EA Origin scans your hard drive/OS/Applications

Discussion in 'Frontpage news' started by Stukov, Aug 25, 2011.

  1. Mufflore

    Mufflore Ancient Guru

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    Internal breaches of security are likely to be under reported too, a lot of data can go awol very fast with a USB pen.
     
  2. isidore

    isidore Guest

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    don't give a shat, scan it as much as you want EA.
     
  3. DesGaizu

    DesGaizu Ancient Guru

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    They are not going to snoop around your passwords, but nearly all browsers store saved passwords in encrypted files, if your browser doesn't then origin should be the least of your worries.
     
  4. Redemption80

    Redemption80 Guest

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    Yeah, the uptight paranoid people are all in a panic lol.

    While i don't care about this, i also don't agree with it, and it would be better if they didn't do this, but at the end of the day it's EA's games, and they can do whatever they want with them.

    Boycotts don't work, never have and never will, you have to be a paying customer to have a voice.

    Buy MW3 instead if you want to get back at them lol.
     

  5. Zer0K3wL

    Zer0K3wL Banned

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    to sum it up origin is just piece off spyware ?
     
  6. Svein_Skogen

    Svein_Skogen Maha Guru

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    Spyware/Adware/Trojan is more the gist of it.

    //Svein
     
  7. WindtalkerCS

    WindtalkerCS Master Guru

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    It's not being paranoid when they are doing it. It is a fact, it isn't speculation.
     
  8. INSTG8R

    INSTG8R Guest

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    Hehe I'll go with this one:banana:

    I mean I am not bothered all that much buy it. EA has their Info Tool or whatever in their games for years. I already have my BF3 ordered thru Origin and my Shift 2 is there as well.
     
  9. Redemption80

    Redemption80 Guest

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    Where are the facts that prove Origin will decrypt your stored browser passwords and keep them on record, since that is what I was replying to.
    There isn’t any proof, this part is nothing but speculation and paranoia.

    Considering Origin is available, surely it can’t be too hard for someone who knows what they are doing to take a look at the it’s doing, all the information should be in the Origin software, it should also be easy enough for them to monitor what Origin is looking at in real-time.

    This way we would get a definitive answer to what its doing, rather than user speculation or vague answers from EA, it would also help create workarounds.
     
  10. Noisiv

    Noisiv Ancient Guru

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    There is little to no point discussing this with people who don't care about anything, just as long as they get to play BF3.

    Calling people paranoid because EA might chose not use their freshly acquired spying privileges...
    Insisting that Steam, Punkbuster, Windows and whatnot are already doing this kind of crap...

    There is only so much disinformation I am willing to read in a single topic.
    I'll follow this on RPS.
     

  11. nicugoalkeper

    nicugoalkeper Master Guru

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    On the road of no privacy !!:puke2:
     
  12. ASLayerAODsk

    ASLayerAODsk Guest

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    Who does EA think they are, Google???
     
  13. Redemption80

    Redemption80 Guest

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    I’m calling people paranoid because they are acting that way.
    EA are only allowed to monitor what you have agreed to in the EULA, and nothing more, thinking they will be decrypting and storing people’s passwords is just stupid, ignoring the legal implications of it, why would they waste time and space on information such as this.

    They wan’t to sell you stuff, not steal stuff from you lol.

    I don’t care as I have more important things in my life to worry about, and nothing to do with really really wanting to play BF3, its well know im not a huge FPS fan, especially MP heavy ones.

    As I said, it shouldn’t be hard to see what Origin is looking at, if anything, and block it if needed.
     
  14. johnyG

    johnyG Guest

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    Was that Big Brother is everywhere ... argument?
     
  15. sverek

    sverek Guest

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    google gives us most information for free. I don't mind google living on adds, and google doesn't browse my HDD, afaik. So comparing google with Origin isn't accurate.

    EA charges us for game AND yet they wanna know what kinda of apps we have.
    Strange marketing strategy they got going. Nobody gonna like it. They really need to make it optional and only with user permission.

    However, by the end of the day, there will be cracks that disables origin from scanning drives. And most people who care about their privacy gonna use it.
     

  16. johnyG

    johnyG Guest

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    Google comparison is outright stupid. You have means to block analytics, forbid cookies, scripts etc.
    Besides Google does not scan your HDD, or your software usage.

    And contrary to Origin, Google DOES NOT have the right to do any of these things.

    Hahhahaha

    GL trying to brake EULA.

    GL trying to block application with admin rights and several preconfigured and explicitly allowed ports from transfering _SOMETHING_.
     
    Last edited: Aug 26, 2011
  17. Redemption80

    Redemption80 Guest

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    Well, has anyone actually caught Origin doing this snooping yet?
    Has it been like this for months, or even longer, or is it due to start monitoring in the future?

    If I had concerns about this, then I would want to know the answers to the above?

    You really think all those talented software crackers will wave the white flag at this, and say "you win EA”
    I think not.
     
    Last edited: Aug 26, 2011
  18. scheherazade

    scheherazade Ancient Guru

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    Easy solution :

    Create an "origin" user on your system with restricted rights, and launch origin under that user ( ">>runas /user:username origin.exe" )

    Configure the origin user and folder permissions so that the origin user can only read the folders it needs to read :
    - specific origin game directories
    - origin installed folder
    - my documents (save games).

    (Personally, I don't use my documents for anything, so that's an empty folder for me, with just game saves for the games that use it...)

    That way, at least origin can't scan your computer for a lot of crap that it normally shouldn't look at.

    -scheherazade
     
    Last edited: Aug 26, 2011
  19. DesGaizu

    DesGaizu Ancient Guru

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    Or you could just use it in offline mode, block it from the internet it still loads your games and you can even play them online still, if your tin foil hats are really trembling you don't even need to start it up to play your games.

    also seriously people care about software seeing what's installed on their pc?

    nearly ALL software you install can see what's installed, just look at the big list steam has on you, how do you think they know how much free space you have and how much ram you have, they scan your pc.

    [​IMG]
     
  20. johnyG

    johnyG Guest

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    Yet only Origin DEMANDS an exclusive right to transfer prety much anything about your PC usage.


    Only difference being:


    a) Steam randomly pick Steam users for the hardware/software survey (= not all users are concerned).


    b) The users have to accept (by spending several seconds in the survey menus, “Accept”, “Next”…) to let Steam “scan” (it doesn’t actually scan at all, see point c) for details) the hardware and software configuration.
    => You can refuse

    c) Steam “scans” the computer – in fact, he just look for a specific regedit folder, one for the hardware, one for the software (available to any program installed on your computer) – in the past it looked for 2 (or 3) different folders for the software list, now it’s much more simple and less invasive. It doesn’t list all your software nor scan for files (it would takes hours !), it’s only looking at a list made by the OS (= Windows/Mac OS, Linux is not supported now).

    d) Steam shows (it is actually displayed !) the result of the “scan” to the user. He/She can still refuse to send the survey (if something is wrong or if he/she no longer want to take part in the survey).

    e) If the user accepted the Steam “scan” AND accepted to send the informations gathered, the Steam servers can receive the information.

    Also :

    * Steam doesn’t link the software/hardware survey results to the Steam account.

    * Steam doesn’t check the software/hardware survey results at each boot or at anytime (exception : if you’re randomly picked again). It is a complete hoax.

    * Steam software/hardware survey results are displayed publicly, available to anyone at this page : http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey
     

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