Cyber Engine Tweaks [on Nexus again]

[Spockprime]

I would bet a weeks Twinkies that another mod creator will fill in the gap. After I left mod making (not because of Nexus but because of Bethesda) dozens of copies of my mods pop up down the road.

I certainly hope that's not what happens in this case. If new mods pop up to fill the gap, then I hope that they're original works of the new person, rather than copies of @yamasushi 's code. There's been more than enough of people's codes getting taken this week.

 

[The_Vulture]

[...] take it up with the nexus staff and their moderator that decided to come onto the github page and throw out insults.

I want to distance myself as clear as possible from such insults. I think it's low and a sign of a shitty character.
I wasn't aware of these insults and I hope I didn't add to the pile of shit and hassle that they may have caused.

I didn't know that the nexus staff and/or moderators hurled these insults themselves, but of course that would simply be the worst for all involved.

The modding-community is, or at least should be, about coming together and sharing a hobby or sometimes passion.

(edit: damn, you walk away from a thread for 2 or 3 hours to watch a movie with your SO, and the thread explodes, soory if am lagging behind)

 

[DanHavoc]

So people are upset that they have to click a checkbox to not let the mod count active users? Are these same people using the internet with any common browser on a Windows computer?

I would have preferred it were off by default if it's going to be present, but it's not big deal. Just turn it off if you want. And I recall the update itself being called 'telemetry' when it rolled out. I don't understand why this was such a big problem.

 

[Rawls]

Several posts deleted. If you can't post with kindness and respect, don't post.

 

[VanillaBaron]

There is not anything inherently suspicious about apps sending and receiving data over the internet. There is also nothing inherently suspicious about IP logging, if that were occurring here, which we are assured is not happening, and I believe those assurances. Regardless, IP logging by apps, webservers AND routers is so ubiquitous and commonplace that it really does not make sense to worry about it. IPs were never meant to be hidden or secret.

But, it should be noted that the argument that we can be certain that IP logging is not happening, because we can view 'source', is false. As a client, we have no idea what software a server is running, and it can deal with a curl request in any way it likes, including by logging the IP. Clients cannot know for sure that it is running the same program we have source code for.

I'll just reiterate - I do not think IP logging is bad, and, I believe the mod author when they say they are not logging IPs.

 

[specik]

Because anonymized data in theory is all nice and well, but in practice it's a bit more nuanced .

Researchers spotlight the lie of 'anonymous' data | TechCrunch

Researchers from two universities in Europe have published a method they say is able to correctly re-identify 99.98% of individuals in anonymized data

techcrunch.com

(for example)



Where did I ever say I didn't care about these kind of things?
I mean...



The server source code is public?
If that were true, it would change some of the specifics of this discussion, but my broader point still stands tbh.

GitHub - maximegmd/CyberEngineTweaksServer: Telemetry server for CET

Telemetry server for CET. Contribute to maximegmd/CyberEngineTweaksServer development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

 

[Tracido]

Honestly, anyone that thinks that Cyber Engine Tweaks collecting a user count is doing anything nefarious is off their rocker. The server source code is public, as well as the code for CET itself. It doesn't take a genius to look at the relevant code and see that what Yamashi is saying is in fact, true.

It's also ironic that if this is at the top of your concerns, you're not worried about Windows sending way more identifiable data to Microsoft, Chrome sending everything you do to Google, or the mere fact of opening an app on your smartphone generates dozens of identifiable telemetry requests.

I really don't understand where people get off on creating drama out of a simple user count that anyone can see at https://cet.tiltedphoques.com/stat. How about you channel this energy into doing something about the actual bad actors on the internet that reap your data hand over foot to sell you shit you don't need?

Post automatically merged: Feb 13, 2021

How in the hell does anonymized data pose a privacy risk? That makes no sense whatsoever.

Well, all I know is I'm drowning in mods that require this, so the game is officially dead for me without it. I saw that it can be ticked off and thought to myself, literally everyone I don't trust already knows too damn much of my personal info, this guy PROVIDED A TICK TO TURN IT OFF, & most do not.

