Quote:The problem is sifting through a bunch of Steam profiles to get at that information. Steam Spy did that for you by automatically scanning profiles to learn more about what games are popular at any given time. The tool is quite popular--its creator, Sergey Galyonkin, brings in $7,670 via Patreon each month. But Galyonkin took to Twitter to explain that Valve's changes to Steam's privacy settings will essentially blind Steam Spy:
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We often see things break any time a platform works to improve user privacy. Just look at Facebook's changes following the Cambridge Analytica scandal: In its efforts to prevent app developers from gathering a bunch of information, Facebook inadvertently broke Tinder. Developers are used to having access to specific data or systems. Changing how those things are accessed or denying access to them poses a real problem.

Often this tradeoff comes down to what the platform values more, enabling third-party developers or protecting their users' privacy. With the increased scrutiny that's bound to follow the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and the general trend of consumers paying more attention to how their personal information is used, it's no surprise that Valve decided on the latter with these updates. Sometimes spying just isn't allowed.