Other Clarification on Rumors

Hello, I just wanted to ask for clarification on rumors I've recently heard about Unity and about the data it collects and how it collects data.

My first question, do I need to have a Pro subscription in order to turn off any kind of analytics, whether it's Unity tracking myself from the editor or Unity tracking my game's players made with Unity?

Second, I don't know if this question can fully be answered, but, if Unity is sued for being in violation of data collection, COPPA, for instance. If I have zero, intention of collecting data from my game's players (anonymous or not), would I be sued along with the lawsuit?

Third, someone said that unless you own the Pro version of Unity, for the life of your project Unity has the built in ability to stop your the exe from working and can remotely disable your product when any person runs it and it phones home.

 

@KyleRansford A Pro subscription is no different than a personal license. If you don't want Unity Analytics in your project, simply leave it off in the Services window in the Unity Editor. Nothing that you said about the Pro version is true. We can't remotely "stop your app from working".

 

That used to be true for editor analytics. Not sure what the situation is now, when in doubt, assume the worst. I’m assuming they are still collecting pseudonymous data from the editor and not quite disclosing them as required from GDPR. This is the company that refuses to give asset store refunds, even though that is not very legal in EU, so don’t put anything past them.

Also they might not be able to make your app stop from working, but they can make the editor stop from working, they even did it by mistake a couple of times.

Also the situation right now is that if you don’t want your app to gather analytics you can remove the package and all should be good, but in the not so distant past there were “bugs” and data was collected anyway regardless of what checkboxes you clicked in the editor.

 

To see exactly what data may be sent from your game or the Editor, regardless of possible bugs or conspiracy theories, you can use Charles Proxy or Fiddler to see what exactly is being sent over HTTPS. Wireshark would tell you what may be sent over sockets or other wire protocols. https://support.unity.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002917683-Using-Charles-Proxy-with-Unity

 

I'm locking this thread now so it doesn't go off topic.