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You can read SteamHardware.io and contribute without an account. Tracker and Run Scores reports use limited device, game, milestone, and structured performance fields rather than personal account information.
You can read the site, use the tracker, and submit Run Scores without an account. SteamHardware.io does not run newsletters, preorder alerts, notify-me forms, site-run waitlists, gated downloads, affiliate tracking, or advertising profiles.
SteamHardware.io may process:
Steam Frame has no Steam login, cross-game identity, free-text field, hardware fingerprint, or screenshot upload. Frame counts are submitted reports, not verified unique players. Its optional foveated-rendering value describes that dated VR run only. Steam Deck display context records only confirmed `external`; a missing value means it was not provided, not that built-in use was confirmed. Steam Machine does not accept a display-context value.
The tracker and Run Scores do not ask for Steam credentials, Steam IDs, usernames, email addresses, order or reservation numbers, tracking numbers, street addresses, ZIP codes, screenshots, documents, account handles, payment data, or government identifiers.
Do not include those details in reports, tracker issues, or source tips. If an email contains unnecessary personal information, we may delete, ignore, or redact it.
Submit only a good-faith observation that you made or are authorized to provide. Do not submit false, manipulated, duplicate, or automated reports to distort the results.
You retain any rights you have in a contribution. You give SteamHardware.io a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free permission to store, publish, display, format, summarize, and aggregate the structured report to operate, explain, preserve, and improve Run Scores. We may accept, reject, moderate, limit, or remove a contribution to protect the service and keep the results useful.
Run Scores combine anonymous community reports, reviewed Community observations, and cited external performance evidence. Community observations do not create a contributor, report owner, private link, or My Reports entry. Their source URLs remain private. Sourced evidence is separate from reader contributions and may remain in internal audit history after withdrawal or public-policy exclusion. An included sourced row may appear in public Activity; an excluded row does not. The combined score is not a controlled benchmark, performance guarantee, official Valve decision, or purchasing advice.
SteamHardware.io uses limited information to:
Public tracker summaries may show counts, queue movement, shipping times, confidence, and recent milestones. Each report has a random public ID and a private update link. The server stores a hash of the update token, not the token itself. Anyone with the full link may be able to edit the report, so keep it private. Lost tracker links cannot be recovered because there is no account to verify ownership.
Run Scores use a protected browser cookie containing a random secret. The server stores only a keyed hash. A first authorized save can create one private My Reports link for the collection at `/game-settings/my-reports/#collection=...`; anyone with the full link can view, edit, or delete the reports it covers, so keep it private. The link does not create an account and cannot be recovered if lost.
An optional anonymous public profile link shows current accepted, non-deleted reports in a read-only view. It exposes no name, account, contributor ID, private link, or edit token, and it is not indexed or placed in the sitemap. The owner can replace or revoke it, which turns off the old URL. Older report-specific links remain limited to the report they were issued for. Browser access expires after 30 days without use; private links remain until they are revoked, rotated, or the report is deleted.
Game reports are not linked to hardware tracker reports. The site does not infer that two records belong to the same person from browser storage, network data, dates, locations, or matching fields.
Tracker shortcuts and preferences stay in the browser where they were saved. Clearing browser storage can remove a saved shortcut or private update link. Run Scores keeps its contributor secret in the protected cookie rather than local or session storage. A bounded weekly entry experiment may save only a category, a generic device, an opaque game slot, a week marker, and bounded entry markers. It does not save a game name, report ID, search query, or private value.
When enabled on the canonical production site, SteamHardware.io uses Umami for aggregate analytics. Automatic tracking is disabled. URL queries and fragments are removed. A referring HTTP or HTTPS URL, when available, is reduced to its scheme and hostname before delivery; its path, query, fragment, credentials, and port are not sent. Site-authored events use allowlisted page and action values. A public Game Settings page view may include its canonical public game slug and device. Events may otherwise include broad device or browser categories, coarse location, and basic actions, but not game names, report IDs, contributor IDs, private links or tokens, scores, settings, issue details, or free text. Tracker events use broad categories rather than report or account details. Referrer values are optional and spoofable, so they are used only for aggregate attribution and never as an access-control or abuse signal.
Requests are rate-limited to reduce spam and automated abuse. This can use a short-lived purpose-specific hash made from request information, including IP-related forwarding headers. It is used for throttling, not to follow readers across editorial pages. SteamHardware.io does not sell personal information or use analytics for advertising, affiliate attribution, sale tracking, personalized content, or user accounts.
If you email us, we use the message for the reason you sent it. We do not add correspondents to a newsletter, use email as a tracker identifier, require it for downloads, or build an advertising audience from it.
SteamHardware.io uses service providers for hosting, database storage, analytics, static assets, DNS, security, and email delivery. Those providers may process the technical data needed to provide their services.
Published pages, source lists, public tracker summaries, and aggregate Run Score results may remain available while they are useful. Active reports may be kept for queue, shipping, and Run Score summaries unless removed from public use.
Imported external research may remain in immutable audit history after withdrawal, supersession, or public-policy exclusion. A source author or publisher may email us to request a correction, public-removal review, or erasure assessment. A Run Scores delete action removes a report from public pages and aggregates by marking it deleted. The underlying row, access hashes, and moderation metadata may remain, and the service does not promise a fixed automatic erasure date.
Use a private update link for ordinary corrections. For privacy, removal, or erasure requests, email admin@steamhardware.io with a public report ID and enough context to identify it. Do not send a private link, token, or unnecessary personal information. SteamHardware.io is a U.S.-based independent publication, and the same address can be used for privacy-rights questions.
Source-backed settings recipes are operator-reviewed external research, not reader profile fields. A recipe may show a bounded game build, Proton version, source publication date, measured FPS, render scale, frame-generation state, named graphics settings, an explicit `high`, `medium`, or `limited` confidence label, and the public source link. Internal research IDs, batches, hashes, policy records, and reviewer data are not public.
For privacy, corrections, source tips, and tracker issues, email admin@steamhardware.io.