PC A Discussion on the Origin Privacy Scare

[FrozenIpaq]

Ever since Electronic Arts announced that Battlefield 3 will be offered exclusively on Origin on the PC a lot of gamers have been up in arms, myself included. However someone went through the small task of reading the Origin's End User License Agreement (EULA) and found out that Origin is "spying" on your computer (area of contention posted after the break).

Now I've been an outspoken opponent of Origin but it doesn't deserve a bad rap for this[...]

Continue reading: A Discussion on Origin Privacy Scare...

 

[FrozenIpaq]

I'm aware most of you probably haven't even noticed this "privacy scare" but I think it will provide us with a good opportunity to discuss this very topic on privacy, especially as it relates to gaming (online or off)

 

[Adiuvo]

I'm wondering why they even need to snoop around my hardrive. Their business is selling games, not advertising like with other companies. They aren't a search engine. They're a game company. If they want to take data relating to that, be my guest. What they don't need to know is everything else I'm doing, as the scope of their business isn't that large.

There's also the matter of the way I view their company. Google I trust and like, EA not so much.

 

[FrozenIpaq]

I'm wondering why they even need to snoop around my hardrive. Their business is selling games, not advertising like with other companies. They aren't a search engine. They're a game company. If they want to take data relating to that, be my guest. What they don't need to know is everything else I'm doing, as the scope of their business isn't that large.

There's also the matter of the way I view their company. Google I trust and like, EA not so much.

They want to be able to target game ads (I'm assuming Origin has a front page that may advertise game deals or highlight games that may interest you). They really aren't collecting information not pertaining to games which is partially my point here, they aren't collecting website visits (at least not from what I could see from the EULA) and most of the information collected pertains to hardware info (understandable) or software (again, understandable)

 

[MenaceInc]

Valve I trust a lot more to do hardware and software surveys than EA. They post their results publicly at least and it can be used by people in the software development industry to better target the gaming audience. EA are using their results for advertising. I know which I'd rather let on my system.

 

[hush404]

I installed Origin to try the BF3 alpha trial that I got invited to... I think I may now go uninstall origin