Oh how nice, I'm forced Galaxy down my throat if I want to play their "Free" to Play.
Screw this shit.
I'm not going to work as a tester and also use a bugged client that erases my modded games.
I'll get the console version (PS 4) when it's released, if it's any good.

Much obliged. +1000

The website for gwent says it has in game purchases. AKA like mobile apps you get for free, i like free but if there are in game purchases to seems like a gimmick to give the game away and upsell to them later.

You certainly have a pretty selective definition of "data-mining..."

For the sake of the discussion, assume that when I write "data-mining" it means collecting information with the intent (immediate or in indeterminable future) to either directly profit from said information, or share it with third-parties not immediately related to the business contract producing such information.

I have. Aside from the fact that it's an "article" by a company selling data-analytics services, let's look at their arguments:

*Spambots

Pretty damn fallacious and far-fetched scenario. If the ISP is providing mailbox services, the "data collection" is part of the provided service (i.e. maintenance). If the ISP is NOT providing the e-mail services (as they claim is the purpose of "data-mining"), the ISP has no goddamn reason to snoop around somebody's e-mail. It's the e-mail provider's business to ensure no spambots are using THEIR service.

Also, No customer is going to be offended if you ask them if they are uploading traffic 24 hours per day if in the process you help eliminate Trojan horses and spambots from their computer. You damn better believe they would certainly get some serious questions about why they are going over my e-mail correspondence in the first place. Also, a constant heavy 24 hour/day traffic does not require examining e-mail messages if the contract prohibits running private servers. Not to mention that if they decide to do a deep-packed traffic inspection without a warrant, and admit to it, they are in deep legal shit whatever their intentions.

*Web servers

Another bloody idiotic argument. If a customer pays for certain bandwidth (with or without caps), they should damn well be able to use that service as they please. Unfortunately, at least in the U.S. the lobby behind ISPs is so strong the whole thing is completely fucked up and customer rights are an afterthought (we also get really shitty service courtesy of our paid-off politicians). I really like how they immediately go to "but somebody could be running a porn server!" as an argument. Totally unbiased quality writing right there, though they forgot the next step - reminding the reader to think of the children.

Bottom line - if you're an ISP and sell a service, what goes through your pipes is legal responsibility of the user, and you certainly are not deputized to act as the traffic police. Too many possibilities of abuse.

*Data caps

These measure "quantity" of traffic. The ONLY variable that they need to calculate and monitor is the bandwidth use. Not destination IPs, not traffic content, nothing whatsoever to do with personal details or user machine configuration.

*File sharing

Again, not their goddamn business. First of all, nowhere that I am aware of is file sharing illegal, for the simple reason that is certainly has plenty of legal application. There are law agencies that, technically, should be taking care of any abuse of it, but not without a fucking warrant and certainly not without judicial oversight. An ISP is NOT a cyber-cop, and the people employed in such organizations often are completely clueless about the legal aspect that comes with such monitoring. Unfortunately, see the above comment about strength of telecoms lobby and apply it worldwide. ISPs SHOULD operate as common carriers - unfortunately, in the US at least, that status also would come with requirements that would impact their current monopolistic status, so the laws on books are well paid for.

Filesharing is used in the same way that the "war on drugs" was used to push favorable (to special parties) laws. Such enforcement outside of very selective and highly professional institutions with stringent judicial oversight is a nightmare in the making, because guess what - the same infrastructure required to nab that pimply collegiate file-sharer can be VERY easily turned to monitor that political opposition candidate you want to nail.

The whole "article" is pretty much very selective bullshit aimed at people with limited technical knowledge. The fact that you cited it as an argument in favor of data-mining puts you in my book as either somebody seriously clueless on the subject, or purposefully spinning (for whatever reason).

Also, as others mentioned and I failed in my previous post - even if you have full trust in the Life-Long Glorious Leader of your country, the fact that data-mining is more of a corporate thing should be raising hairs on your head. Pretty much because of what Mintee so eloquently pointed out - that data is already in use against you, and this use will only become more wide-spread the more it is tolerated.

Just because we have the technical capacity to do something does not make it a good thing on its own. Neither does increased efficiency of doing something trump all other considerations.

Yeah, sure. Data-mining is great unless you have people involved, because as a species we are damn well prone to all manner of abuse and mischief.

Data-mining with current level (or lack thereof) of legal protection is pretty damn detrimental to the evolution of a society based on the Western values, because it creates an inequality between those in possession of such information and those without. Reminds me of one of my favorite, and so applicable, quotes from Alpha Centauri:

Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.

Unfortunately, as Facebook and co. proved, a vast majority of people either don't even think about such things, or are woefully uninformed as to the consequences of leniency in such an area.

/wall of text before it takes a whole page....

I dont think you have read my post,s at all
Because you are missing my entire point and keep pushing your aganda.
Yes im aware of the bad ways of doing datamining
and im also aware of the good ways of doing datamining.
I did say that facebock was not a great way of using dataming in case you missed it.
I repeat an agenda (yours)
does not need to be about financial gains.

Regarding the arguments from the link, i didnt say all the arguments from that company were good, i just said that you shoud read the link i posted.
Regarding caps
How else do you propose an isp going to track your bandwith cap?
Thats why i asked if you were born before internet.

"Edgy" words aside, yes, I have read your post. I have yet to see you provide a single example of data-mining (and do mind I did explain what I mean by that term in my previous post) as being ultimately beneficial to the customer (or, for that matter, society as a whole).

If you wish to continue this discussion, I will expect you to read my actual responses. In full. It's a complex issue, and one-liners don't exactly work (in fact, I'm pretty damn sure I would need several pages to elaborate on simply one of the many aspects of data-mining alone).

