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CS2 Update Encrypts Global Chat to Curb Racism Leaderboard
Almost two weeks ago, a third-party analytics website, CStracker.gg, created a profile review page with a trust rating to expose cheaters who play Counter-Strike. To build the page, they parsed millions of VODs, also revealing messages the player posted in public chat.
Not only was this a privacy concern, but this functionality devolved into a “racism leaderboard”, where players competed to become the most “racist” and disruptive in chat.
To curb this, Valve released a CS2 update on September 10 that will encrypt the chat, preventing third-party websites from parsing VODs to get these messages.
Is the In-game Chat Log Removed?
The update does not allow global or team chat to be parsed, and it applies to games after the update. For the game previously parsed by the third-party analytics website, the in-game chat will still be up for the public eye.
This cannot be removed, as it is stored on the website servers, which aren’t controlled by Valve. Players can request to remove their data directly from the website, but it would require a long process since cstracker might not comply with the request immediately.
The update, however, will at least kill the “racism leaderboards,” and that is a win in itself.
What’s More in the Update?
Despite the lack of meaningful updates for the past few months, this update does not bring a lot of changes to the game. The biggest game-related change in the update, apart from chat encryption, is the Cache fixes.
The game has, however, added game scripting updates, providing the community with better tools for creating new content.
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Featured Image Credit: Valve
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