A Complete Guide to Privacy on the Steam Deck
The Steam Deck is not a private device out of the box. Nothing is password protected. Anyone can view anything, in both gaming and desktop mode.
For a piece of gaming hardware, this may not be a big deal. But as a portable PC that can store sensitive information, this can be a bit risky. Here are some of the ways to lock down your Steam Deck.
1. Enable a Lock Screen
The first step to safeguard what you do on your Steam Deck is to enable a lock screen. This stops someone from picking up your console and playing it without your approval.
It also protects against someone deleting your games (perhaps as a prank), keeps your gameplay private (perhaps your gaming preferences might out your sexual orientation or reveal your kinks), stops others from seeing who is on your friends list, and keeps people from reading your personal messages.
Even if you don’t care about whether other people see what games you play, locking down gaming mode is important to protect what you do in desktop mode. Otherwise, anyone can simply restart your Steam Deck and activate desktop mode to see your files without having to enter a single credential.
To enable a lock screen in gaming mode, press theSteambutton and head toSettings > Security. Here you can determine whether the lock screen appears whenever you first boot up the Steam Deck, whenever you wake up the device from sleep, or when switching to desktop mode.
After you select when you want the lock screen to appear, you will need to create a 6-digit PIN.
2. Disable Tracking Cookies
Out of the box, Steam tracks a lot about how you use your device. As a cloud-based service, there is only so much you may hide. But Valve does give you the option to disable several tracking cookies, directly from the device itself.
First, tap on your avatar in the top right corner of the screen (if you haven’t set an avatar, you will see a question mark instead). This will open a settings page related to your Steam account, rather than your Steam device.
On this page, scroll down toAccount Details. Then selectCookies & Browsing. it’s possible to look at the list of specific cookies to toggle them individually, or you can hit theReject Allbutton at the top underneath “Optional Cookies”.
Even if you reject all cookies, still scroll down to the bottom of the page. Under “Browsing,” there is another tracking measure you can disable known as UTM.
3. Adjust Your Steam Account Privacy Settings
By default, certain aspects of your Steam activity are public viewing. People can view your profile and your friends list, for example. Other details may be limited to just your friends, like what games you’ve purchased.
You can change these perimeters to fit your comfort level. If you want to game privately and don’t care for any of the social media-like aspects of the Steam experience, you can set everything to Private. Then what you do on your Steam Deck stays between just you and Valve.
4. Create a User Password for Desktop Mode
Now we switch over to your Steam Deck’s desktop mode. Out of the box, there is no user password. While the Steam Deck defaults to a read-only mode for system files, you can still make administrator-level changes without a prompt. To change this, you want to create a password.
To create a user password, openSystem Settingsand head toPersonalization > Users. SelectSteam Deck Userand tap theChange Passwordbutton.
5. Enable Screen Locking Desktop Mode
Now that you have a password, it’s possible to enable screen locking in desktop mode. To do so, navigate toWorkspace > Workspace Behavior > Screen Lockingwithin System Settings. Then select the box next toLock screen automatically.
But there’s a catch. This feature requires a physical keyboard. That makes it only ideal if youuse your Deck connected to a dockor, possibly, if you have a Bluetooth keyboard already paired.
When you aren’t connected to a dock, you will find that the Steam Deck’s virtual keyboard won’t pop up, even if you press theSteam + Xshortcut to summon it manually.
You are then stuck having to power off your device by holding down the power button. So only enable screen locking in desktop mode if you have the necessary hardware.
If you haven’t set a PIN in gaming mode, anyone can circumvent your password in desktop mode by simply restarting your Steam Deck. The lock screen in desktop mode prompts for a password when you wake up the device, but it doesn’t ask for your login information when you first switch to desktop mode from gaming mode.
6. Change Firefox’s Default Privacy Settings
Mozilla Firefox doesn’t come pre-installed, but SteamOS provides a link to install the browser from the app launcher. Firefox is a great browser, and it’s more private than Google Chrome. But Firefox’s default settings aren’t particularly private. The default search engine is Google, after all.
There aren’t any SteamOS-specific tips you need to follow here. Simplychange the privacy and security settings in Firefoxthat you would toggle on any other desktop to reduce how much information you share with Mozilla, Google, or anyone else.
Also, make sure to follow other general good privacy practices. If you’re going to save passwords on your device, download an encrypted password manager likeKeePassXCor use an alternative that syncs across devices likeBitwarden, both of which are available in the Discover app store on your Steam Deck.
Your Steam Deck Is Now Much More Secure
Does this mean your Steam Deck is impenetrable? No. But these steps do significantly improve your security using options that are all available out of the box, except Firefox.
If you’re more proficient with computers, and you’re up for the risks involved, you can go further by attempting to encrypt your hard drive like you can on other Linux-based desktops.
If you’ve any personal or sensitive files stored on your Linux machine, you should consider encrypting them with GnuPG for added security.
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