EA is Spying on You by File Snooping with the Origin Client – Official Investigation Begins

LateX'Dog · 13 Jul 2014 at 20:49

A very interesting thread on the Reddit was sent to me by my colleague Tyler Roemhildt. It turns out that EA is snooping files aka spying on your usage habits via the Origin client. And it looks like this is more or less confirmed because Origin representatives claim “they are trying to get to the bottom of this”.

Privacy is a very sensitive topic in the world of Internet and one of the biggest gaming clients spying in your usage habits is cause for concern. Now what exactly does “usage habits” mean? Well, from the looks of it, Origin is taking its merry time looking around the personal files on your computer, most probably when they are running, and this includes your browser as well. Now while we do not know whether it can spy on your browsing activity as well, the mere fact that it is accessing the browser process is discerning.

http://wccftech.com/ea-spying-file-snooping-origin-client-investigation/

I'm just happy i don't have it installed.

Speedy Pete · 13 Jul 2014 at 20:58

Im pretty sure everyone who installed this years ago knew they were doing this? lol

adam98150 · 13 Jul 2014 at 21:03

Don't most companies do this kind of thing?

Xelene · 13 Jul 2014 at 21:06

adam98150 said:
Don't most companies do this kind of thing?

does that make it right?

Finners · 13 Jul 2014 at 21:08

I also remember this being brought up a couple of years ago, thought steam had been caught doing the same as well.

adam98150 · 13 Jul 2014 at 21:09

kohlditz said:
does that make it right?

Of course not. But they're not going to stop. It seems like every other day a news story breaks about this kind of thing. It's getting old.

Teaf · 13 Jul 2014 at 21:12

They could just be snooping for hacks. Just because they are snooping files doesn't mean it's sinister and that EA want to steal your life.

Anyway, this was discussed a couple of years ago. It's been known since then that they do it, it's even in their terms of service for Origin.

'Wes · 13 Jul 2014 at 21:12

Don't care.

arknor · 13 Jul 2014 at 21:23

flibby said:
They could just be snooping for hacks. Just because they are snooping files doesn't mean it's sinister and that EA want to steal your life.

Anyway, this was discussed a couple of years ago. It's been known since then that they do it, it's even in their terms of service for Origin.

yea it's looking for hax same as the wow client was doing years ago

hairyfeet · 13 Jul 2014 at 22:41

Pretty much everything out there which is a platform or game launcher does it for the purpose of keeping hackers in check and tracking user statistics/trends for marketing reasons

VincentHanna · 14 Jul 2014 at 09:06

Yawn

Nothing actually that bad about Origin, move along with the times.

MikeTheNative · 14 Jul 2014 at 10:36

arknor said:
yea it's looking for hax same as the wow client was doing years ago

No, it's clearly the evil organisation that is EA spying on all my personal files and stealing all my money. :rolleyes:

Why would EA want to spy on your files when they could just pay Google to view your browser history instead? The EA hate circlejerk is just getting ridiculous.

JulioH · 14 Jul 2014 at 12:28

It's gauging how susceptible to DLC you are