Steam Deals and Digital Sales

Itzena_sl · Jan 2, 2015

Vaclav_sl said:
I use Mint

Reminder: Mint sells your shit to third parties.

Also: Recettear at 75% off. Go buy it.

Deathwing · Jan 2, 2015

Shouldn't you assume any website with your information sells it to third parties?

Vaclav · Jan 2, 2015

Itzena_sl said:
Reminder: Mint sells your shit to third parties.

Also: Recettear at 75% off. Go buy it.

From the terms of use: We neither rent nor sell your personal information to anyone without your express consent. We share personal information only with our business partners, affiliates and agents as described in this Privacy Policy.

Agents, Business Partners and when legally obligated to. (and they've got a caveat in case they ever sell it that the new owners would obviously have the same information)

Why do people quote random shit without even taking six seconds to look into it? Perhaps you're confusing mint.com with something else, I can think of plenty of other financial "helpers" that do. (or perhaps pre-Intuit Mint.com did)

Intuit wouldn't let their name get sullied by shady stuff - they're worth too much from Quicken to risk their name making people doubt anything - if people can't trust them on one side, people would stop trusting them with Quicken and they'd die in a heartbeat.

AngryGerbil · Jan 2, 2015

Vorph_sl said:
I bought Wasteland 2 at 1PM on the dot after waffling back and forth about it for three days about whether or not I'd actually find time to play it before it goes on sale again, for less. I wanted D:OS too now that the game isn't being patched daily, but Larian's going to need to do better than -33%.

Wasteland 2 turned me off at first due to its not great graphics and the somewhat hamfisted intro, but I stuck with it and ended up really enjoying it. It deserves its place in the conversation with the Fallout series, if those were ever your bag (they have always been mine). Start on nothing less than at least hard difficulty though.

Tanoomba · Jan 2, 2015

Itzena_sl said:
Also: Recettear at 75% off. Go buy it.

I did. No idea when I'll ever play it, but it seemed interesting enough and I'm a sucker for anime aesthetics.

Sludig · Jan 2, 2015

Ugh, did good since this is first whole year I went with like 2 purchases waiting for sale. Felt like from assorted games I probably spent like $60...... went to history.... $115. Ouch, Gabes scheme works.

Captain Suave · Jan 3, 2015

Vaclav_sl said:
Business Partners

I'm a "business partner" with everyone I sell things to.

Edit:

From theprivacy policy- "Intuit Mint Bills, Inc., an Intuit company may share your personal information with Intuit Inc., and its affiliates and subsidiaries, to provide joint content, products, services, and for everyday business purposes."

"Affiliates" in combination with "products, services, and for everyday business purposes" means they do whatever they want with your info.

Zaphid · Jan 3, 2015

Sludig_sl said:
Ugh, did good since this is first whole year I went with like 2 purchases waiting for sale. Felt like from assorted games I probably spent like $60...... went to history.... $115. Ouch, Gabes scheme works.

40$

Really, this sale wasn't too bad, then again, I bought the PA arcana in dota 2 a month earlier.

Vaclav · Jan 3, 2015

Captain Suave_sl said:
I'm a "business partner" with everyone I sell things to.

Edit:

From theprivacy policy- "Intuit Mint Bills, Inc., an Intuit company may share your personal information with Intuit Inc., and its affiliates and subsidiaries, to provide joint content, products, services, and for everyday business purposes."

"Affiliates" in combination with "products, services, and for everyday business purposes" means they do whatever they want with your info.

"We will not, without your permission, sell, publish, or share your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes... Our affiliates and subsidiaries will send you marketing communications only if you have requested their services."

And then there's some caveats for if you're using the Bill Pay functionality that (obviously) they need to share some information involuntarily if you do that.

I've requested zilch on the email address I use and have yet to get a piece of related spam (it's literally just my "financial services" email - brokerage stuff and Mint is it - gets a weekly update from Mint, my monthly brokerage statement, and responses from my Wells broker when I have him trade for me [my other broker I still have in my main email - but being that one is family and he always communicates to me on his non-work email address, I kinda have to - I rarely have him trade for me though, let him autopilot that trust almost entirely]) - and since moving to my new home address I've gotten zero spam snail mail from them or otherwise in three months now.

There's a reason Intuit's been a trusted brand for 20+ years now. It's not because they sell people's information (which they could get plenty of thanks to all the Quicken connections). Now that's not to say you shouldn't be careful using their services because OTHER PEOPLE might try to take advantage of how much information they've got available and trick you into releasing it to them, but if you're not stupid - they're not scam artists like many other financial online tools.

Rezz · Jan 3, 2015

Not entirely related but I've been using Intuit software for over a decade and have never had anything resembling a targeted email fired off at me.

Also: $73 this holiday season. I picked up a lot of shit that I have actually "demoed" before but enjoyed enough to pick up. Lots of indie shit too.

Vorph · Jan 3, 2015

AngryGerbil_sl said:
Wasteland 2 turned me off at first due to its not great graphics and the somewhat hamfisted intro, but I stuck with it and ended up really enjoying it. It deserves its place in the conversation with the Fallout series, if those were ever your bag (they have always been mine). Start on nothing less than at least hard difficulty though.

