Because today's trifecta of corporate malfeasance and/or generally shitty behavior wouldn't be complete without mentioning something awful EA is doing, let's talk about Origin again. Specifically, how it apparently includes spyware.
Once again reminding us all that we really ought to be reading these terms of service that we so often blindly agree to, intrepid users of Origin have discovered within EA's End User License Agreement for the service that, by installing the software on the system and using it, you are giving EA full license to track a number of different things on your computer, including, but not limited to personal information, computer information, application usage, software, software usage, and peripheral hardware usage. The reason for all of this is for the usual "marketing purposes" and "to improve our products and services" nonsense, but the EULA also states that EA will happily sell your information to any third parties it sees fit.
It's fair to point out that Valve's Steam service also does some of the things listed here when you use it. However, the trick is that Steam allows users to opt out of any and all such practices. Origin has no such opt-out feature, and in fact states that you cannot use the service at all unless you agree to their terms.
That does present quite the quandary for the information protective gamers out there who might want to play a game like, say, Battlefield 3 on their PC. Battlefield 3, alongside other EA PC titles, will require an install of Origin to operate, even if you buy a physical copy of the game.
In the end, this is actually a fairly fixable problem for EA. The publisher would simply need to patch in an opt-out option for any and all info scraping that Origin might be involved in. If it doesn't? Here's a deeply enraged Reddit thread that you might want to partake of.
I might have to start reading those EULAs.
I'd love to know when they went from "let's collect all this information" to "let's collect all this information and sell it".
I keep asking myself if BF3 is worth it, it gets worst everyday, damn you EA.
@NinjaCommando said:
Banned.
and pirates come to the rescue once again
i hope if they do patch in the opt-out feature that some tech-savvy dude checks to make sure its actually not still collecting information.
Surprise, Origin sucks even before it's out.
Good thing I'm getting it on Xbox then.
This is pathetic. Add an opt-out ability now. This is souring my interest in all EA products, BF3 included.
Had to do it to play the BF3 Alpha...
: (
Sad, but true :(
Fuck off, EA.
So, if you store your credit card information somewhere on your computer Origin might actually obtain that information? Heck, it might even get access to my bank information since here we will soon be using smartcard readers to access our online bank frontend thingy. Yay.
EA's really trying to shoot themselves in the foot here. How do you expect to take down CoD with shit like this going on
Fuck... EA I hate you so much right now.
It came out like a month ago...
Three new stories on the front page and all them revealing some sort of fucked up, horrible practice. This is a great industry.