Why do Unity games send stuff over the network?

[adgrds2]

I've been looking at my network connections recently and every unity game seems to send something over some Google Server at the startup of the game. Does anyone know why and what gets Uploaded/Downloaded? I do care about pricavy a lot and don't like the idea of something sending information about my porn games over the internet.
At first I thought it's only a few games but it happend with many different unity games I tried.

 

[kaiten]

Don't worry, Google and Facebook already know more about you than you do.
You could use a packet sniffer if you're really curious, but the traffic may be encrypted.

 

[I'm Not Thea Lundgren!]

Google Analytics - you can block each game in your firewall

 

[Delmach]

Yeah thats been known for a while, its every unity game I think, regardless of its content. And while its apparently nothing really malicious, as in, its for "service purposes" or "advertisement with opt out option" I still just deny any unity game outgoing internet access with a firewall. Well I do that with games on other engines too, just to be safe.

Just look it up, its pretty easy to do. And heres the unity FAQ about what data they gather.

You must be registered to see the links

Look up the paragraph: "I play a game built with Unity software, what should I know?"

So its not the creator of the game, its the unity engine, and while its not the worst kind of data gathering you might just want to block it with a firewall.

 

[SeventhVixen]

Google Analytics - you can block each game in your firewall

->Unity Analytics, Google Analytics only if is an Android game and dev has link it.


for the OP,
As a Unity game dev I can tell you...

If you don't pay for the Unity license, you have no opinion on Unity sending analytics (you can deactivate it if you pay, a thing that only a successfull dev can afford)

What data is sent? Nothing personal, things like in what resolution are you playing, how many ram "you" have, and hours of gameplay, how many people play. etc.
I put brackets on the "you" because there is no "you" saved in any respect

(Google analytics on the other hand, has demographic data, because it tells the dev if you're a man or female, if you like to see sports or news.... although of course is not like it stores your name..., but is normal because google analytics is all about user spending money and how to make him spend more XD)

if the dev doesn't even activate the ability to see the analytics, Only unity receives it.
Then the dev may use the analytics too, if he integrates it into the game, in order to see if players prefer to fuck victoria or jessica, or how many times he cleaned the garden to earn some bucks. and that sort of things.

Usually analytics is a stuff very needed when making games with in-app purchases, AAA games, etc, little use for other thing.

So yeah anyone that is bothered for any reason, just block it on firewall and good to go.

 

[dagarridomot]

Just curious guys... if I disconnect the pc from the internet while playing an unity game do they still get the information once I reactivate the connection after finishing to play the game? I mean, do I have to delete everything once I finish to play it in order to avoid them to collect the informations? Or is disconnecting from internet enough to prevent it?

 

[F4C430]

I never knew about this. My Pi-hole query log shows config.uca.cloud.unity3d.com as blocked so i'm wondering if maybe that's the data collection URL? I hope so because it's far more convenient to block all outgoing requests to a single URL instead of adding rules for every game made in Unity. I can't get Wireshark installed so i can't see what else is going on.