"GameMaker Studio 2" would like to receive keystrokes from any application.

Hi All,

Just wondering if anyone knows why GameMaker needs to key log me? I'm on a Mac (Catalina).

Screen Shot 2020-12-04 at 11.15.19 am.png

In an era of increasing data surveillance and its associated privacy implications, it's a bit sad to see something like this come from our favourite game engine. I can't think of any reason why recording keystrokes "from any application" would be necessary for the functionality of GameMaker.

Thanks
 

kburkhart84

Firehammer Games
I don't know...but the only thing that makes me think this is needed is when you are testing builds. The debugger in the IDE is one application, and the actual game is likely going to technically be a separate application despite it being ran from the IDE. So it may be needing to intercept keystrokes or something like that.
 
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Sam (Deleted User)

Guest
Click the deny button and wammo it still works.

Apple pretends to care about privacy of their customers with messages like this they impose on developers regardless of their use case, but when Apple invades your privacy themselves, that's a different matter, they just put up a front to make more money basically with these types of messages so their users can pretend they are more safe or better off with an apple product..
 
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I don't know...but the only thing that makes me think this is needed is when you are testing builds. The debugger in the IDE is one application, and the actual game is likely going to technically be a separate application despite it being ran from the IDE. So it may be needing to intercept keystrokes or something like that.
Hm, are there key presses that only do something in-game when you’re in debug mode? Something that isn’t hard coded by your project, that is. I didn’t think there was, but I’m curious now. Maybe they’re sniffing for HTML debugging, where there’s some janky DOM key-press deal. Does anyone know if this permission persists to your published games?

Click the deny button and wammo it still works.

Apple pretends to care about privacy of their customers with messages like this they impose on developers regardless of their use case, but when Apple invades your privacy themselves, that's a different matter, they just put up a front to make more money basically with these types of messages so their users can pretend they are more safe or better off with an apple product..
So, what exactly is your point here? That no one cares about my privacy and so I shouldn’t either? The title of this thread wasn’t “I want you to make me feel worse”, but thanks for trying.
 
I don't do Apple OS stuff so I don't know. But that's interesting honestly. I wonder...is it a thing you have to declare you need this permission for the app or is there some kind of code analysis that determines what is happening?
Well, I'm equally unsure, but I imagine it would be the same as how phones tell you that an app is attempting to use location services, or turn on your microphone, etc. I imagine it's a permission-based API that you have to register to, thus making your privilege known to the OS. From my short tenure with Android, that's how it worked anyway.
 
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Sam (Deleted User)

Guest
That wasn't my intent to make you feel worse, I was just pointing out it isn't something you can easily avoid.

If you were really concerned about privacy, you'd switch to exclusively linux, but that is unrealistic for most people especially game developers so I'm not expecting you to do that.

My point is if you want to be worried about privacy I'd worry more about what big companies like Apple are up to, not small companies with no power over technology like YoYoGames. The best thing to do is to not worry about privacy and use your devices anyway because every mac app you open calls home to apple and notifies them of everything you do, where you do it, and when.
 
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That wasn't my intent to make you feel worse, I was just pointing out it isn't something you can easily avoid.

If you were really concerned about privacy, you'd switch to exclusively linux, but that is unrealistic for most people especially game developers so I'm not expecting you to do that.

My point is if you want to be worried about privacy I'd worry more about what big companies like Apple are up to, not small companies with no power over technology like YoYoGames. The best thing to do is to not worry about privacy and use your devices anyway because every mac app you open calls home to apple and notifies them of everything you do, where you do it, and when.
Well, I do use Linux, but I also use Windows and Mac. I also have an iPhone and an Android phone... it kind of comes with the territory of being a developer. I hear what you're saying about Apple being just as bad as the rest, and you're absolutely right. But we're all responsible for privacy - big and small. If YoYo is having a hard time with a privacy feature, then the way I see it, they have two options: make it publicly known to their user-base, explaining what they have to do and why they have to do it; or secretly hide it away and hope no one minds. Personally, it's the lack of transparency that bothers me about this sudden permission popup. It's not like it's some permission to toggle on the user's backlit keyboard or dim their screen, it's gaining access to everything written onto the computer. Now, granted, I have absolutely no idea what it's really providing, whether it's just a few key-presses for select apps, or if it's everything up to my bank passwords and email trails. But that's exactly the problem: it's completely opaque.

Forgive me if I find that invasive. The purpose of this thread wasn't to complain - I just want to know why they might need this permission. Surely it's for something pretty important, right? They wouldn't just throw in a key-logger if it wasn't... right?
 
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FrostyCat

Redemption Seeker
My point is if you want to be worried about privacy I'd worry more about what big companies like Apple are up to, not small companies with no power over technology like YoYoGames. The best thing to do is to not worry about privacy and use your devices anyway because every mac app you open calls home to apple and notifies them of everything you do, where you do it, and when.
SupernaturalCow can choose to not worry about privacy himself, but for the many commercial developers also using GMS 2, they cannot choose not to worry about how a message like this presents to their customers on Mac OS.

YoYo needs to be up-front with us regarding what this message is about, and more importantly, whether this bubbles down to final exported products.
 
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Bobby Wabi-Sabi

Guest
Hi All,

Just wondering if anyone knows why GameMaker needs to key log me? I'm on a Mac (Catalina).

View attachment 36194

In an era of increasing data surveillance and its associated privacy implications, it's a bit sad to see something like this come from our favourite game engine. I can't think of any reason why recording keystrokes "from any application" would be necessary for the functionality of GameMaker.

Thanks
@SupernaturalCow Did you ever get a straight answer on this? I too came across the same modal upon completing installation but am running Mac OS Big Sur 11.1. I share your concerns and sentiments about this great game engine.

@TsukaYuriko Thank you for the recco on the link to YYG Data Controller. I've sent them an email and will update this thread upon learning more.

Thank you.
 

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@SupernaturalCow Did you ever get a straight answer on this? I too came across the same modal upon completing installation but am running Mac OS Big Sur 11.1. I share your concerns and sentiments about this great game engine.

@TsukaYuriko Thank you for the recco on the link to YYG Data Controller. I've sent them an email and will update this thread upon learning more.

Thank you.
Yeah, I got in contact with them about this and they've since patched GM to only request keystrokes from GameMaker itself. Apparently it was unintentional, so that's good! Thanks for taking an interest, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one interested in holding people responsible for privacy!
 
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