Is there an easy(ier) way to stop a game from phoning home?

Hi all, Sony loves these data collection messages at the beginning of their games. They don’t even give you the option to opt-out. It is mandatory and is either “Full data” or “limited”. I don’t want to give them either. Is there a straight forward way to do this? Thanks in advance.

30 points · 31 comments · view on lemmy.world

31 Comments

dm9pZCAq@lemmy.ml · 22 pts · 1y (9 replies)

firejail --noprofile --net=none -- wine ...

DonutsRMeh@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y (8 replies)

The three dots are what? The path to the .exe file? I tried that and it broke the game. It was complaining about some dx12 something. Also, I tried the firetool app, but it doesn't have anywhere that shows the blocked apps/files. You just have to trust it.

dm9pZCAq@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 1y (7 replies)

yes, ... is path to .exe, and yes I also has similar problems with some games with default wine

but for gaming I use lutris with proton, and using firejail from lutris has better results for me (almost all games works without issues)

[SomeGame] > Configure > System options > Command prefix > firejail --noprofile --net=none --

DonutsRMeh@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y (6 replies)

firejail --noprofile --net=none --

Is there anything after the two dashes in the firejail --noprofile --net=none -- ?

dm9pZCAq@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 1y (5 replies)

in lutris no, it will automatically launch as ${COMMAND_PREFIX} ${WINE} ${EXECUTABLE}

DonutsRMeh@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y (4 replies)

Awesome, thank you so much. Do you know what the equivalent is in Heroic games launcher? They have so many options there, wrapper command, environment variables, scripts and some others. I have games there, too.

dm9pZCAq@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 1y (3 replies)

I've never used the Heroic launcher, but I think the "wrapper command" is what you need

DonutsRMeh@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y

Thank you. I like Heroic better because of the layout. It has all stores on one screen, unlike lutris. The wrapper is asking me to put the "path" in quotes. Oh well, I I'll have to get used to Lutris.

catloaf@lemm.ee · 8 pts · 1y (2 replies)

Easier than...?

There are dozens of ways to block that traffic, from DNS to firewall rules to just disconnecting entirely.

DonutsRMeh@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Easier than messing with the terminal. I remember on windows, you set an "outbound" rule for an .exe and you're done. I tried to do that with firejail, but the firetool doesn't have a spot in the app where it shows what you blocked. You just have to trust it. Unless I'm blind. I looked everywhere in the app and the wizard.

catloaf@lemm.ee · 3 pts · 1y

Well there are probably GUI firewall rule apps, but it's be faster just to use a command, since the apps are going to take all the same info anyway. Or you could just disconnect entirely.

coconut@programming.dev · 6 pts · 1y (5 replies)

DNS blocking if their telemetry domains are separate from game domains. They could technically do their own DNS resolution though.

Broken@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 1y (4 replies)

This was my thought too. Seems easiest to me to DNS block on the firewall side (and be network wide).

lemming741@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y (3 replies)

Anything attempting to leave the LAN on port 53 or 853 gets redirected to my pihole and logged. It's mostly google stuff, but TV's do it too. A determined enshittifier could implement DoH or DoT.

Broken@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 1y (2 replies)

Smart. Right now I just rely on various blacklists that seem to block everything I need to. I might do something like this at some point though to be sure.

lemming741@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y (1 reply)

I'm running opnsense virtualized. I'd recommend a spare PC with two nics to learn it on first.

Broken@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 1y

Yeah, I'm already running opnsense on an old PC with an added network card. Then I use Unbound DNS with various blacklist filters on my outbound traffic.

It honestly seems good enough because I monitored it for a while when I set it up. But I don't monitor it continually and I don't have specific blocks that I set up myself, just the published blacklists. If something new is phoning home I'd be unaware until I check it, which is what I like about your setup.

AnEilifintChorcra@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 1y

I use OpenSnitch https://github.com/evilsocket/opensnitch

It prompts me each time a game attempts to make an outbound connection. I can allow or deny the connection from the process or to the host etc and it can set it as a rule with different time frames like once, until reboot, permanently etc.

enemenemu@lemm.ee · 3 pts · 1y (2 replies)

Turn off internet

DonutsRMeh@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y

That's one way and guaranteed to work, but it's kind of annoying.

ArsonButCute@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 1y

It is possible to tighten security to the point where the system is unusable. Security and convenience must be balanced. The trick is to create a secure and useful system. ——The Arch Wiki, Security

Seems OP wants to play online only games, disconnecting might make that impossible.

Feyd@programming.dev · 2 pts · 1y (5 replies)
DonutsRMeh@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y (4 replies)

That was actually a part of the main question, but then I decided not to include it. Opensnitch shows so many popups that I get confused which is to allow and which to deny. Sometimes things could break and a reboot is necessary.

Edit: I'm going to install it regardless. Thanks

MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 1y (3 replies)

That will be the case with any firewall, you'll have to block everything and then figure out what is needed for the game to work as expected.

DonutsRMeh@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 1y (2 replies)

True, but I think firewalls don't have that scary popup opensnitch has. They do their thing silently. lol

MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 1y

Set it to default deny and it should stop the popups!

ohshit604@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 1y

Why not spin up a pihole instance? Once you setup your blocklists you barely have to maintain it besides the occasional update.

Hell, if you don’t have a spare machine to run it on, you can likely run it locally and then change your PC’s network to use it as your DNS resolver.

merde@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 1y
[ removed ]
liang@thelemmy.club · 0 pts · 1y (2 replies)
[ removed ]
DonutsRMeh@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Fair point, I didn't buy it, it was given to me.

Luffy879@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 1y

Let me guess, it was the usuall you dont own the game shill?

In that case, if you want m8, i have more than enough ropes for ya