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EA's Origin may be glorified spyware, causes mass upset

• X4 15y ago
  http://s1.directupload.net/file/d/2691/fglehhsj_jpg.htm http://s1.directupload.net/file/d/2691/fglehhsj_jpg.htm http://i44.tinypic.com/2lc8q37.jpg http://i44.tinypic.com/2lc8q37.jpg Many upset people discuss their experiences and view in Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Battlefield-3-Pc/product-reviews/B002I0HJZO/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_summary?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending http://www.amazon.com/Battlefield-3-Pc/product-reviews/B002I...
• ukdm 15y ago
  This was posted back in August, hasn't EA changed the EULA since then? http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/action/battlefield-3/news/6331203/ea-changes-origin-eula http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/action/battlefield-3/news/6331203/...
  • mattmanser 15y ago
    They only removed parts of it, specifically the parts allowing them to use the information for marketing. Also the Germans are going nuts about it because they claim the Origin EULA is a violation of privacy laws: http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/3477/article/origin-s-invasive-eula-could-meet-legal-opposition-in-germany/ http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/3477/article/origin-s-inv... I was under the impression that Steam's anti-cheat bot actually did something similar to this too, scanning running programs to search for aimbots and the like. This might go further though, I have no idea if it scans non-steam folders.
    • lclarkmichalek 15y ago
      I thought most EULAs were ruled invalid in Germany, as you pay for the product before you accept the EULA.
      • Xylakant 15y ago
        While this is technically true, the Origin EULA would be invalid in large parts even if it were accepted before paying. There's a detailed article (in german) here: http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/battlefield-3/artikel/analyse_zur_eula_von_ea_origin,45612,2561554.html http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/battlefield-3/artikel/analyse_... There's a provision in german law that EULAs may not contain clauses deemed "surprising" or "unexpected". There are multiple paragraphs in the Origin EULA that violate this principle (such as reserving the right to scan all data on your computer). There's another rule that customers may not be placed at a significant disadvantage if you're dealing with private customers. This rule is violated for example when EA reserves the right to terminate support for the game (rendering it effectively unusable) at any time at their sole discretion. There's other minor points such as attempting to move eventual lawsuits out of country or reserving the right to unilaterally change the EULA at any time but that's more or less the icing on the cake. The obvious consensus is that the EULA is invalid in pretty much any given point. Which means that the game is defective and may be returned to the store at any point after buying - a tempting idea actually :) In other news: EA seems to back off a little http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Electronic-Arts-reagiert-auf-Kritik-an-Origin-Nutzungsbedingungen-1369022.html http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Electronic-Arts-reagi... (german as well)
        • rmc 15y ago
          I'm not surprised. But why not use this to your advantage as a campaign? On a given day, everyone buys the game, then goes back and asks for a refund. Get everyone knowledgeable about the law, given them leaflets explaining the law to quote to the store clerks, forms to fill in with details if the clerks don't give the refund. Do this a few times.
    • Havoc 15y ago
      Nobody cares about what gets scanned on the HDD. Antivirus, indexing apps etc all do that. Its the attempt to legally extract the info and (ab)use it that angers everyone.
    • cube13 15y ago
      >They only removed parts of it, specifically the parts allowing them to use the information for marketing. They removed it from the Origin Terms of Service, which is nice, but left it in the privacy policy, so the overall change is... nothing.
• Luyt 15y ago
  This is why I install my games on a separate bootable harddisk, which I only boot when I want to play a game.
  • JonWood 15y ago
    I do that as well. Because games are the only reason I'd want to run Windows.
    • davidw 15y ago
      My favorite video game is "emacs". If you align all the characters correctly, you can make the computer do some pretty incredible things. The RMS level is a bitch though. Edit: I'm not joking about Emacs - sitting down to write some code/create something is what I do for fun.
      • nobody31 15y ago
        I fed a game of Dwarf Fortress into Perl and my computer became self aware
        • shaggyfrog 15y ago
          And about fifteen minutes later when the catsplosion hit, really, really slow, right? :)
  • sandycheeks 15y ago
    I've been doing this also for a couple of years now. It is amazing what most games do to a PC. Try watching your processes, services, network connections and the traffic going over them when you boot up a PC with a recent game installed on it. That's before you even run it to play anything.
  • tjoff 15y ago
    Reboot to play a game is way too much of a hassle (IMO). What I'd want is a hypervisor that could handle graphics acceleration for one virtual machine at a time. When I wanted to play I just switched virtual machine and moved the ability to accelerate graphics from my workstation virtual machine to the gaming virtual machine (similar to the way some notebooks that have an integrated and a more powerful external graphics card can switch between them during runtime). That would be a dream come true for me (if it worked well).
• dietcokedrinker 15y ago
  I hope the bad Amazon reviews based on Origin, which is just a poor Steam clone, don't deter people from buying Battlefield 3 - it is easily the best PC FPS game there has been for a long time. With a half decent graphics card it's no exaggeration to say the graphics are jaw dropping, and the game play matches it. Unfortunately if you lose your internet connection mid game, Origin closes the game immediately. You lose all XP/progress you have made in the game since you launched it. Steam had its share of problems when it launched and it looks like Origin is exactly the same, except the tool isn't there to make our gaming lives better but to stop piracy without giving a crap about the gaming experience.
  • tibbon 15y ago
    I'm guessing this is what EA is hoping for. Have a few killer games to pull people in, and hopefully they overlook and forget about problems and eventually become happy customers.
  • 100tonmantis 15y ago
    I sure hope it does deter them. To show other publishers that making a neat game does not give them the right to spy on their customers.
