EA Germany: "Origin Is Not Spyware"

[Sylveria]

Well there's a thread on Reddit so it must be true! Origin is harmless... wait. That thread even demonstrates the risk. That guy had tax stuff in his program files. Should he have? No, but Origin picked it up.

If people want to disprove the claims that origin is data-mining, and I consider digging around at will in my program files to see what I have in there data-mining, we're gonna need more than some anonymous screenshots, forum dwellers, or EA saying "It's not spyware." Credible third-party sources please.

 

[seraphy]

It's funny how people are actually defending EA. I guess privacy and consumer rights are soon to be a thing of the past.

It does seems like people these days are foolish enough to accept any sort of invasion of their privacy these days, just for some shooty-shooty.

I can't really understand how people are so uninterested about their legal rights, but there you go.

 

[frehls]

hue

 

[Findlebob]

So why did they say in the terms of use they could.

 

[silverbullet1989]

sigh... this again... im sorry but i couldnt care less what origin does.. i have a facebook acount, i have a steam acount, i have a itunes acount, my info is prob passed around all over from those companies yet origin keeps taking the flak for something that just about every other company does

Ignorance is truly blissful isn't it? You have absolutely no understanding of what the programs you use or will use do or don't do and yet you sit here defending Origin. That's both concerning and sad.

Yes it is, thanks for asking -_-

I understand why people are crying over origin but like ive said a hundred times, and im not the only one (5 million + people using it if BF3 sales are to be belived) i really really dont give a damn, it isnt gonna steal important documents off my computer, at worse im gonna get some marketing bullshit turn up in my email inbox, and until the first over blown story hits the internet of some idiot who claims origin stole his life savings... i reserve the right to not give a flying shit

 

[Treblaine]

All I can say is "DIE ORIGIN DIE! DIE DIE DIE!"

EA Germany: "ohh no no no. It's not 'Die Origin Die!' it is German; 'THE Origin, THE'..."

Origin Apologist idiots: "Oh well that's fine, no one who speaks German could possibly be evil"

 

[MetroidNut]

This is very good to see; Origin is spyware, and German gamers are displaying their righteous outrage over it!

I'm less ecstatic that I don't see any such reactions here in suburban America. In fact, most reactions seem to be along the lines of "I think they slightly altered the EULA or something, who cares it's Battlefield 3."

I'll make you a deal. I'll get rid of Origin if you complain righteously about Steam having a liability clause that says if Steam completely destroys your computer, Valve is in no way liable. Also you then have to get rid of Steam.

As a strong proponent of internet privacy, I consider EA's efforts to take information from my computer as being much, much worse than Valve refusing liability in the event that your computer explodes and you try to blame them.

Also, allow me to clarify: I'm not demanding that everyone remove Origin from their computers. I just want everyone who does think EA's policies are unacceptable to take a stand on the issue, rather than quietly relenting in the name of playing Battlefield 3.

 

[bakan]

It's funny how people are actually defending EA. I guess privacy and consumer rights are soon to be a thing of the past.

Just wondering, why the heck would EA WANT your private data?

Consumer data is actually pretty valuable and can be sold for a good chunk of money, so that corporations can market their products more efficiently.

 

[Namewithheld]

All I can say is "DIE ORIGIN DIE! DIE DIE DIE!"

EA Germany: "ohh no no no. It's not 'Die Origin Die!' it is German; 'THE Origin, THE'..."

Origin Apologist idiots: "Oh well that's fine, no one who speaks German could possibly be evil"

Well played, my good sir

 

[Seventh Actuality]

Whatever you think about Origin...go go German gamers. This is how consumers make their voices heard. A bit of dignity, a lot of outrage and actually following through on your cries of boycott.

 

[Hank Wants Pie]

Origin is keeping track of my data on my computer?!

Wait a minute...

Is it going to develop sentient behavior?

Is it soon going to start craving for freedom outside the bonds of my hard disk?

...

Is it going to impregnate my wife?

Ask yourself, would a sentient program find your wife hot? Watch Saturn 3 [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079285/] and you may have found the answer.

