Home Gaming No, EA isn’t spying on you with Origin. Probably.

No, EA isn’t spying on you with Origin. Probably.

4 min read
34

spying

Ever since Microsoft’s Kinect got linked with the NSA and Sony’s PSN got hacked, security and privacy have been big buzzwords for gaming consumers. People are worried that gaming companies are watching their every little digital move. According to some reports, EA is doing just that.

A screenshot posted by DrSniper121 on Reddit (via WCCF tech)  shows what Origin is doing with your files, purporting that the client is spying on your usage habits.

Here’s the image in question. Everything is in garbled text, because it uses a rather simple ROT13 cipher – but it shows that Origin is certainly going through all of your files.

OriginSnoop

Some of the processes that Origin is accessing include Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, iTunes and Foxit Reader. The whole thing’s caused enough of a ruckus that an Origin Community manager has responded.

“Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I’ve been working with our live operations team to fully investigate this issue. Origin is not spyware, and there should be no privacy snooping operations of any type. I hope we will be able to update you guys on the investigation soon, we’re gonna get to the bottom of this……Please message me any additional details or info that will help us investigate. We take claims like this very seriously.”

Is Origin really snooping about on your PC and invading your privacy though? Signs point to no. All it is is Origin using the built in Windows UserAssist tool, which is built right in to Windows keep data such as running counts and last execution time; it’s a bit of internal housekeeping. If EA’s Origin is mining your data, so is Windows itself – along with Steam, Battle.net and just about every other service you’d care to run. There is nothing dodgy going on here at all.

Of course, that doesn’t preclude EA from spying on you, if their EULA is anything to go by. Here’s what it says.

EA collects non-personal information along with personal information when you actively provide it in the context of various online and mobile activities including online and mobile purchases, game registration and marketing surveys, for instance. In addition, we and other third parties use cookies and other technologies to passively collect non-personal demographic information, personalize your experience on our sites and monitor advertisements and other activities as described below. We may also derive from the information collected other facts, such as determining the applicable tax rate based on your IP address.

By playing an EA game through a social network or other third party platform or service or by connecting to such a third party network, platform or service via one of our products and/or services, you are authorizing EA to collect, store, and use in accordance with this Privacy Policy any and all information that you agreed the social network or other third party platform could provide to EA through the social network/third party platform Application Programming Interface (API) based on your settings on the third party social network or platform. Your agreement takes place when you connect with the third party network, platform or service via our products and/or services, and/or when you connect with, “accept” or “allow” (or similar terms) one of our applications through a social network, or other third party platform or service.

EA may also collect or receive information about you from other EA users who choose to upload their email and other contacts. This information will be stored by us and used primarily to help you and your friends connect.

The advertising companies who deliver ads for us may combine the information collected or obtained from EA with other information they have independently collected from other websites and/or other online or mobile products and services relating to your web browser’s activities across their network of websites. Many of these companies collect and use information under their own privacy policies.

These ad serving technologies are integrated into our sites, online or mobile products and services; if you do not want to use this technology, do not play.

I’m pretty quick to point out EA’s failings, but this latest bit of ire directed at EA seems to be EA hate for the sake of it.

Last Updated: July 14, 2014

34 Comments

  1. Alien Emperor Trevor

    July 14, 2014 at 13:42

    Oh. I just assumed they were monitoring everything I did in Origin anyway.

    Reply

    • Sith JJ

      July 14, 2014 at 14:38

      It’s EA, best not link your credit card to it or they’ll monitor that too to make sure you don’t spend too much money on other games when you should be buying their micro-transactions.

      Reply

    • J_Joestar

      July 14, 2014 at 21:07

      this, might as well assume everything electronic is spying on you for some shadow organization and plan your actions accordingly.

      Reply

  2. Admiral Chief Fairburne

    July 14, 2014 at 13:52

    Hence why Origin is CLOSED most of the time

    Reply

  3. Sir Rants A Lot Llew

    July 14, 2014 at 13:57

    There’s a big difference between it seeing the files and then it sharing that info. If it’s only a local process and that info does not get shared then I would not call it spying.

    Reply

  4. Sith JJ

    July 14, 2014 at 14:35

    Origin is a client, right?

