidence that European courts have sided with that? “We’re holding onto all your data indefinitely just in case you log in again several years from now” seems to be the antithesis of GDPR and I can’t discern the difference between that and what you’re suggesting. I believe EU has dug their own hole here. And the best move would be to pass more legislation to explicitly require the retention (and transfer, id…

No need to wait for the courts’ opinions: controllers must keep the data for a limited amount of time (which can be something like “3 years after the last connection”) under GDPR article 5(1)e.

5(1)c seems far more relevant than e. “Data minimization” is what’s relevant here. And the article is sufficiently vague that the onus is on companies to decide what is absolutely minimal - that includes, implicitly, removing inactive accounts. Unless the courts have made a judgement to the contrary.

Re: PlayStation can delete all your digital games after 3 years of inactivity (EU)

#32

Post by wing-_-nuts »

PaulHoule wrote: post #24
echelon wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huge capital overhead. Exhausting mid-lifecycle crunch that makes or breaks the next gen. Multiple giants. Meanwhile Steam just casually absorbing everything. It doesn't matter that it's porous. And now suddenly - hardware costs you can't tip toe schedule around. The console business is shitty.

Talk to console gamers and they still think the PC is sweaty and playing on the PC is like putting your hands in the toilet. I mean, I remember the 1990s when kids were playing flight simulators with this huge plastic joysticks that were always falling apart and needed to be calibrated every five minutes. It's not like that anymore, with Steam Big Picture and either an XBOX ONE or PS4/5 controller your PC is a better…

>Talk to console gamers and they still think the PC is sweaty and playing on the PC is like putting your hands in the toilet.

Eh, as someone who owns and plays on both pc and console, the simple truth of the matter is that playing on console is, for the most part, better 'bang for the buck'. You can reliably purchase a console and a budget linux laptop and both will reliably fill their respective niches for the next decade. PC gaming, in my experience, requires a much higher budget, and this was even before the modern pricing madness.

Consoles also had much wider support for couch coop than PC did, so it was a more social experience, and to be blunt, PC gaming has a pretty bad problem with cheating that I simply never experienced on console.

Like I said, I play and enjoy both. I can afford to do so now, but I do feel bad for teens today because even consoles are getting crazy expensive.

Re: PlayStation can delete all your digital games after 3 years of inactivity (EU)

#33

Post by derideor »

add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #30
buran77 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apart from steam, I don't think I've heard anything but bad news from modern consoles. Gabe is in his mid 60s, I'm prepared that in the next decade or so there will be a change of guard at Valve and the slow train of enshittification will get moving. P.S. There's been a lot of groupthink and bandwagoning for Valve, ignoring all the dirt under the rug. But at the end of the day, by comparison, they are the best beha…

The company that gave up making games because there was more money to be had from inserting itself as a middleman into a previously open platform does not deserve any adoration.

Then don't buy it through steam. Just buy it through a third party like greenmangaming. Valve gets zero cut there.

Re: PlayStation can delete all your digital games after 3 years of inactivity (EU)

#34

Post by CamperBob2 »

add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #30
buran77 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apart from steam, I don't think I've heard anything but bad news from modern consoles. Gabe is in his mid 60s, I'm prepared that in the next decade or so there will be a change of guard at Valve and the slow train of enshittification will get moving. P.S. There's been a lot of groupthink and bandwagoning for Valve, ignoring all the dirt under the rug. But at the end of the day, by comparison, they are the best beha…

The company that gave up making games because there was more money to be had from inserting itself as a middleman into a previously open platform does not deserve any adoration.

The market demanded a middleman. Would you prefer an Epic or Microsoft monopoly?

Re: PlayStation can delete all your digital games after 3 years of inactivity (EU)

#35

Post by LoganDark »

PaulHoule wrote: post #24
echelon wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huge capital overhead. Exhausting mid-lifecycle crunch that makes or breaks the next gen. Multiple giants. Meanwhile Steam just casually absorbing everything. It doesn't matter that it's porous. And now suddenly - hardware costs you can't tip toe schedule around. The console business is shitty.

