Read the EULA sometime on a game you “own” on steam (or any platform for that matter).
Almost without a doubt you’re being granted a license to one copy of the game used the way they say it can be used. Most of the licenses are revokable for violating the conditions, many just outright say “hey we can take this away at any time for any reason and you can suck it” which is in a legal gray area I suppose.
As far as how it’s legal, you don’t have to do business with any of these various entities and you’re agreeing to their terms when you get their product. Plus, like you said, there is very little consumer protections in place.
I agree we need more consumer protections on general and particularly for digital purchases. However, at least in the USA, the prevailing political winds are heavily in favor of companies and anti consumer. The Trump admin basically dismantled the bureau of consumer protection so … That should tell you their priorities.
Yeah I’m just saying like … It’s been anti consumerist from the very beginning. Particularly when games started to get made by studios, publishers got involved etc.
I agree with the premise that it should not be like this.
It’s literally because of consumer protection laws. GDPR requires the deletion of unused data, to ensure companies aren’t just holding onto your data indefinitely. This is simply the consequence of that, because Sony has apparently determined that three years is enough of a threshold to be considered “unused”.
No, it’s not for GDPR compliance. It’s like this talking point “stupid data protection laws, all those cookie banners”. Nobody is forcing any company to use all those shitty tracking cookies ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Because it isn’t a lie. Companies need to justify why they are retaining personal information after they stop using it. If they can’t justify it, they need to delete it.
And you think Sony is going to put their neck on the line to try and argue that keeping old unused accounts open is a justifiable reason? They have literally zero incentive to do so, and a large profit incentive to delete accounts as soon as they can reasonably argue that they are too old. Because that will push people towards re-buying games they already purchased once before.
Companies need to justify why they are retaining personal information
And the justification is “this person holds a perpetual software license with us and we need to be able to grant them access unless they tell us otherwise”. Case closed.
BS. You only have to prove it for the individual account. They obviously don’t have to delete my data because
you have no software purchases on your account.
I’ve honestly had it with all the anti GDPR fearmongering and propaganda. It’s not some eldritch horror that will eat your company if it notices you. It’s a powerful and at the same time pretty reasonable customer protection tool. As long as companies don’t take more data than they need to do the business the customer actually came to them for and make sure only people who need to work with the data can acces it they are in the clear 100% of the time.
It’s totally easy to check if an account has a digital software purchase on it or not. That’s just one database query. Sony is totally able to solve that.
Easy on a technical level, yes, but also harder to define in a legal document level.
A game counts - obvious. Does a game demo count? Does one piece of microtransaction DLC count in a F2P game? How does a legal document define those things?
Now that scrutiny is on it, it seems like people would’ve preferred they define this granularly. But at the time, I’m going to guess they decided it wasn’t worth legal risk of having people they did not reserve the right to delete, but also needed to delete for GDPR.
It really reveals the nature of your purchase, doesn’t it? Apparently you are just buying some entries in a database. Sadly any software we can’t use offline can just be deleted like this. The pendulum swung too far towards the cloud, hopefully it comes back down to earth soon.
GDPR isn’t new, and no company was forced to do that.
Might as well block the highway with my car saying that the law forces me to do that, because I cannot pass cars on the left lane, and I point to the “right” lane (opposite direction traffic) on the other side of the barrier.
But good news, according to EU regulations you should just a toilet in your house, you are meant to spew shite into it.
how is that even legal?
we need better consumer protection for digital purchases.
Read the EULA sometime on a game you “own” on steam (or any platform for that matter).
Almost without a doubt you’re being granted a license to one copy of the game used the way they say it can be used. Most of the licenses are revokable for violating the conditions, many just outright say “hey we can take this away at any time for any reason and you can suck it” which is in a legal gray area I suppose.
As far as how it’s legal, you don’t have to do business with any of these various entities and you’re agreeing to their terms when you get their product. Plus, like you said, there is very little consumer protections in place.
I agree we need more consumer protections on general and particularly for digital purchases. However, at least in the USA, the prevailing political winds are heavily in favor of companies and anti consumer. The Trump admin basically dismantled the bureau of consumer protection so … That should tell you their priorities.
I know, no digital purchase actually has the product, just a license, unless you get a drm free product.
Yeah I’m just saying like … It’s been anti consumerist from the very beginning. Particularly when games started to get made by studios, publishers got involved etc.
I agree with the premise that it should not be like this.
It’s literally because of consumer protection laws. GDPR requires the deletion of unused data, to ensure companies aren’t just holding onto your data indefinitely. This is simply the consequence of that, because Sony has apparently determined that three years is enough of a threshold to be considered “unused”.
GDPR only requires that, if there is no legitimate use for keeping the data. Ongoing software license is a legitimate use.
Yes, but not every single PSN account has any software licenses. Some people are just playing F2P games or subbing to PS+.
But, it’s trickier to word their clause in such a way that it only specifically applies to free accounts.
Whether it’s trickier or not doesn’t matter. Sony is an enormous company, any difference in lawyer fees would be miniscule.
No, it’s not for GDPR compliance. It’s like this talking point “stupid data protection laws, all those cookie banners”. Nobody is forcing any company to use all those shitty tracking cookies ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Why lie about something like this?
Because it isn’t a lie. Companies need to justify why they are retaining personal information after they stop using it. If they can’t justify it, they need to delete it.
And you think Sony is going to put their neck on the line to try and argue that keeping old unused accounts open is a justifiable reason? They have literally zero incentive to do so, and a large profit incentive to delete accounts as soon as they can reasonably argue that they are too old. Because that will push people towards re-buying games they already purchased once before.
And the justification is “this person holds a perpetual software license with us and we need to be able to grant them access unless they tell us otherwise”. Case closed.
Do they?
Please prove that every single PSN account has digital software purchases on it. EVERY single one.
If you fail, you’re liable for GDPR and are holding customer data past its use!
BS. You only have to prove it for the individual account. They obviously don’t have to delete my data because you have no software purchases on your account.
I’ve honestly had it with all the anti GDPR fearmongering and propaganda. It’s not some eldritch horror that will eat your company if it notices you. It’s a powerful and at the same time pretty reasonable customer protection tool. As long as companies don’t take more data than they need to do the business the customer actually came to them for and make sure only people who need to work with the data can acces it they are in the clear 100% of the time.
It’s totally easy to check if an account has a digital software purchase on it or not. That’s just one database query. Sony is totally able to solve that.
Easy on a technical level, yes, but also harder to define in a legal document level.
A game counts - obvious. Does a game demo count? Does one piece of microtransaction DLC count in a F2P game? How does a legal document define those things?
Now that scrutiny is on it, it seems like people would’ve preferred they define this granularly. But at the time, I’m going to guess they decided it wasn’t worth legal risk of having people they did not reserve the right to delete, but also needed to delete for GDPR.
It absolutely is a lie.
It really reveals the nature of your purchase, doesn’t it? Apparently you are just buying some entries in a database. Sadly any software we can’t use offline can just be deleted like this. The pendulum swung too far towards the cloud, hopefully it comes back down to earth soon.
yhea, that is 100% bullshit.
GDPR isn’t new, and no company was forced to do that.
Might as well block the highway with my car saying that the law forces me to do that, because I cannot pass cars on the left lane, and I point to the “right” lane (opposite direction traffic) on the other side of the barrier.
But good news, according to EU regulations you should just a toilet in your house, you are meant to spew shite into it.