★*•. The Elder Scrolls series [teyk_teh_bled] at the best price! [opin_teh_kivt]

Got a GOG Newsletter, March 8.

★*•. You’re receiving this email because your address is on our subscriber list.

Except I'm NOT subscribed.

★*•. Hurry, this offer is TIME-LIMITED

Verified my Subscriptions settings. ALL BOXES were still UNCHECKED. It was Friday, a weekend thus knocking at the window... Maybe some jolly GOG Bear™ had, keen to commute, "oopsy-goggy" enlisted me while processing a GOG databank's last bytes (databases are so passé)...

★*•. Let's see stunning virtual landscapes this spring.

But if so, was ONLY my email transferred, and to GOG's mailing list ONLY... or, in the short time between my claiming GOG's DLC giveaway and unchecking related Subscriptions, was my email SWIFTLY migrated to the mailing list AND every bit of "relevant" information AUTOMATICALLY shared with GOG's "Trusted Partners" Google, Meta et alii...?

★*•. Take a hike through lush forests, scale towering mountains, and immerse yourself in breathtaking scenery.

"Community Management Specialist" Clownski_'s 2023 August 29 post in the When do you transfer my personal data to google and facebook? thread states this simply shouldn't be... Questions, doubts, speculations... courtesy of newsletter@email3.gog.com

★*•. You can unsubscribe if you prefer not to receive newsletters from us.

Shouldn't NEED to – am NOT subscribed AT ALL, mind you.

★*•. Visit GOG for details on individual offers.

Clarification request...? Not much to expect from it before a while, given the weekend and GOG's infamous responsiveness... Forum post, to gather possible insights...? Core issue would still need to be explained by a Blue™ – WHAT had been shared with WHO, and HOW could that have happened...

★*•. Experience the beauty of the virtual worlds firsthand.

Perhaps no further newsletter would grace my inbox, after all...? Hmm... The weekend went by. Monday, feeling a bit under the weather, I quickly found out why – the flu. Next days followed suit (loved the soups) until I finally emerged on Friday. I finally checked my inbox...

★*•. [oh_maga] God of War OUT NOW on GOG

ANOTHER GOG Newsletter had been sent Tuesday morning, March 12. "War OUT NOW"... For a few seconds, I was gazing upon the chasm which had insistently expanded between GOG and me. A fleeting moment of frozen nothingness. It all felt so stupid, somehow... Left it there for a long while.

★*•. You can unsubscribe if you prefer not to receive newsletters from us.

My PREFERENCE has been EXPRESSED already – in my own GOG account SETTINGS. Don't count on me to click any of the "unsubscribe" personalized links leading to gog.salesmanago.com (as every link in GOG's marketing emails).

★*•. Journey to a dark, elemental world of fearsome creatures

What madness is this, having a specific Subscriptions section in Orders & Settings, if said settings are NOT actually ENFORCED – or get flippantly bypassed... For indeed, someone at GOG seems to keep another mailing list – independent from the main system, yet still using its emailing capacities. To what end, I wonder... Nothing in GOG Forum's latest posts about a similar issue.

★*•. Enter the Norse realm

For the record, didn't get any CD Projekt Red account migration anouncement. As understood from an inquisitive thread, I'm just not concerned (neither have GOG Galaxy nor own CDPR-related games like Quint, The Midget III Wild Bunt, or CypherFunk 24-7). Don't want such CDPR nonsense either. My account is (and will remain) on GOG – for what it's worth.

★*•. His vengeance against the Gods of Olympus years behind him, Kratos now lives as a man in the realm of Norse Gods and monsters.

Had to reach out to GOG, yes, but another weekend was at the door. Fully recovering, with other things to do, I'd have to return to this when at least able to infuse some light-heartedness in it...

★*•. It is in this harsh, unforgiving world that he must fight to survive… and teach his son to do the same.

Didn't care to verify my Subscriptions settings. Visited the forum, March 18. Nada. Started jotting down ideas. Initiating a GOG Ticket™ was no enjoyable prospect. Wednesday, however, GOG provided a boost with yet another blah-st...

★*•. Alpha Protocol available on GOG [itz_da_boomba]

Emailing protocols, however... ≖‿≖ You're the life of the party, darling. A flurry of marketing petals...

★*•. Loyalty carries a price and no one knows this more than agent Michael Thorton

Enter a GOG costumer... Erh, consumer. Customer...? {+,+}
· Remember the Profiles implementation...
· Or the installers' Galaxy-fication...
· Or when GOG went Epic...
· Or... Aaah...
It's useless... I'll...
· Stop...
· Right...
· Here...

★*•. Every action has its consequences – what choices will you make?

My Subscriptions settings must be as pristine as ever. All set, isn't it – yet if GOG staff can manually intervene, temporarily flipping Subscriptions flags to play wack-a-mole through marketing emails, it's de facto useless. Speaking of which – Thursday evening, March 21, I finally submitted a request. "Privacy and data processing questions" Problem. We'll see...

★*•. You can unsubscribe if you prefer not to receive newsletters from us.

I know... Say, do you...?

★*•. What buying on GOG means

· You...
· Tell...
· Me...
   
· Best wishes to us all, humans.
· And thanks for sharing.
 