I played Wasteland in 1988, so yeah... definitely my bag. inXile hasn't exactly been known for making the greatest games though, and I'd heard mixed reviews of Wasteland 2 while it was in beta and shortly after release. Still trying to figure out why the game is 30GB too...

Captain Suave · Jan 3, 2015

Vaclav_sl said:
"We will not, without your permission, sell, publish, or share your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes... Our affiliates and subsidiaries will send you marketing communications only if you have requested their services."

And then there's some caveats for if you're using the Bill Pay functionality that (obviously) they need to share some information involuntarily if you do that.

I've requested zilch on the email address I use and have yet to get a piece of related spam (it's literally just my "financial services" email - brokerage stuff and Mint is it - gets a weekly update from Mint, my monthly brokerage statement, and responses from my Wells broker when I have him trade for me [my other broker I still have in my main email - but being that one is family and he always communicates to me on his non-work email address, I kinda have to - I rarely have him trade for me though, let him autopilot that trust almost entirely]) - and since moving to my new home address I've gotten zero spam snail mail from them or otherwise in three months now.

There's a reason Intuit's been a trusted brand for 20+ years now. It's not because they sell people's information (which they could get plenty of thanks to all the Quicken connections). Now that's not to say you shouldn't be careful using their services because OTHER PEOPLE might try to take advantage of how much information they've got available and trick you into releasing it to them, but if you're not stupid - they're not scam artists like many other financial online tools.

There are many other uses for data besides direct marketing. I've worked in financial services analytics. They're using your info to build models and profiles and sharing/reselling both the data and models to third parties.

I'm not saying Intuit is worse than anyone else, but I trust any free product as far as I can throw it. They're not a charity. The only thing you provide them in exchange for their software is your data. You can bet your last dollar that they're monetizing you in every way not expressly forbidden under the narrowest interpretation of the policy.

Vaclav · Jan 3, 2015

The advertising they promote in product is likely their primary financial source - not to mention all the "suggestions" it will promote when you say you want to save for X and if you say you don't have an account set up - when it pushes some suggestions at you. And some aggregation like you're talking about - but that's non-individual so it doesn't much matter for privacy purposes.

Or more completely:

How Does Mint.com Make Money?

The service is free to use, and there are no hidden fees; this is otherwise known as the freemium model. You might be asking, "How does Mint make money from this free service?". Well, they make money by offering "ways to save" or make you money by recommending various financial services in which they get a referral fee. They also recently introduced ad banners in various parts of the web site to monetize users. Additionally, you can now sign up for premium access to your credit report.

Mint also sells the aggregate (not your individual) financial data to various providers. Things like: consumer spending, the average credit card balance, how many retirement accounts a user may have, etc. It must be stressed, the data is collected anonymously and does not reference back to individual usage.

Also note more related comments elsewhere from the review:

Since I'm in the technology industry and deal with security all the time, I know the risks of leaving security to a third party. Mind you, I'm not saying Mint is insecure. In many cases an individual's desktop computer is much less secure. Of course, for Mint the perception of security is their biggest adoption road block.

Ninen · Jan 3, 2015

Captain Suave_sl said:
There are many other uses for data besides direct marketing. I've worked in financial services analytics.They're using your info to build models and profiles and sharing/reselling both the data and models to third parties.

I'm not saying Intuit is worse than anyone else, but I trust any free product as far as I can throw it. They're not a charity. The only thing you provide them in exchange for their software is your data. You can bet your last dollar that they're monetizing you in every way not expressly forbidden under the narrowest interpretation of the policy.

And if you think that your paid solution isn't doing the exact same thing, I've got a bridge to sell you. No-one leaves money on the table.

I'm all for protecting your direct privacy, and I'm thankful for the tools we have to do that (while in no way implying that they are wholly sufficient). But there has never been privacy once you become aggregate data, and there likely never will be.

Hell, the TinFoil Hatters that go live off grid out in the hills get collected in their own little sub-file with the rest of the TinFoil Hatter Hill People; which is then used for tracking and modeling and blahblahblah; and thus aren't immune to modern times.

Erronius · Jan 3, 2015

This derail is bad and you all should feel bad

Big Phoenix · Jan 3, 2015

As bad as your avatar?

Izo · Jan 3, 2015

Big Phoenix_sl said:
As bad as your avatar?

Who is that other guy sporting it too? Annoying as hell.

EDIT: Vinyard is the one.

Erronius · Jan 4, 2015

If it annoys you two then it's gotta be good

Duppin_sl · Jan 4, 2015

As much as it pains me, I agree with Erronius. Take the "waaaaah my privacies!" shit to another thread.

TecKnoe · Jan 5, 2015

idk where to put this and I don't want to make a new thread but I just got this wireless adapter thing for my pc for my xbro controller, and after I downloaded the drivers and all that the controller does not seem to wanna connect to the adapter and get recognized anyone have any issues?

followed this
How to Set Up an Xbox Controller for a PC

everything installs just fine but when I press both buttons to get them to connect to eachother but nada.

Steam Deals and Digital Sales

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