There are all sorts of best practices for getting info without vacuuming up everyone’s data in opaque ways.
I’m not saying they don’t engage in any of those practices, I am specifically talking about the hardware survey.
Well, you can start with everything a typical HTTP request and TCP connection comes with, surely they're already storing those things for "anti-fraud practices", wouldn't be far to imagine this data warehouse is used for analytics and product decisions as well.
I explicitly said I agree it’s a distinct possibility, but that’s not proof. If you have actual info on what they collect and how it’s used I can assess it. As it is we don’t know the extent or uses at all, we are speculating.
This was unnecessary and patronizing. Clearly this won't be productive as it's clear what I am trying to say, but you seem to intent on taking a narrow interpretation of my point to paint me as someone who blindly trusts Valve (I don't). Have a good one man.
The hardware survey is not that.