I'd trust this modder a thousand fold over this company especially at this point.

 

[Heartstopper]

If you have a cow because one mod simply tracks a user count number then you should destroy your television, your phone, your computer, etc.

 

[ElsonsoJannus]

Hmm. For me, the issue isn't tracking, although it is an odd choice of the hill. The issue is that it is no longer convenient to obtain updates. For that reason, I will probably do without it, and the mods that require it.

 

[Klipperken]

Some share the CET through other means, for one.
Download and using are two different things all together, ainnit?
See it like this: 3 months into the project, many are coders, not one detected a "naughty" action save for the ping count.

I do not know what the reasons of this telemetry are, but many automatically thing "Oh, bye bye data I have stored!".
I know the people from CET fairly well by now, and I can say: they ain't all that evil...

... yet...
lol

 

[Heartstopper]

Hmm. For me, the issue isn't tracking, although it is an odd choice of the hill. The issue is that it is no longer convenient to obtain updates. For that reason, I will probably do without it, and the mods that require it.

In this regard it's no different than SKSE was/is for skyrim.

 

[ElsonsoJannus]

In this regard it's no different than SKSE was/is for skyrim.

Yup. That was not a good situation, either. I am sure it caused tons of problems for people.

 

[Elryk]

I just discovered this and i'm lost about this topic, should I keep using it?

 

[Robotic_Onion]

I just discovered this and i'm lost about this topic, should I keep using it?

It depends. The Author says he is not using the telemetry for anything malicious. It looks like the Author is telling the truth, even had wireshark running and the packets, traffic looked normal for what the Author claims. They even give us the option to disable it.
However we do not know how things look like on the Server side. So for all we know they could be IP logging. Depending on the Servers location, Privacy abnd Data laws could wary.

tldr. Client side, the Author is telling the truth. Server side we got no idea. Like with any 3rd party Software, Mod etc etc it depends on weither you trust the Author.

 

[ElsonsoJannus]

I just discovered this and i'm lost about this topic, should I keep using it?

I mainly used it for the buffer overrun fix. Before that, it was to occasionally run a couple cheats to bypass CDPR development decisions regarding quest design and itemization that I did not agree with. I have since uninstalled it, as it is one more thing to track down and see if it has been updated, and now it is off in the weeds where I don't normally go.

 

[BAV51]

Tracking removed in latest update.

"
Removed

• Telemetry, the experiment gave us the data we wanted, obviously a lot of people use the mod and we are very happy about that! We are sorry this caused so much drama, it wasn't the intention and quite frankly we still don't really understand why.

 

[Jetro30087]

So I am telling you that I am not collecting any data, you are then saying how can I know for sure, I tell you how can you ever know for sure, you tell me "because they told me".

Do you see the faulty logic?

A WhoisGuard is pretty standard nowadays... because of personal data... I don't know what you want at this point, you don't want me to ping a server and just increment a number but expect a domain name whois to give you my personal data, it's maddening.

Could you at least clarify what the concurrent user count is required for?

 

[Kieran_Grosvenor]

Why is telemetry bad?

Beecause a mod collecting information about you is perfectly seecure...

 

[BAV51]

Could you at least clarify what the concurrent user count is required for?

See post above, it was too see how many people are using the mod, however it is a moot point now as it has been removed.

 

[rudyvassar]

While I'm hoping Cyberpunk never needs a mod as necessary as the unofficial Fallout 4 patch (CDPR, unlike Bethesda, actually does seem interested in fixing their game), it looks like CET may be trying to grab that honor, to the point that many modders require it for their own mods to work.

But then things got weird. CET stopped auto-installing other mods and required you to press a key each time you wanted to use them, they added tracking software to their suite of features, then they pulled out of Nexus entirely. I have no faith in "github" whatsoever, and can't help but wonder if CET left Nexus voluntarily or got kicked out for acting like spyware.

So what are we supposed to do now?