    • maximilianburke 15y ago
      By using Valve's online sites and products, users agree that Valve may collect aggregate information, individual information, and personally identifiable information, as defined below. Valve may share aggregate information and individual information with other parties. Valve shall not share personally identifiable information with other parties, except as described in the policy below. It doesn't seem like it's much different than Steam. Check out the System Information option from the Help drop-down menu, I don't think it gathers that information by guessing. Steam was also forced onto users with the release of a much-anticipated product -- in Valve's case it was Half Life 2.
      • darrylb42 15y ago
• click170 15y ago
  This sounds like the kind of thing that some MBA came up with; Suit: "And in the Terms of Service, add some note so that we can use their personal info for marketing." Cubicle-ee: "That's a little sleezy and sounds like it may backfire.." Suit: "Nonsense, nobody reads the ToS and everybody is data mining people's personal info these days, they can't get mad at us without getting mad at everyone else too. Look at Google."
  • ryanhuff 15y ago
    Why don't you throw lawyers under the bus while you are at it. After all, we know that everybody but coders are looking to screw the customer.
    • outworlder 15y ago
      Because in most companies, it is the "coders" who are in charge, right?
      • dlikhten 15y ago
        flame/troll bait aside... This was most definitely intentional. EA has demonstrated a lack of giving a shit about customers since Spore and even before that. Spore was a catalyst. They prey on ignorance of users. The truth is by now someone is reading the TOS, and posting about it. The problem is that not everyone reads those posts. And kids? They don't care about their "privacy" its "gimme mah game!!@?!@!@!@!#%$!" if you disagree with that statement deal with a hormone filled teenager. Of course those kids who don't get the game will naturally look for hacked alternatives. And this is where EA's lack of understanding of the real world will bite them in the ass.
      • ryanhuff 15y ago
        I have an MBA, I rarely wear a suit, and I have not sold out customers. Also, the majority of EA's management team (including CEO) does not have MBA's. So, at least in this specific example, the dreaded "MBA" label does not seem to be the culprit.
    • 15y ago
• bstar77 15y ago
  I know this is off topic, but it really burns me up to see the once mighty Origin Systems relegated to this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_Systems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_Systems
  • dlikhten 15y ago
    I second this sentiment. Crusader no regret was one of my favorite games growing up. I don't believe I ever finished it, it was a difficult game, then again back then many things were hahahaha.
  • bonzoesc 15y ago
    They got bought out nineteen years ago; it's not the "once mighty Origin Systems," it's a trademark that EA owns becoming attached to a product.
    • astrodust 15y ago
      Brand Necrophilia.
• corncobpipe 15y ago
  I admit I haven't read all the comments here so I apologize if someone else has made the following comment. This story is nonsense. Install Process Explorer (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653), launch Process Explorer, install Origin, launch Origin, log in with your username/password. Let Process Explorer run for an hour or so and filter out any results where the Origin directory is being read. What are you going to find? Nothing. Most of this outrage is based on a photoshopped screenshot in a BF3 forum, the rest is speculation, not based on fact. Try the Process Manger experiment for yourself.
  • jonursenbach 15y ago
    They may not actually be collecting data right now, but the ToS explicitly grants them the ability to do so at some point in the future.
    • corncobpipe 15y ago
      People are freaking out on this like it's already happening. I point out how you can monitor the program and now I'm getting a negative feedback? Fuck this place.
      • Dylan16807 15y ago
        The negative feedback is because you called the story nonsense. The story is about the TOS.
• bluedanieru 15y ago
  For all their bullshit, EA has a point about Steam. I hope they get them to change their mind about in-app purchases.
• nomdeplume 15y ago
  best quote ever = "Reddit, known for its anger over everything..."
  • andypants 15y ago
    Also doesn't help in this case that reddit loves steam and hates ea and origin. And the article is 2 months old, what's up with that? Is this the most sensational article that can be found when searching for 'origin spyware'?
• Too 15y ago
  Can this even be legal? I see this is getting more and more common. Something has to be done about it now before every program you install starts calling home with info about your personal files. Spotify does the same thing. Read the user agreement, in there somewhere theres a line about giving them full right to analyze and track your personal music collection that you have stored locally on your computer. Yes, that means your local mp3-files completely unrelated to the spotify service.
  • Silhouette 15y ago
    There are all kinds of ways this could potentially be invalidated in law, depending on your jurisdiction: privacy laws, computer misuse laws, unfair contract terms protections/limitations on what would be considered reasonable in a contract of adhesion, and indeed the fundamental question of what legal status any given EULA has and whether it is enforceable at all. Unfortunately, governments seem unwilling to legislate to provide any clarity on EULAs despite their vast scope. Until they do, what we have is a mixed bag of case law, which has little consistency between jurisdictions or even sometimes within the same jurisdiction, and which in any case covers only a tiny number of very specific cases rather than giving much guidance on the broader principles. I suspect that means if this is going to be struck down, it's going to be in places that have worthwhile privacy laws, which sadly are few and far between in the world today since technology seems to be running at least a decade ahead of the law's ability to deal with its implications, particularly with regard to form contracts and privacy where the increasing dependence on conducting business via automated on-line systems has profound implications.
• uses 15y ago
  This is a low-quality submission. It's a two month old, three paragraph blog entry expressing a vague sentiment, with links to low-quality sources.
• killEA 15y ago
  EAOrigin will not last long. They gained UNLIMITED access to your system without consents, even when they should be scanning theirs own produce instead. EA must leave PC Marketing at once and stick with Consoles. By breaching every countries privacy law under false Amerikan Democratic. Can we say Shitocratic?.