Talk to console gamers and they still think the PC is sweaty and playing on the PC is like putting your hands in the toilet. I mean, I remember the 1990s when kids were playing flight simulators with this huge plastic joysticks that were always falling apart and needed to be calibrated every five minutes. It's not like that anymore, with Steam Big Picture and either an XBOX ONE or PS4/5 controller your PC is a better…

To me, the Steam Controller feels like holding a rectangle, not nearly as ergonomic as, say, an Xbox controller. It is otherwise decent though.

Re: PlayStation can delete all your digital games after 3 years of inactivity (EU)

#36

Post by fabian2k »

mindcrash wrote: post #22

Closing inactive accounts in the EU is due to (interpretation of) certain provisions set in the GDPR (e.g. article 5 - https://gdpr-info.eu/art-5-gdpr/ ) and Sony is not alone, many services in the EU automatically close and delete orphaned accounts after a given amount of time, and if they are international ones even when they don't outside of the EU. If implemented correctly the affected person is also warned/notif…

Those articles don't require deletion in this case, in my non-lawyer opinion. There is still a purpose to keeping the user's personal information here. Sony needs that information to be able to grant the user access to the content they bought.

There's a difference here between an account that hasn't been used and doesn't hold anything of value and an account like this that holds items that were bought.

Re: PlayStation can delete all your digital games after 3 years of inactivity (EU)

#37

Post by handoflixue »

mindcrash wrote: post #22

Closing inactive accounts in the EU is due to (interpretation of) certain provisions set in the GDPR (e.g. article 5 - https://gdpr-info.eu/art-5-gdpr/ ) and Sony is not alone, many services in the EU automatically close and delete orphaned accounts after a given amount of time, and if they are international ones even when they don't outside of the EU. If implemented correctly the affected person is also warned/notif…

The problem with email is that it's an email address from 3+ years ago, which means there's a much higher chance of it being out of date - are you still using XxCoolDude67xX from high school?

Consoles area also marketed heavily towards older teenagers and younger adults, who are exactly the ones unlikely to maintain a consistent email address.

And of course if your email provided decides to cut you off, or goes out of business, or you used a university email...

Re: PlayStation can delete all your digital games after 3 years of inactivity (EU)

#38

Post by Ntrails »

add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #30
buran77 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apart from steam, I don't think I've heard anything but bad news from modern consoles. Gabe is in his mid 60s, I'm prepared that in the next decade or so there will be a change of guard at Valve and the slow train of enshittification will get moving. P.S. There's been a lot of groupthink and bandwagoning for Valve, ignoring all the dirt under the rug. But at the end of the day, by comparison, they are the best beha…

The company that gave up making games because there was more money to be had from inserting itself as a middleman into a previously open platform does not deserve any adoration.

They still make and support games :)

Re: PlayStation can delete all your digital games after 3 years of inactivity (EU)

#39

Post by fabian2k »

crote wrote: post #26
cccbbbaaa wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No need to wait for the courts’ opinions: controllers must keep the data for a limited amount of time (which can be something like “3 years after the last connection”) under GDPR article 5(1)e.

To save everyone a click: > Personal data shall be: kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed. (..) Note that this does not say "it must be stored for a limited amount of time" - it says "no longer than necessary". Your basic account data (such as username and password, or an email for password recovery) is s…

I'd consider keeping the other personal data to be still easily justifiable, as you might want to support various account recovery options. And the odds that a user forgot their password only increases for old accounts.

Re: PlayStation can delete all your digital games after 3 years of inactivity (EU)

#40

Post by 0cf8612b2e1e »

amlib wrote: post #25
PaulHoule wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whatever you think about Microsoft, they are a good steward of their platforms and go to extremes to maintain backwards compatibility -- even if they are always moving your cheese in the UI.

Except for the hundred thousands if not millions of people who lost their Minecraft account due to the way Microsoft handled multiple successive account migrations, also including the many accounts that were stolen due to lax security. And since digital ownership legislation is a joke consumers have pretty much no recourse.

Beat me to it. I am still incredibly salty about losing my “lifetime” license to Minecraft. I really am curious to see some of the changes that have happened since I last played (when still owned by Notch), but I refuse to repurchase it.
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