EA Germany: "Origin Is Not Spyware"

[Twilight_guy]

At some point I think companies are going to solve this whole thing the easy way: Set up a local server in charge of all instances of your game and sell people a client program to talk to you. That way piracy goes away since you control the IDs of all customers and you every time you sell one you don't give a damn who has it since you got your cash for it. There's no privacy nonsense since all your getting is a stream of data that people can scrutinize all they want and see only an encrypted binary format for game centric data. You no longer care if player screw around with your software since you only care about incoming data and if they mess that up then they only screw themselves. The only problem is lack of adequate server machinery and ubiquity of internet access, but one day it'll be here.

 

[Sonicron]

I don't get the whole outrage... are people worried that EA is secretly pilfering people's credit card numbers and selling them on 4chan to the highest bidder?

I know we enjoy the whole, "fuck the man" mindset around this site but enough with the conspiracy theories guys. Just exactly what malicious things do people think EA is trying to pull that is worth this much rage?

Oh, we're kind of worried about some dickwads hacking Origin somewhere down the line and getting access to all our data, for example.
Besides, if someone comes into your house, roots through all of your belongings, catalogues them and keeps the records, do you condone this behaviour as long as the perpetrator doesn't use the information to cause you harm?

 

[Orks da best]

sigh, this is tickign me off:
Beware, this may be rude, but either way I don't care:

Origin is in no way different then Steam, facebook, or anything like that, they were as it seems, more upfront about it, whereas steam and facebook are not...

Can we please stoping saying origin is bad and evil, its not, in fact I support it for leveling the ditgital field, can we stop being whineing about it like brats when it comes to origin...

needed to get it out of my system, but really stoping behaveing like rbats when it comes to origin, it's no more invasive then steam or facebook.

 

[deth2munkies]

I'm happy to see this. From what I understand (please someone correct me if I'm wrong), Origin can view what other programs you have installed, what websites you visit, and the like all to improve EA's marketing and possibly more proactively ban hackers.

That's just plain fucking unacceptable and I wish more people would actually stand up to companies that pull this shit and not buy their games.

It's times and programs like this that make me support "activist piracy".

 

[Irridium]

I don't get the whole outrage... are people worried that EA is secretly pilfering people's credit card numbers and selling them on 4chan to the highest bidder?

I know we enjoy the whole, "fuck the man" mindset around this site but enough with the conspiracy theories guys. Just exactly what malicious things do people think EA is trying to pull that is worth this much rage?

EA has demonstrated time and time again that they treat the consumer with contempt, at best.

Personally, I've been fucked by EA quite a bit. Spore installed malware on my PC, used up it's installations trying to install the actual game but couldn't because of my crappy internet, and when I contacted EA support about it they told me to buy the game again.

And then there's the time I tried to buy "bioware points" to buy the Arrival DLC for Mass Effect 2. I was using a pre-paid card, and the order wasn't going through. "Ok" I thought, some sites don't accept pre-paid cards. It happens, I'll live. But in the three times I tried adding points and failed, it seems EA still charged the card. $1 for each failed attempt. And again, their support basically told me to screw myself in one long, unhelpful conversation.

Yeah, fuck EA. I can't speak for everyone, but that's why I hate EA.

 

[Muco5681]

man i envy the german goverment for having such strickt privacy laws i just wish that my goverment would take note! as a security geek i see how my goverment just looks the other way about this and it just makes me want to...stomp on baby puppies and ofc the people are just as clueless as my goverment!

 

[A Pious Cultist]

Then why does it look for data that isn't required to run the game?

Steam does none of this. The closest it comes is the hardware survey, which is opt-in, and only collects data relavent to running games. Things like screen resolution, hardware configuration, windows version, driver versions. It doesn't care what sort of programs are run in the background, and Valve doesn't sell that data to anybody.

That simply isn't true:
http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey

Steam looks for what programs you have too. The problem is that Origin's algorithm just indescriminately scans files when it really shouldnt.

 

[Irridium]

sigh, this is tickign me off:
Beware, this may be rude, but either way I don't care:

Origin is in no way different then Steam, facebook, or anything like that, they were as it seems, more upfront about it, whereas steam and facebook are not...