Did you claim a free game recently?
Because if so, you signed up for the newsletter and trusted partners programme.

It's in small text that legally speaking, should be 72 point font text in a separate confirmation popup.

Not even addressing that mess of a "text"...but simply looking at the screenshots:
What the f...?

I like this collection.
Thank you! aquaSolus!

 
Hey, ᛞᚨᚱᚹᛟᚾᛞ from United States – thanks for chiming in.

· I did (cf. under ★*•. Let's see stunning virtual landscapes this spring.), yet rapidly unticked the related Subscriptions boxes. Hence the surprise... even more so when I received not one but three GOG Newsletters.
· A "separate confirmation popup" would be nice, yes – but bolding "GOG's Trusted Partners' services" (and providing a link to the specific § explaining what that entails) in the giveaway section, in a different color even, would speak volumes. Likewise for the "Privacy & settings section" part of the claiming confirmation.
· As for a 72 point font, well, perhaps not... ;)
   
Thank you for your comment, BreOl72 from Germany. I see you got the "mess" part right.

· Regarding the "text" – all fully bolded lines beginning with ★*•. were quotes from the three GOG Newsletters. You registered in 2010 so you certainly recognized (and perhaps still subscribe to) GOG marketing blurb.
· The [teyk_teh_bled] / [opin_teh_givt] / [itz_da_boomba] / [oh_maga] parts aimed to translate, so to speak, the emoticons used in said newsletters titles – respectively a Blade / Gift / Bomb / Omega pixicon.
· The final block was an aggregate of SALESmanago web-speak. GOG has trusted its marketing communication management to them, so one might want to check their website.
· Incidentally, each unsubscribe link posted had its user-specific alphanumeric data replaced by ***.
· Compiling all five attachments in a single WTF.JPG one was an interesting contribution.
· As for your final question, I believe GOG has already answered it... Play it for the plot.
   
You're welcome, L-O_1. from Christmas Island.

· If you're referring to the ★*•. quotes, full credit goes to GOG's marketing crew. I suggest you subscribe to their main work ("Releases and announcements") through the Subscriptions section of your account's Order & Settings – yet UNTICK the box before "Marketing communications through Trusted Partners' services" (unless you've read §10.3 of the GOG Privacy Policy and understood what's implied there).
· If you're referring to the interspersed forum * links, that was meant to paint a broader picture of the situation for whoever might be interested in a bit of GOG Ishtory™ (with over 15 years behind its belt, GOG has already made quite an impression).
· If you're referring to the attachments, they were meant as a virtual comic strip, alleviating the issue at hand. Screenshots are from 99 Spirits a.k.a. Tsukumogami (first and last), SALESmanago, The Book Of Unwritten Tales The Critter Chronicles, and 7 Roses A Darkness Rises.
· On another note, glad to see your posting contradicts your tagline... ;) Wish you well, L-O_1.
   
Thank you, lupineshadow from Japan – the insights you provided on your own experience and the thread you linked to were helpful indeed.

· However, if "the checkbox toggle only toggles the user interface sometimes and not the backend, and so tells you that you are unsubscribed when you're not" – well, what about GOG's Trusted™ Partners, then, since the initial automatic subscription included them... It's mind-boggling no one seems to care.
· I agree, "it could be anything." Which is part of the problem... We're left out in the cold, speculating.
· "GOG is a buggy piece of crap so any promises about privacy tied to a checkbox, I can't trust" – sadly, this appears to be true. Then, there's the question of "Why us..." and not many more others. Perhaps those kept silent (I can understand that). Or perhaps they reached out to GOG and got an answer (meanwhile, I still didn't).
· "I don't claim free games anymore, even the ones I want. Because GOG are just the wrong amount of untrustworthy and incompetent." Something to seriously ponder, yes.
· In the thread you linked to, your experience is actually very similar to mine. Had the same reactions. Probably was more unsettled than you were, though. But yes, "something definitely broke there for {us} and probably for other people at different times too."
· The final post in that thread, by Trooper1270 from United Kingdom, is the proverbial nail in the coffin. "Being removed from the subscription list in not immediate (instant) and can apparently take a few days for your subscription to actually be removed..." Now, when said subscription was automatic and involved GOG's Trusted™ Partners, what could that entail...?
 
In any case, thank you again, lupineshadow from Japan – and I've marked your reply as the (incomplete, as anything GOG-related will ever be, it now seems) solution. Cheers.
 
Thanks to everyone who contributed. Feel free to post your comments, insights and experiences, if you so wish... I'm off. This thread is now yours.
 
Best wishes.
 
P.S. – I've just noticed that, since my initiating a GOG Ticket™ last Thursday evening, March 21, complete radio silence followed. No confirmation email (if that still happens), no further newsletter. Wonder if it's good or bad... Then again, at this point...
 
* Two of the linked threads are unfortunately somewhat off in their displaying of targeted posts, with actual posts being 1 or 2 pages back (usually). Perhaps because of their sheer length, both topics causing a gigantic commotion back then – which you can probably evaluate yourself by the number of pages (using the default 25 posts per page GOG Forum setting) in each...

· UPDATE: Introducing GOG Profiles (2385 posts) 159 pages
· Offline installers with an option to install GOG Galaxy (1687 posts) 113 pages
 
Oh well. GOG is GOG. Unless...