The EULA says that EA can identify your computer, operating system, installed/uninstalled software/hardware, and use that information for marketing purposes while merrily sharing it with third party companies. It’s all fairly disgusting, and there’s no opt-out offer.
http://www.destructoid.com/ea-s-origin-may-be-glorified-spyware-causes-mass-upset-209745.phtml
EA Games: Scan Everything
Marketing? Holy cow.
EA Games: Pilfer Everything
This has gone from a “pre-order for sure” to “game day purchase” to “wait until they put out some patches” to “meh, maybe I’ll buy the 360 version when it gets cheaper” to “I tell you what EA, I’ll buy it when it shows up on Steam”.
And I fricking love Battlefield.
This doesn’t make any sense. Why would it being on Steam automatically negate the other problems you have with it?
Steam would mean no origin which would mean no spying, probably.
Anyways damn it. I’m still waiting for my copy to arrive and now I’m not even sure I want to install it…
I sorta expected them to be collecting this information, EULA or no EULA. But it’s nice to have it in print, I suppose.
I’m imagining a battlog-free future here LMN8R. Work with me.
Hopefully there’ll be sufficient internet furore to get them to tone it down a bit. But frankly I operate under no illusions and just deal with it. I like playing multiplayer games on the internet, and basically all of them have this insidious phone-home bullshit buried in the EULA to some extent. Which is pretty infuriating, I agree. But how does one go about stopping it, either in the individual or collective sense?
No way, EA is doing something evil? There must be some mistake!
I just completely upgraded my gaming rig, and I have always loved Battlefield, and the player base for RO:2 just dropped out the bottom. It is becoming harder and harder to not just buy it. But I keep reading about everyone getting screwed over by EA/Origin, and the way it just paws through your system. I wish that there was any hope of it ever being on steam.
Give up. The war is lost. Gamers gladly install whatever they need to if it will get them the newest gaming fix.
Sorry, but no. Battlelog is not some tacked-on periphery feature to manage community stuff. Battlelog is the entire multiplayer infrastructure for the game. Removing it for one version (or all versions) would require a fundamental re-write of every single aspect of how Battlefield 3 multiplayer launches, operates during games, communicates for social features, reports end-game stats, and more.
Destructoid story posted 08.24.2011? Not saying people shouldn’t still be bugged, but I can’t even remember if that was before or after they made some changes to the EULA.
There was previous fervor well before 8/24/11. It resulted in some changes to the EULA. The previous outrage was documented in the other, all purpose Origin thread. This stuff is a big reason I didn’t get BF3 for PC when Amazon was offering it for $40.
Actually, I don’t care about battlelog one way or another. Seems kind of annoying at worst. Its whatever EA wants to install that spys on me that I’m against. I may have conflated Origin and Battlelog.
So close port 80 then and be done with it, you fucking caw.
Spyware? HAW! HAW! HAW!
Jason McGFWLllough is rolling in his grave, the guy’s not even dead yet.
Windows, Linux, and MacOS are spyware as well, you sensationalist rubber stamper.
Go back to unix and play “Hello world” for the billionth time.
The '60s are over, jerknose. Move on for the sake of fuck.
The Origin EULA can be found here.
A pertinent section:
2. Consent to Collection and Use of Data.
EA knows that you care how information about you is collected, used and shared, and we appreciate your trust that we will do so carefully and sensibly. Information about our customers is an important part of our business, and EA would never sell your personally identifiable information to anyone, nor would it ever use spyware or install spyware on users’ machines. We and agents acting on our behalf do not share information that personally identifies you without your consent, except in rare instances where disclosure is required by law or to enforce EA’s legal rights.
In addition to information that you give EA directly, EA collects nonpersonally identifiable (or anonymous) information for purposes of improving our products and services, providing services to you, facilitating the provision of software updates, dynamically served content and product support as well as communicating with you. The non-personally identifiable information that EA collects includes technical and related information that identifies your computer (including the Internet Protocol Address) and operating system, as well as information about your Application usage (including but not limited to successful installation and/or removal), software, software usage and peripheral hardware. As noted above, this information is gathered periodically for purposes such as improving our products and services, troubleshooting bugs, and otherwise enhancing your user experience.
This and all other data provided to EA and/or collected by EA in connection with your installation and use of this Application is collected, used, stored and transmitted in accordance with EA’s Privacy Policy located at www.ea.com. To the extent that anything in this section conflicts or is inconsistent with the terms of EA’s Privacy Policy, the terms of the Privacy Policy shall control.
So basically since the original Destructoid article posted almost 3 months ago, EA has modified their EULA to be roughly identical to what Steam has done for years.
Rage nullified, hopefully?