Can we please stoping saying origin is bad and evil, its not, in fact I support it for leveling the ditgital field, can we stop being whineing about it like brats when it comes to origin...

needed to get it out of my system, but really stoping behaveing like rbats when it comes to origin, it's no more invasive then steam or facebook.

Uh, Origin is very different to Steam.

Steam collects only the data it needs, and most of the time it's opt-in. The few times it does it on its own is when it crashes, and even then all it scans is basic system hardware. Yes, I do wish they made that opt-in as well, but compared to other services, it's far better.

Origin scans whatever it wants, whenever it wants, and uploads whatever it wants to EA.

Yeah, people are complaining about Origin's invasive nature compared to Steam. And they question EA because EA has shown in the past it doesn't care about its customers. Frankly I'm more surprised people are willing to accept yet another digital retailer who isn't offering anything over the other retailers. Apart from EA games, but it can't survive on EA games alone.

Yes, Valve did it with Half Life 2 and their other games, but it seems gamers aren't going to be fooled by that again.

 

[tg851]

Personally, I've been fucked by EA quite a bit. Spore installed malware on my PC, used up it's installations trying to install the actual game but couldn't because of my crappy internet, and when I contacted EA support about it they told me to buy the game again.

ah yes,the spore debauchery,im STILL cleaning up after that.soon as i relised what it was doing i nuked it with an assassin program,but guess what?it came back along with an email to my account accusing me of being a pirate AFTER i first uninstalled spore then assassinated the handler,took 4 more tries and a reformatting of my hard drive but i managed to at least stop it from sending data.but just recently i got a new comp and attached the old hd to the new one to transfer data over to the new hd and guess what?it all of a sudden comes back on the new hard drive as if nothing happened,it !@#$%^& jumped ship onto the new one even though i pretty much nuked it from orbit just to be sure on the old hard-drive. lucky between the time of the original nuking and now they released a tool to remove it(or so they say)and i finally used that, hopefully its gone for good this time.

also anyone wants a free copy of spore they can have it

 

[DannyJBeckett]

EA Germany: Origin is Not Spyware

As soon as I saw that I thought;


In fairness, I don't trust Steam either.

 

[Irridium]

Personally, I've been fucked by EA quite a bit. Spore installed malware on my PC, used up it's installations trying to install the actual game but couldn't because of my crappy internet, and when I contacted EA support about it they told me to buy the game again.

ah yes,the spore debauchery,im STILL cleaning up after that.soon as i relised what it was doing i nuked it with an assassin program,but guess what?it came back along with an email to my account accusing me of being a pirate AFTER i first uninstalled spore then assassinated the handler,took 4 more tries and a reformatting of my hard drive but i managed to at least stop it from sending data.but just recently i got a new comp and attached the old hd to the new one to transfer data over to the new hd and guess what?it all of a sudden comes back on the new hard drive as if nothing happened,it !@#$%^& jumped ship onto the new one even though i pretty much nuked it from orbit just to be sure on the old hard-drive. lucky between the time of the original nuking and now they released a tool to remove it(or so they say)and i finally used that, hopefully its gone for good this time.

also anyone wants a free copy of spore they can have it

Yeah, that was more or less my experience with the aftermath of dealing with Spore. Only 10x more annoying since I had dial-up. And the best part, after it all my friend lent me his pirated copy, which I played without issue.

I payed fifty god damn dollars for the thing, I was going to play it. One way or the other. Even if EA wouldn't let me play the game I legally bought because they made the game think it was pirated.

Assholes.

Game was alright. Not too bad. Certainly not worth the hassle.

 

[MegaManOfNumbers]

Sorry, accidental post.

 

[Therumancer]

My basic attitude here is that more people and countries need to be following Germany's example. The very fact that this has become an "industry standard" is the problem, rather than a defense. Really gaming/software companies need to be more heavily regulated to prevent things like Origin from even existing.

 

[major_chaos]

while I don't like origin i'm sick of the "bwwwwaaaa spyware" complaints because they are massively disproportional to the actual issue, I also don't see how origin is any worse than "we can take away all your games for any reason at any time with no questions asked" steam or any of the many other programs that can access your hard-drive

 

[frehls]

hue

 

[Wieke]

Then why does it look for data that isn't required to run the game?