If the arguments weren't good, why exactly was I to read it?

You were using it as an example of "good" data-mining. I explained why the argumentation behind such claims is dubious, at best. If you were aware that the arguments presented were at least flawed, was there any particular reason you linked that in the first place for me to read it, then? Aside from wasting my time.

Oh, do read my previous post. I did explain the difference between data-mining and bandwidth usage metrics there.

In fact, I were. Which does give me the advantage of having seen the technology grow and change in many of its aspects.

There is no differance, the isp still collects data
but it does not collect alot of personal data if thats what you mean, but its still mining data
allthough just of traffic or usage.
So il ask again, how do you propose the isp going to track your bandwith usage?
Btw, in the last years the isp actually have startet to collect other forms of data as well.
One word : Terrorists.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Retention_Directive

There are of course ways to avoid this
as other people have mentioned in your thread.
You have vpn, darknet and probably some other methods as well.

Wow, what a steaming pile of marketing bs.

Do you even realize you just hit new bottom?

Step by step GOG became a real corporation.

What a pity.

For crying out loud, learn the basics of the tech before you come up with such arguments.

You can easily measure bandwidth throughput without snooping into what information is being sent and where it is going to or from. You bloody certainly have no reason to forward any of such information to any third-party company, and your customers should certainly assume that is not the case (or have legal protection against it, but who cares about the proles' rights anyway, especially when such data brings delicious money in).

It's about as an idiotic an argument as "you have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide." But I guess in your perfect world every time somebody comes to take a gas or electricity reading off your meter you also tell them all the details of your personal and professional life. Or something. Jesus.

You really don't read any of the shit you link, do you? Go to your link. Witness how this very directive got slapped down and annulled precisely because it was a privacy violation.

"Terrorists" get, in legal theory, snooped on by special agencies, not a generic ISP company. Unfortunately, at least in the US, there's a frightening push to abolish all the good parts that the Founding Fathers described as basis of a modern state, but at least you Euros get some more reasonable political stance in that area.

The whole goddamn point of a Western nation is not to have to resort to such means to maintain what has long been established as basic constituent rights in a modern non-totalitarian state.

ll act the same way as you do now.
For crying out loud the isp can still sell the data even if its just bandwidth throughput so you arguments are still invalid.
Its not about forwarding the data to a third party to earn money.
That wasnt my point.

About the directive.
My point was not about the directive itself
the point was that any govermment will collect and monitor internet activity if it feels its justified
And they dont place agents in evry internet provider company when they legaly can have the isp doing their job for them.
Forexample Child abuse or my earlier example terorists.
If an internet provider sees any suspicious activity regarding these two examples do you really think they are gonna wait for the antiterror units and police to start investigating?
lol, get a grip dude.
They will of course forward it to the correct authority and then the authority will in turn investigate it.
That doesnt mean the police wont monitor the internet themself in addition.

Heck, if you want examples were this is more extreme you have China
although there its more about cencorship and fredom of speach not being allowed when it comes to political matters.

You have still not answered my question by the way

Might want to start reading the crap I write. Because just a post before I pointed out that bandwidth use metrics (i.e. the information required to measure bandwidth use, in case that's not clear) would consist merely of... guess what. How much traffic was on your pipe. Not where, not what it contained, just how much. That's all.

I'm also pointing out there the need for protecting even such simple information from being handed over to a third party without express permission of the person generating the traffic. Something going beyond a sub-clause in a multi-page EULA, and not a requirement to use a service or whatnot.

Of course not. Remind me again what Facebook and Google made their billions on, if that's not the case?

Jumping Budda on a pogo stick...

Did you fucking miss the multiple posts where I'm writing very explicitly about the need to protect such activities from exactly that kind of "collecting and monitoring" for the sake of our Western values?

See bloody above. That's one of the two major points, the other being all the manner of mischief the corporations possessing such detailed information can get into. Much to your personal loss, I might add, you clueless twit.

I don't know how to politely go about it. It's an idiotic argument. Again, the fucking point is that the internet provider should NOT have the legal means of snooping around private communication going through their network. Think of the children or not, it's way too easy to abuse.

This is why we have special agencies to deal with such situations, because not only can this be very easily abused to target, say, political dissidents, but also because the legal framework that deals with such crimes is complex enough that somebody NOT highly trained might do too much damage to the process itself (plenty of cases in the U.S. get thrown out because the evidence was gathered outside of the prescribed procedures and as such is inadmissible).

See above about the ISPs having no goddamn business monitoring the traffic.

The police itself is purposefully prevented from blanket monitoring of communication (though this has been handily bypassed in the U.S. because "terrists"). You're welcome to enjoy your modern version of the Stasi or KGB, but I got enough of it for one lifetime. And back then they could only dream of the ease that modern tech allows to go about such things, it was all hard and expensive work. Shit, if the Soviets had this kind of technology I'm pretty damn sure USSR would still be around - just probably a bit less populous.

You want to live in a fucking China, I'll even buy you the ticket. Meanwhile, I'd rather try to recover what's left of the goddamn society that got us to this point, and one of the cornerstones of it is the right to privacy.

What question?

Storm in a tea cup guys

I find the game itself fun to play but the card picking system needs a basic redesign... Actual bugs are uncommon

wow, you are pretty sick if you mean your frredom shoud alow the abuse of small children that cant defend themself just for the sake of freedom.
You are forgetting something wery important, your freedom stops where other peoples freedom begin.
you hit just a new low.
Offcourse the isp have buisness monitoring that type of traffic so that sick perverts doesnt get the pleasure of looking at child porn.
Because such activity intrudes on a childs freedom.

Ask away (or go to the other thread), those of us who are actually playing will answer :)