[Origin] Scanning

[Recursion]

Was reading THIS (http://www.overclock.net/video-game-news/1155275-various-battlefield-3-outrage-germany.html) which prompted me to see what Origin was doing...

http://skitch.*****.co.uk/originwhy.PNG


It decided it was going to scan all my Adobe program files before moving onto HP applications, Skype and Last.fm program files... wonder what it'll look at next...

[Stephen!]

Holy crap, that's scary

[Nemo]

There's a huge ****storm over EA and origin on reddit atm. Turns out that it's a pretty awful program and service, but this particular thing isn't actually that uncommon. Other applications like steam do it apparently. However their customer service (http://imgur.com/a/XkUMc) is pretty awful, and just generally in any way that they can **** up, they do.

[Recursion]

There's a huge ****storm over EA and origin on reddit atm. Turns out that it's a pretty awful program and service, but this particular thing isn't actually that uncommon. Other applications like steam do it apparently. However their customer service (http://imgur.com/a/XkUMc) is pretty awful, and just generally in any way that they can **** up, they do.

I saw the customer service thing which is just ridiculous lmao.

Also Steam asks you before it sends any data (the Hardware Survey popup).

[Nemo]

I saw the customer service thing which is just ridiculous lmao.

Also Steam asks you before it sends any data (the Hardware Survey popup).I think it's in their ToS or EULA or whatever legal mumbo jumbo that they have. But yeah i'm pretty much never installing it/using it. Anything that they have on there i can probably buy for my xbox if it's that good (bf3 for example).

[scottish]

Yeah I refuse to buy BF3 because of Origin, hopefully they'll release it on steam at some point.

EA must realize the amount that they're losing due to wanting to use their own client, the amount of people who have canceled pre-orders, and generally refused to get the game

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B004MKM958/ref=cm_cr_dp_hist_1?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&filterBy=addOneStar aswell.

[Nemo]

Yeah I refuse to buy BF3 because of Origin, hopefully they'll release it on steam at some point.

EA must realize the amount that they're losing due to wanting to use their own client, the amount of people who have canceled pre-orders, and generally refused to get the game

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B004MKM958/ref=cm_cr_dp_hist_1?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&filterBy=addOneStar aswell.I believe they lost about ~£90,000 from people returning the game because they just couldnt be bothered with origin

[Jutnux]

I presume they are selling the information on?

[xxMATTGxx]

I presume they are selling the information on?

I don't think they are, I think the most concern for the people who won't buy it for these reasons is why they are looking at this data in the first place. There isn't a way to opt-out, so if you have BF3 and Origin then you haven't got much luck.

I can see where people are coming from with this and I'm sure due this then EA will finally get rid of the crap within the program and stop it collecting the data or give us the option to opt-in/opt-out. It's not the first time Germany have done something like this, they did it with Google and their street view or something like that.

I have the game and have to use Origin to play it but I'm not going to boycott it.

[Jutnux]

I don't think they are, I think the most concern for the people who won't buy it for these reasons is why they are looking at this data in the first place. There isn't a way to opt-out, so if you have BF3 and Origin then you haven't got much luck.

I can see where people are coming from with this and I'm sure due this then EA will finally get rid of the crap within the program and stop it collecting the data or give us the option to opt-in. It's not the first time Germany have done something like this, they did it with Google and their street view or something like that.

I have the game and have to use Origin to play it but I'm not going to boycott it.

Never used Origin before but couldn't you run it in a sandbox program? Therefore it will be unable to scan through your files on the PC and just the files in its sandbox.

[Nemo]

Never used Origin before but couldn't you run it in a sandbox program? Therefore it will be unable to scan through your files on the PC and just the files in its sandbox.Nope, it's just like steam. You have to connect through their servers in order to play the game.

[Jutnux]

Nope, it's just like steam. You have to connect through their servers in order to play the game.

Couldn't you create a sandbox surrounding the game folder then it can't access any other folder?

[GommeInc]

Electronic Arts are in a heap of trouble at the moment. If you buy any modern day Electronic Arts game which is still up to date and will get updates in the near future, you're likely to get a message saying that you MUST download Origin to receive future updates, because they've retired EA Download Manager. On the surface this isn't that bad, but if you're sad like me and read the Terms and Conditions/Terms of Service, what they have to say is pretty damn dreadful. Basically, never buy a game from Origin, you can't guarantee you own the game and you do not know if you will be able to download it again in the future, and given EAs reputation I would not be surprised. You're literally forced to agree to something that isn't at all useful to you :P

Plus EA have no idea what they are doing these day. They hire people with half the skills of their previous staff, most of which have replaced staff from acquisitions and they have problems understanding how games work and their systems. Never buy anything Limited Edition, you'll find that you could buy a game cheaper and get the content by simply registering the game and downloading it from the Purchase History, because some twit doesn't know what Limited/Exclusive content is.

I'm amazed they've not had any problems with security breaches, but they may just have one team which knows what they are doing and that's their security team. Then again, they're probably breached all the time but too stupid to admit it, which would be unsurpising given the fact that when everyone in the world knows EA are stupid, they'll ignore the problem and hope their customers go away. Just another company that should give up and close down, they should never of acquired so many good franchises.

[xxMATTGxx]

Never buy anything Limited Edition, you'll find that you could buy a game cheaper and get the content by simply registering the game and downloading it from the Purchase History, because some twit doesn't know what Limited/Exclusive content is.

How does that work? But either way some people will hate EA, some people won't and some people won't give a toss and just play Battlefield 3 either way!

I don't agree with you that they should just give up and close down. They still make good games, well the DICE department do because Battlefield is a great game series.

[GommeInc]

How does that work?
It shouldn't, but EA managed to peeve off a lot of Sims players by accidentally allowing anyone who registers a game (standard edition and limited edition) to download the exclusive content :P


I don't agree with you that they should just give up and close down. They still make good games, well the DICE department do because Battlefield is a great game series.
Presumably they would sell off their assets and franchise for dirt cheap so people with the brains and commitment can make their games that tiny bit better. EA took full control of the Command and Conquer series and the last game for that was complete rubbish and not worth the money just to see Kane killed off. As for The Sims franchise, well, let's just say it's buggy :P Some games they make are alright, but as a single unit they're pretty lousy. Their customer support is virtually non-existent - talk to a brick wall if you want help with anything, you are guaranteed a better response :P

[Tomm]

I'll cross post what I wrote about this issue on another forum:

The screenshot regarding the tax program (In this case, your Adobe Applications) is incorrectly interpreted. Process Monitor clearly shows it never requests read access to the file. Check the "Desired Access" in the detail column for the CreateFile operations. It only requests the file's attributes (i.e read only, etc.), ACL and DACL for the file (who can read/write to it and who owns the file). At no point does it attempt to read what the file contains as it never requests Generic Read or Read Data access which would be needed to read the data from the file.

And add some more:

Whilst I'm not sure why Origin feels the need to do this, none of your data is actually being read, it is just requesting some metadata about the file. People throwing a big fuss about it really need to calm down. The fact is requests this metadata needs to be addressed but it is not such a major invasion of privacy as people are making it out to be.

[Oleh]

Could be scanning for hack programs or bypasses?

[scottish]

http://fpswin.com/battlefield/crack-battlefield-3-players-play-online-orig/

lol.