Steam does none of this. The closest it comes is the hardware survey, which is opt-in, and only collects data relavent to running games. Things like screen resolution, hardware configuration, windows version, driver versions. It doesn't care what sort of programs are run in the background, and Valve doesn't sell that data to anybody.

That simply isn't true:
http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey

Steam looks for what programs you have too. The problem is that Origin's algorithm just indescriminately scans files when it really shouldnt.

Fun bit is, Steam asks you for permission. Every once in a while (once every couple of months or so) it will pop up a little window asking permission to scan your system. If you allow it to it will then scan your system, report what it found (so you can see what it wants to send to valve) and ask for permission to send it.

Which makes it much much much much better than unsolicited and secretive scans that Origin seems to perpetrate. (Not that you were denying that.)

 

[Antari]

And personally I'm 100% behind them. If EA has more than two functioning braincells to use they'll kill this program before it kills the company. But EA has never been one for doing the smart thing.

 

[Leopotamus]

I don't get the whole outrage... are people worried that EA is secretly pilfering people's credit card numbers and selling them on 4chan to the highest bidder?

I know we enjoy the whole, "fuck the man" mindset around this site but enough with the conspiracy theories guys. Just exactly what malicious things do people think EA is trying to pull that is worth this much rage?

Think of it this way, every time you want to play a game, it asks you 'have you got any sexually transmitted infections? if so, what are they?' before proceeding. Its an irrelevant question, and this information is of no relevance to a company providing a games platform.

Just to give a bigger picture, these are a couple of screenshots of Origin accessing processes and files that have NOTHING to do with origin.

The first one looks like origin is collecting information on german base accounting/payroll software 'lexware'
http://s1.directupload.net/file/d/2691/fglehhsj_jpg.htm

The second one is origin collecting information on sony Ericsson applications.
http://s7.directupload.net/file/d/2691/enxmldba_jpg.htm

These images may be fake, hopefully. But if not, then it would be of concern as to how much information origin has permission to record.


This ties into a particular clause in there terms and conditions...

"2. Consent to Collection and Use of Data.

You agree that EA may collect, use, store and transmit technical and related information that identifies your computer (including the Internet Protocol Address), operating system, Application usage (including but not limited to successful installation and/or removal), software, software usage and peripheral hardware, that may be gathered periodically to facilitate the provision of software updates, dynamically served content, product support and other services to you, including online services. EA may also use this information combined with personal information for marketing purposes and to improve our products and services. We may also share that data with our third party service providers in a form that does not personally identify you. IF YOU DO NOT WANT EA TO COLLECT, USE, STORE, TRANSMIT OR DISPLAY THE DATA DESCRIBED IN THIS SECTION, PLEASE DO NOT INSTALL OR USE THE APPLICATION. This and all other data provided to EA and/or collected by EA in connection with your installation and use of this Application is collected, used, stored and transmitted in accordance with EA?s Privacy Policy located at www.ea.com. To the extent that anything in this section conflicts with the terms of EA?s Privacy Policy, the terms of the Privacy Policy shall control."

which has recently been changed here
http://eacom.s3.amazonaws.com/EULA_Origin_8.24.11.pdf
Their new EULA has a plug about 'trusting' EA and partners, but no where is it stated that they have changed what information is recorded.

You can view the original controversial EULA here
http://eacom.s3.amazonaws.com/EULA_Origin+_June+launch_.5.17.11.pdf


It needs to be said that Steam collects aggregate information on what apps you use and it does not associate any identifiable data to that information. Valve also collect individual information, which is personal, however you can choose to opt out.

EA has no opt out option for any information.

It's not whether or not EA are evil master minds trying to take over the world. The point of concern is that EA is accessing information that is of no relevance to them and that YOU don't have a choice if you want to play the game. EA is selling BF3 for the cost of $50.99 and all personal information on your computer (they really should update the price to say that on Amazon).

Why is this an issue? EA has access to all of your personal information on your computer just so you can play BF3. So what happens when EA gets hacked like the playstation network and you have no idea what information EA has taken from your computer?

 

[idarkphoenixi]

If EA want information about me, I'd be more than happy to fill out a poll.

There's no need to go this far, scanning my pc for whatever information they find to be relevant.