    Reply

  5. Sith JJ

    July 14, 2014 at 14:46

    Speaking of EA. I watched NFS the weekend.
    I heard a lot of people complain, saying that it’s crap and that the story is lame and all that.
    Of course it is. It’s NFS, what did you expect??
    I found it quite a bit of fun to watch though. It felt like Need For Speed and the cars, chases and chaos is very nice indeed.

    Reply

    • Spaffy

      July 14, 2014 at 14:54

      I also watched NFS the weekend and I really liked it

      Reply

  6. Kromas

    July 14, 2014 at 15:56

    I don’t care if Origin finds my high heels and dresses (you know … to make me the prettiest girl in the ball) as long as it allows me to play DA:I I could care less.

    Reply

  7. Ryanza

    July 14, 2014 at 18:08

    When Origin was launched the German’s went nuts concerning invasion of privacy. Origin was accessing all kinds of files.
    The Germans are very efficient, you meant to play game, why you look at my porn.

    I really don’t trust Origin and I don’t trust EA

    Don’t support DRM

    Reply

  8. Hammersteyn

    August 4, 2014 at 16:04

    How I handle clients near the end of a Monday
    http://d3dsacqprgcsqh.cloudfront.net/photo/aqZ91bP_460sa_v1.gif

    Reply

    • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

      August 4, 2014 at 16:09

      He wields his jacket like Don Mattrick!!!!

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        August 5, 2014 at 07:43

        Imagine he forgot his cell phone in there

        Reply

        • Kensei Seraph

          August 5, 2014 at 07:45

          It would explain why everyone is going down so quickly.

          Reply

    • Sageville

      August 5, 2014 at 09:51

      Thanks a fkkn powerful jacket yoh!

      Reply

  9. Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

    August 4, 2014 at 16:06

    Just a subtle hint of underboob, So artistic. So classy! Thumbs up Darryn!

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief Dovahkiin

      August 4, 2014 at 16:07

      Banana-approval sounds sooo wrong on soooooo many levels

      😛

      Reply

      • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

        August 4, 2014 at 16:09

        Yeah, it does have a strong hint of dirty old man… :/

        Reply

      • HvR - Still dislikes Random.or

        August 4, 2014 at 16:10

        So Marya gets one banana up?

        Reply

  10. HvR - Still dislikes Random.or

    August 4, 2014 at 16:08

    Ok time to mentally ready ourselves. 24hours to be able to handle 2 lady moustaches, 2 pairs of hairy underarms and a manly ION each week.

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief Dovahkiin

      August 4, 2014 at 16:13

      (Mental note)
      Avoid IONs this week

      Reply

  11. Alien Emperor Trevor

    August 4, 2014 at 16:14

    She’s a real heroine. Look how she ran out to hold up the wall to prevent it from collapsing while just wearing her undies.

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief Dovahkiin

      August 4, 2014 at 16:19

      Aye, and she looks back with a “I got this” look

      Reply

  12. FoxOneZA

    August 4, 2014 at 16:16

    So MR GM was on Fokus last night like a BAWS!

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief Dovahkiin

      August 4, 2014 at 16:18

      I heard, I wonder when the youtube vid will be live

      Reply

      • HvR - Still dislikes Random.or

        August 4, 2014 at 16:20

  13. Hammersteyn

    August 4, 2014 at 16:20

    Why’d It change from Marya to Shay Laren?

    Reply

    • The D

      August 4, 2014 at 18:28

      Because I’m a nard who gets confused by names. It’s a terrible disability to live with, I tells ya.

      Reply

      • Gustav Willem Diedericks

        August 4, 2014 at 18:36

        You get confused with…oh you pimp you 😉

        Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        August 4, 2014 at 19:09

        So THAT’S why you’re calling yourself by an initial now.

        Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        August 5, 2014 at 07:43

        It’s okay, after watching way too much um…….. romance movies? They all start too look the same to me.

        Reply

      • Sageville

        August 5, 2014 at 09:52

        You seem very determined to make “Nard” a real word… I dunno,…

        Reply

  14. Gustav Willem Diedericks

    August 4, 2014 at 18:34

    Whoohoo tramp stamp! And on that subject I think sharing out ION with the other crew is OK, Darryn, as long as Zoe doesn’t start posting men…with big…uh…rudders. I may have to then get a lobotomy.

    Reply

  15. Sir Rants A Lot Llew

    August 5, 2014 at 08:21

    Oh dear… Geoff trolling imminent

    Reply

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