Valve has decided to no longer support Google Analytics, which could have noticeable implications for game developers. This would affect those who especially rely on the tool to get detailed information about who's viewing their Steam pages, so they can better determine the type of audience they're reaching.
Valve Utilizing Internal Traffic Reporting Tools To Enhance User Privacy
According to the story by PC Gamer, Valve, the creator of the enormously popular video game platform Steam, recently announced that they would discontinue their use of Google Analytics to track game developer statistics about who is visiting their Steam pages.
Instead, Valve will be utilizing its own internal traffic reporting tools to ensure the privacy of its users better while still understanding how people are engaging with their platform. Understanding how people engage with their platform is important to consider when maintaining any successful business.
Knowing who is utilizing their platform and how often it is used is the best way to make decisions that benefit everyone without this data, Valve could not decide how best to structure the platform, what features to build, and even what languages to support.
Up until now, developers have been able to rely on Google Analytics to determine the sources of Steam page traffic and make decisions on the language they would support, servers they would need to locate, and even what demographic they are targeting.
Introducing Regional Breakdown Feature: A Step Towards Improved Steam Traffic Reporting Tools
They would be able to track visitors' ages, gender, race, and other identifying information to which Valve claims it will no longer provide access. Valve claims they are making trade-offs with privacy in mind, not to provide personally identifiable information and are "focused on improving its own Steam traffic reporting tools."
To that end, they have announced introducing a regional breakdown feature that will give developers a better understanding of the geographical sources of their network traffic.
The switch away from Google Analytics is seen by many as an effective move to put Valve in better compliance with its own privacy policy, which states that they do not track personally identifiable information.
According to their blog post, Valve has not received any direct response from Google on their stance, claiming that Google's tracking was not "aligning well with their approach to customer privacy." That being said, Valve's new features for tracking platform usage are certainly a welcomed addition.
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Valve Taking Steps to Protect Visitor Privacy on Steam Platform
As they continue to make strides to better adhere to their customer privacy policy, Valve may better understand how people engage with the Steam platform to make decisions that benefit everyone.
This all boils down to the fact that Valve is taking customer privacy seriously and doing all it can to protect visitors' data. The company is taking the initiative to ensure customers can't be tracked, even if some of the data developers used to collect won't be available anymore.
The privacy of Steam visitors should be a priority for Valve, and the company is ensuring it follows through on that commitment.
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