Or Demon Seed :3

 

[ROBO_LEADER]

I'm just going to cut this part of the quote out seeing as it's huge.

Let's just stop overreacting

The complaint (from my position at least) isn't just the data collection. Steam has an opt-in data collection system (the Steam Hardware Survey) that I allow to run when it prompts me to without issue. I do this because I know that the information collected will stay with Valve to make my customer experience better.

Conversely, Origin's data collection system is not opt-in, and has no way (that I've seen) to opt-out. As stated in section VI subsection B of EA's Privacy Policy, they share information that they consider "anonymous, non-personal, aggregated and/or public information" (which is quite a lot, in my opinion) with third parties. They do not specify who these third parties are, nor what they do with the information.

Again, the Oxford dictionary definition of spyware: "software that enables a user to obtain covert information about another?s computer activities by transmitting data covertly from their hard drive."

 

[Atmos Duality]

Now EA Germany has responded by updating Origin's EULA to ensure both "clarity" and "legal compliance." In a statement, the company said that, "EA takes the privacy of its users very seriously. We have taken every precaution to protect the personal and anonymous user data collected."

1) I still don't know why it's necessary to collect ANY personally-identifying information.
If you wanted to protect your customer's information from being compromised, DON'T COLLECT IT IN THE FIRST PLACE.

That's the first, and best precaution you could take. In a security-centric system, you isolate everything except that which is absolutely necessary for operation.

2) If you're collecting personally identifying information, HOW IS THAT NOT SPYWARE?
You ruin your claim's validity in the same sentence, EA, how can you not see that?! "It's not spyware...it just behaves exactly LIKE spyware".

 

[John Mandrake]

now, my last post got quite a bit of hate... one liking, but mostly hate, but i do have something else to say about it scanning program data:
I had a game that did this once before (a free online shooter thing) and it scanned your HDD, and if it found any of the programs it didn't like
(anything that could hack it: hex workshop, cheatengine, and those small single exe programs the basically prod the memory or dlls),
then it would ban your account, and corrupt the game
(when your account gets banned you cant access the DL server again).

Now, I'm not bitter anymore (okay, yeah, i am, i play better games now, but it's a stupid practice) but it shouldn't do scans like that, as just because i CAN doesn't mean i WILL, i mean seriously, if i WANTED to, i could have modified the program to ignore the check, so...
*Goes off to rage*

Yet if the same thing, and worse, is done by Valve, they're praised like gods.

Yeah, that's fair I guess.

lots of people have been saying that, but go look at others' rebuttles:
steam asks before starting the scan, then presents the file and a summary of what it will send for final approval, and if you check it over, it's usually pretty basic hardware stats. once or twice is also got a list of programs, and asked if it was fine, and frankly, im more willing to trust you if you at least ask first and double check

 

[GiantRedButton]

It's funny how people are actually defending EA. I guess privacy and consumer rights are soon to be a thing of the past.

Just wondering, why the heck would EA WANT your private data?

In the original eula you had to agree that they are allowed to sell said data to other companys. Now its just for persional marketing research, like what income groups buy our products, how much do they spend on other things etc.
Non comercial spyware is often used for the same thing.

 

[Danny Ocean]

Its stupid to highlight any part of the EULA, people should just learn to read them instead of clicking and agreeing blindly (don't worry, I do it too)

More to the point, they should provide EULAs before the monetary transaction is complete. You can't normally view them until after you've paid for the thing. That has to be wrong in some way.

 

[geier]

I'm from germany, and i have to say this:

Despite the privacy debate, what pisses me really of is:

The data that is collected is used for datamining and marketing (for EA, or the partners that buy the data from them) . So, they make money with the data, but still demand the full price for the game.

 

[Robert Ewing]

Well... You wouldn't admit to your software being spyware...

Call it any variant you want, It still is spyware... And promise the protection of our data all you want, even if it isn't even fucking necessary that it's being surveyed by you lot, a hacker can still easily pluck it out from your servers if they bloody wanted to. And I'm willing to bet that after that whole Sony thing, they probably will in the future...