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

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

#31

Post by chollida1 »

kkyqqp wrote: post #23
dietcokedrinker wrote: post #6

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 los…

Are you an EA employee who created an account just to make this comment?

His/her comment seems pretty critical of EA and Origin. The Battlefield 3 comments I'd agree with.

Infact I'd agree with pretty much the entire statement and I've been around here for along time.

I'm not sure why you think liking a video game and begin critical of the company who produces it would mean the poster is an employee of the company.

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

#32

Post by kkyqqp »

chollida1 wrote: post #31
kkyqqp wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you an EA employee who created an account just to make this comment?

His/her comment seems pretty critical of EA and Origin. The Battlefield 3 comments I'd agree with. Infact I'd agree with pretty much the entire statement and I've been around here for along time. I'm not sure why you think liking a video game and begin critical of the company who produces it would mean the poster is an employee of the company.

The parent post has been edited since I made my comment.

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

#33

Post by corncobpipe »

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), 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.

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

#35

Post by OriginalSyn »

dietcokedrinker wrote: post #6

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 los…

It has deterred me from buying BF3 but the BF3 beta also deterred me from buying BF3. BF3 was full of bugs that were also in BC2, based on previous performance these bugs will not get fixed for a long time.

One of the serious things was that I had to change my password to something less secure, huge red flag there, only slightly less concerning than a company sending you your old password plain text when you want to reset it.

My trust of EA is nearing my trust of Sony. I've been boycotting Sony as a company since their whole rootkit debacle and every time I consider rescinding that boycott they do something that totally justifies it. I'm not boycotting EA yet but I'm being cautious, I'm not going to put my neck on the line and adopt their early stuff until I'm reasonably assured it's not going to do something evil through negligence or intention.

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

#37

Post by jonursenbach »

corncobpipe wrote: post #33

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 ), 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 rea…

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.

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

#38

Post by ajross »

100tonmantis wrote: post #13
dietcokedrinker wrote: post #6

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 los…

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.

Exactly. Bad behavior should be punished. If companies could just release any junk they wanted and paper it over with a hit game, the online rights world would be a worse place even than it is now.

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

#39

Post by chaostheory »

maximilianburke wrote: post #22
100tonmantis wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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…

> But there’s a significant difference. Valve’s policy is self-restricted to anything on your PC directly relating to its own products. EA’s is so broad that it gives the publisher permission to scan your entire hard drive, and report back absolutely anything you may have installed, and indeed when you may use it, and then pass that information on the third parties.

So currently Valve uses that clause mainly to scan for cheats and hacks; EA goes way beyond.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/08/24/eas-origin-eula-p...

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

#40

Post by rmc »

Xylakant wrote: post #14
lclarkmichalek wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought most EULAs were ruled invalid in Germany, as you pay for the product before you accept the EULA.

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_... 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…

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.
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