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.
EA Germany: "Origin Is Not Spyware"
- Thread starter Hevva
- Start date
Recommended Videos
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.Frehls said:
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."
1) I still don't know why it's necessary to collect ANY personally-identifying information.EA via article said:
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".
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*
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
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*
lots of people have been saying that, but go look at others' rebuttles:Sgt. Sykes said:
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
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.Clonekiller said:
Non comercial spyware is often used for the same thing.
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.Torrasque said:
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.
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.
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...
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...
All EULA's can be found online, on company websites. So, no. It's shown again, as a "Hey, you read this, right? Check off that you read it."Danny Ocean said:
Not like this has stopped millions of people getting Origin so they can play BF3.
I'm sure EA's already collected plenty of data.
I'm sure EA's already collected plenty of data.
The idea of the software EULA has never been challenged seriously in court. Some analysts think that if it was, it might face some serious problems as it is pretty common knowledge that people don't read it. Nor are laypeople expected to understand the legal terminology in the EULA.Frostbite3789 said:
on the ME3 forum, many people said that they canceled their pre-orders because of origin. i still wait in case EA changes something but till then, i will not get the game. so as BF3. im really better off with MW3 if i want to play a MP military shooter.
When pressed further over allegations of the EA Origin service invading the privacy of German gamers, the head of EA Germany had the following to say:
I tried to return my BF-retail, but they didn't accept it since the box was opened and the password has been used. What can I do? If I won't find a solution to delete Origin, I'm gonna use the Razor's method.
P.S. I'm not from Germany.
P.S. I'm not from Germany.
Well, here's the thing, EA. I understand you may be concerned about cheaters, but there are other, less invasive ways of determining that, since "cheating" is by its nature going to be something that alters the game- the software you created- or the data passing back and forth to and from that game.
And while I'm glad you're not downloading my cell phone photo folder, I never particularly thought you were.
However, it's absolutely none of your goddamn business whether or not I'm using iTunes. Or Steam. Or what brand and/or version of virus protection or firewall I'm using (which is the kind of aggregate information that would be very unfortunate to have fall into the hands of hackers, and no, we don't particularly take it as a given that big companies are very good at keeping such info secure any more.)
And, much as you might like it to be otherwise, it isn't even your business if I choose to use torrent or "virtual drive" software.
It confers no benefit to me to provide you with this information for free, and it gives you reams of information that I have little proof you will use in ways that will benefit me; indeed, there is more than a little suggestion that your knowing, say, what percentage of users buy your competitors' DLC is the kind of information that could come back and bite your customers in the ass.
It is not necessary for you to have this information, and your insistence that you have it before you will allow us access to games we have paid to play very much suggests that you have forgotten your job and your role.
...What standard is that, exactly? The EULA standard that "we told you somewhere deep in the mire of a ten page document in New Standard Legalese exactly how we were going to screw you, so stop complaining"? The "sure, we're taking loads of information from you, but rest assured, we're your friend, and anyone else we pass the info onto will get the parts that can be traced back to you redacted" standard? Perhaps the "We're EA, and we have such a big chunk of the entertainment software market that if we say something is industry standard, it effectively is as of the moment we put it into practice" standard?
...No, EA. I'm pretty sure if anyone else said that it was their right to get a list of every program I'm running on my computer at any time without further consent and with no clear message about how that information would be used or what for, I would have said no.
Haven't bought Battlefield 3; not going to.
I know I'm not buying the Deluxe edition of Mass Effect 3; still hoping they don't fuck up the regular version.
well how is it worlds problem that yousilverbullet1989 said:
origin is not alone in taking flak. facebook has probably taken more than anything else. steam does not sell your information as far as we know and itunes are apple, so thats natural. its jsut that origin is the latest and thus the hating is now the loudest.
Origin is a big step towards internet control. and its only natural that it would start with one of the big publisher companies. after all, they want to use that marketing on you.
on the other hand, they are too late. origin has already been worked around and now you can play your legal copy online without origin. (that doesn't work with pirated copies so dont bother)
i predict - nothing will happen. just like with online DRM, there was rage, there was warcrys and eventually everyone started using it. i feel like im the only guy still boycotting ubisoft for their DRM.
When did i say its the world's problem lol im basically saying i couldnt give a shit what it supposedly does, at the end of the day my info is all over the internet so what difference does it make in another company having it. and as for the crack yes i know theres a work around, am i going to use it? no certainly not, i dont want my BF3 account banning personally since we all know EA will pull a dick move and find a way of detecting and banning all acounts using it.
well, as long you are happy that EA takes you files, scans pretty much everything you do and shares it to other third parties in other countries without telling, then see your self happy when some one sends you some crap which might have a virus on it. or EA tells you, you should do some changes so you can play this game.
