Origin might be snooping around your files, and internet history

[Yoinkerman]

Does steam though? For the vast majority of things, steam is above board when it does things. We can't say the same about EA they've proven time and time again that they're scumbags. The actions may be the same, but I don't know if we can claim the same thing is done with the info once it's collected.

Lets bash EA cause its not Valve. Steam does the same god damn thing....

[LAwLz]

So yeah... Steam got caught doing this before and honestly, I was very disappointed with how people reacted (basically just went "it's Valve so it's okay"):

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/116628-vac-now-reads-all-the-domains-you-have-visited/

To me this seems like double standards. Although, it might not be the same people in the threads.

[dalekphalm]

So yeah... Steam got caught doing this before and honestly, I was very disappointed with how people reacted (basically just went "it's Valve so it's okay"):

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/116628-vac-now-reads-all-the-domains-you-have-visited/

To me this seems like double standards. Although, it might not be the same people in the threads.

Yep it also bothers me that this seems to be the case, and basically often is when you compare anything between Origin and Steam.

 

But it also happens on this site a lot with the likes of Apple, Google, and Microsoft. Especially Microsoft. The hate is strong, and if they do something that Apple or Google has already done, somehow it's much worse because it's Microsoft, yet if Google did it was "innovation".

 

Anyway, enough of that rant

 

We should be concerned when ANY software does this. I'm glad at least that there was some outrage about the Steam VAC thing. Some people just blindly follow Valve to end the end of the Earth.

[AlexGoesHigh]

this is know since EADM update to origin, its in the eula, i remember a bunch of post about it in the old steam forums, read section 2 http://eula.dm.origin.com/en_US.html this isnt new or news worthy at this point this outrage has already existed and calmed down

[Imaginaerum]

So yeah... Steam got caught doing this before and honestly, I was very disappointed with how people reacted (basically just went "it's Valve so it's okay"):

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/116628-vac-now-reads-all-the-domains-you-have-visited/

To me this seems like double standards. Although, it might not be the same people in the threads.

What parts are you reading? On the first page:

 

 

 

Why would it be worse if EA did this than Valve? To be honest it just seems 100% unnecessary to me...

 

 

Woah, hold on there, Valve. I love you and all, but this is taking it a bit too far. If you want to make VAC better, make a feedback centre where the community can report domains serving cheats instead. 

 

 

I'm all for getting rid of cheaters, but this is the complete wrong way to go about it...Invade everyone's privacy for the chance to catch a few cheaters, meanwhile, the majority of the cheaters will find a way around it regardless..

 

If its valve its okay... If its EA bash it cause we can.

 

I personally don't care... Look at the websites im visiting, a ship load of YouTube, LTT, and email.

 

 

Yeah this is way too much. My browsing history is of no concern to you Valve.

 

 

Next thing, they'll be indexing your hard drive and sending details about all "suspicious" files back for analysis.

 

 There was a grand total of 3 out of 20 posts saying it wasn't a big deal. I didn't go further into the thread because of time but no one was particularly happy, at least not any worse than at EA.

[Buckley]

Pretty sure there is a check box when installing that grants them this. Could be wrong tho

[Hulk]

Isn't this really old news?

 

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/EA-Says-Origin-Isn-t-Spyware-Although-It-Does-Scan-Your-Entire-PC-36690.html

[Ruostunut kokis]

the important part We need to realize that EA games thinks it is perfectly fine to harvest our "non identifiable Personal information" aka anything that isnt your name,address,phone #,SSN, or DOB and sell it to third parties?

Not just "non identifiable personal information", every possible personal information you can imagine. And it's all perfectly legal as we all agreed on their TOS.

 

It's not just EA that does this though. Pretty much every piece of software and every website does this today. Heck even LTT does this (Google Analytics).

 

Do we have privacy anymore? Well... At least on the internet we haven't had such thing for years anymore.

[Humbug]

So yeah... Steam got caught doing this before and honestly, I was very disappointed with how people reacted (basically just went "it's Valve so it's okay"):

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/116628-vac-now-reads-all-the-domains-you-have-visited/

To me this seems like double standards. Although, it might not be the same people in the threads.

There was a small uproar over that in the gaming media this but Gabe went onto Reddit to do damage control and that helped prevent it from becoming a really big story. Because he said Internet history is not transmitted to Valve.

http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/1y70ej/valve_vac_and_trust

[Rekx]

Steam does the same thing.

 

Steam i trust, EA not so much 

[Guest Kloaked]

Origin sucks anyways, more reason to not use it then.

 

Origin isn't all that bad, especially compared to U[Don't]Play

[Silent_Xaxal]

And this is why everyone will still hate Origin. I have nothing to hide, but there are people who will hate this. And those concerns are VERY VALID.

[Sack]

I guess pirates don't have to deal with this either, suddenly looks much better being a pirate

[Akolyte]

I removed Origin, Still got crappy Uplay, but I feel Uplay is better than Origin IMO.  

 

EDIT:

I removed the Battlefield Hardline Extension for chrome, and just searched for origin in my C:// drive, there is some random file open and its in my Chrome folder... even though I removed the extension and the application....  this is some scary crap. 

[Ashaira]

So yeah... Steam got caught doing this before and honestly, I was very disappointed with how people reacted (basically just went "it's Valve so it's okay"):

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/116628-vac-now-reads-all-the-domains-you-have-visited/

To me this seems like double standards. Although, it might not be the same people in the threads.

 Because people realized that you can't stop this. Everyone said that because they trust valve. Google knows your freaking life but noone complains because google has proven they can handle the data in a humane manner. Same with valve. EA on the other had well........ it's EA. I don't trust them with my birth date.

[Stadiz]

pff please I only need Steam  B)

[LAwLz]

 Because people realized that you can't stop this. Everyone said that because they trust valve. Google knows your freaking life but noone complains because google has proven they can handle the data in a humane manner. Same with valve. EA on the other had well........ it's EA. I don't trust them with my birth date.

Well I don't trust Google, or Valve, or EA. A lot of people complain about Google as well, including me.

I would love for them to cut down on the huge amounts of private info they gather on people.

[dalekphalm]

Well I don't trust Google, or Valve, or EA. A lot of people complain about Google as well, including me.

I would love for them to cut down on the huge amounts of private info they gather on people.

Exactly. You shouldn't trust any company with your private data. At the very least, they should have a very detailed Service Agreement/Privacy Policy that lays out what they're going to do with the data.

[LAwLz]

Exactly. You shouldn't trust any company with your private data. At the very least, they should have a very detailed Service Agreement/Privacy Policy that lays out what they're going to do with the data.

Exactly

Both Valve and EA, as far as I know, did this secretly without telling anyone.

Valve got caught looking through peoples' DNS cache and EA got caught looking through all your installed programs and whatnot.

I am not particularly found of Google and their data mining practices, but at least I know that if I send a mail through their servers, they will look at it. This is more like if Google used Chrome to snoop through my hotmail account and doing it right under my nose without me ever knowing. I dislike both practices, but one is worse than the other in my eyes.

[Murdoch]

 

 

It's not just EA that does this though. Pretty much every piece of software and every website does this today. Heck even LTT does this (Google Analytics).

 

Do we have privacy anymore? Well... At least on the internet we haven't had such thing for years anymore.

 

Exactly this. If you take no steps to increase your privacy online, your internet history is public domain.

 

How many people that are concerned about this, allow 3rd party cookies, always save their internet history, and don't block the myriad of 'ad supported' trackers (google analytics etc) that harvest their every click online.

 

We traded our privacy for an ad supported 'free internet'.