I would think and hope that, but evidence tends to point to the contrary.

A quick search brings up multiple articles including:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/01/nsa-finally-admits-to-spying-on-americans-by-purchasing-sensitive-data/

Guess those EULAS we all agreed to but never read had some sneaky language about what they can do with the data.

If I had to guess, obtaining the data by force may require a court order or legal process.

Buying data that someone else is willingly selling bypasses those steps.

I don’t remember it being particularly difficult, I’m a bit of a linux newb myself, but I’d be lying if I said I remember which steps I took off the top of my head.

My spouse has a laptop from Asus with VERY similar Specs (but an RTX 3050ti instead of a 3060) and so far Linux Mint has been a pretty trouble -free experience with ONE condition:

I set it to use the dedicated nvidia gpu 24/7 as opposed to the integrated AMD gpu. I forgot what exactly was happening but if memory serves it was disrupting something, I think recovering from closing the lid?

After doing that we’ve never had an issue again. They mostly use at their desk plugged in, sp the power usage isn’t much a concern.

Hope this helps!

Sold to consumers as “immersion” but likely makes money on the back end from advertising.

I also imagine it creates a game preservation issue if there was some sort of disagreement or failure to extend contract. I believe that’s what happened with music licenses so I’m imagining it may be similar with in game advertising?

Full disclosure this is mostly speculation, I’m not entirely sure how all of it truly works.

My debian machines usually only have their uptime interrupted by power outages or the like. They’re not my daily drivers, but very stable and reliable.

I have Linux mint on my “daily driver” (used for work and gaming) desktop and I’m also very pleased with it - most updates can be installed without rebooting and it’s over-all a pretty trouble-free experience!

Hope this helps!