[casual_games] Casual Games audience hardware survey ?

[Hal Barwood]

I think most developers, who have a pretty good mental model of what 
goes on inside their computers and who also have a positive interest in 
prying (as in the current topic), tell themselves reassuring tales about 
the acceptability of this practice.  Developers, however, aren't 
demographically congruent with our players, to put it kindly.  Most 
people I know who are civilians are either hyper-careful of 
virus/privacy issues these days, or if they're kind of out-of-it, don't 
care at all.  I'm guessing that both fractions are large, that a lot of 
folks don't share developers blasé attitudes, and will shy away from 
probes with alarming thoughts of malware dancing in their heads.

Microsoft can get away with this stuff because they provide the whole 
darn operating system, they're pretty explicitly non-invasive, they've 
got deep pockets, and we know where to find them.  Smaller entities 
don't necessarily have the same tolerance/trust/goodwill in their favor, 
so I think we need to be careful.


Eric Guenterberg wrote:
> I think generally if you just inform people that you are collecting
> the information and give them a chance to opt out, they'll be fine
> with it. If you get caught, it will be a big scandal even if it's
> harmless. I rarely opt out of information gathering unless my name is
> tied to the information.
> 
> --Eric Guenterberg
> 
> On 5/8/06, Jonas Beckeman <list at jobe.nu> wrote:
>> > Before I could use such a tool
>> > I would need to have some questions answered about privacy issues.
>>
>> We never reached a conclusion... If you don't collect IP numbers or info
>> that can help identify a computer or individual, is there really any
>> problem?
>>
>> I've never had any site ask me if I'm OK with leaving my IP number, 
>> referrer
>> and browsing history (and I think most sites store those variables), so I
>> wonder which laws in which countries require you to do that? Where are 
>> you
>> located, what are the laws you've designed you visitor info collection
>> policy around?
>>
>> -- 
>> No virus found in this outgoing message.
>> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
>> Version: 7.1.392 / Virus Database: 268.5.5/333 - Release Date: 2006-05-05
>>
>>
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