Steam Deck

The Steam Deck is a long-awaited game console that earned mostly stellar reviews, with a few caveats. Gizmodo called it a “glorious but unfinished dream console.” It’s sure to be a popular gift this year—if the company can fill enough orders.

Mozilla says there’s good news and bad news. The privacy policy is pretty great, if a little vague, the organization says, but there are some serious security concerns, including questions about encryption.

Cameras: No

Microphones: Yes

Location tracking: No

What data it collects: Name, age, email address, country of residence, payment information, gaming data

Can you delete the data: Yes

How the company uses the data: Steam’s privacy policy is above average. Data use is limited, not harnessed for marketing, and the company says it will only disclose information when complying with legal obligations.

Mozilla says:

“We can’t confirm it meets our Minimum Security Standards because we can’t confirm it uses encryption or if Valve has a way to manage security vulnerabilities. We emailed Valve three times with our privacy and security questions and haven’t heard back from them. There is a lot written out there on the internet about how to set up encryption on the Linux-based SteamOS yourself. However, we don’t think that users should have to go through that to protect their data.

What’s the worst that could happen with your brand new Steam Deck playing all those games online? Well, Steam is an online gaming community and those have been known to be pretty toxic, especially to women, the LGBTQ+ community, and minority gamers.”

Mozilla’s review:

https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/steam-deck/