Does anyone know how privacy-friendly SteamOS is/what telemetry may be collected? I’m considering purchasing the Steam Machine when it is released and wondering if it would be beneficial to install Bazzite or something else.
SteamOS is arch based, while we know Bazzite had basic telemetry enabled, outside of the steam client I dont think they have any privacy concerns but I have time to research it.
Edit 1: I think this reddit reply sums it up pretty well: Making sure you're not a bot! (not my words btw, if you got any objections or corrections, leave them below for convenience but dont put it on me thanks)
Edit 2: I completely forgot mozilla’s “Privacy Not Included” honestly, it cover steam deck and therefore steamos so a good read: Steam Deck | Privacy & security guide | Mozilla Foundation in which the article also links to this article: A Complete Guide to Privacy on the Steam Deck
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I thought you had to send that yourself via the Steam device survey that happens every month.
I have not actually checked what Steam itself does for telemetry, I figure that if it is soooo bad, companies like Epic would expose it and thrash Steam around. But it turns out, the opposite is true - with Epic poking around your computer and exfitrating information about what Steam Games that you have installed.
Proprietary applications should only be trusted in termes of strong sandboxing
Its a strong statement but don’t forget that you can also segregate a dedicated machine outside of your trusted network, not just sandboxes and VMs.
Oh and here is the Steam’s TOSDR page. Arguably the same could be applied to its OS because Steam is preinstalled there.
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I guess that a Steam Machine will always be better than Windows so I’d say that it’s already a huge win yes! 
Also I’m not sure if Valve has a lot of incentive into collecting/selling your data, they are quite profitable and sustainable of a company haha. 
I guess that you either build something from scratch + run a Moonlight server (or alike) to then stream it into your living room on some AppleTV/LG TV/etc…if you want to be 100% sure.
Otherwise, just trust the good old Gaben. 
Depending on the games you do play, you could always download it then block any external WAN access coming out from the Steam machine from your router?
Very unpractical and cumbersome experience for sure.
But only real way to be sure of no telemetry being collected otherwise.
Besides this, some YTber might dissect the device as a reviewer from a Security POV, so the community will find soon enough.
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Also, a bit of an old article but Valve looks quite dedicated to Linux
Hence I don’t think that they do have a lot of incentive into selling any data from users because they are probably making enough money by themselves.
This doesn’t cover security because of Linux, but it looks quite decent on the privacy department at least.
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Ever since the steam deck valve has always been improving Linux Gaming and it’s a win-win situation for better or for worse.
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I really don’t see any negatives into Linux being viable for gaming and getting more mainstream/accessible. 
Even if it profits a company indirectly.
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It could honestly get worse but yeah (outside of well that iykyk) Valve is a pretty consumer friendly company even if the price will soon reflect that but yeah.
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This will be the push for many to try out Linux. I might be one of these people lol.
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I hope it spurs the development of more purpose built HTPCs. It’s so hard to find linux machines that have quality of life features like quick suspend/resume and HDMI-CEC.
I also hope it pushes the HDMI forum to finally allow HDMI 2.1 support on linux
A dedicated machine is also be a form of sandboxing.
I have nothing against Steam, I just would only install it as a Flatpack and tighten its permissions.