The difference between Steam and Origin with data collection

Plague_Injected · Aug 25, 2011

The revelant sections from the Steam Subscriber Agreement:

USER GENERATED INFORMATION

"User Generated Information" means any information made available to other users through your use of multi-user features of Steam or to Valve through your use of the Software. User Generated Information may include, but is not limited to, chat, forum posts, screen names, game selections, player performances, usage data, suggestions about Valve products or services, and error notifications. Subject to the Valve privacy policy referenced in Section 1 above, as applicable, you expressly grant Valve the complete and irrevocable right to use, reproduce, modify, create derivative works from, distribute, transmit, broadcast, and otherwise communicate, and publicly display and perform the User Generated Information and derivative works thereof in any form, anywhere, with or without attribution to you, and without any notice or compensation to you of any kind.

ONLINE CONDUCT, CHEATING AND ILLEGAL BEHAVIOR

Steam and the Software may include functionality designed to identify software or hardware processes or functionality that may give a player an unfair competitive advantage when playing multiplayer versions of any Software, other Valve products, or modifications thereof ("Cheats").

Steam scans your computer looking for known cheat programs like wallhacks, aimbots, etc., and tracks what you do in Steam-related programs, websites, etc. It also appears anything you create with Steam-based games in regards to mods, videos, etc is owned by Valve. I wasn't able to see anything in the agreement that states Valve gathers any information outside of these parameters, although it stands to reason that Steam would at least see a lot of your information without actually collecting it when scanning for hacks. Therefore if Steam is found to collect and distribute information not relating to any of this, then it is in breach of agreement.

Now Origin:

You agree that EA may collect, use, store and transmit technical and related information that identifies your computer (including the Internet Protocol Address), operating system, Application usage (including but not limited to successful installation and/or removal), software, software usage and peripheral hardware, that may be gathered periodically to facilitate the provision of software updates, dynamically served content, product support and other services to you, including online services. EA may also use this information combined with personal information for marketing purposes and to improve our products and services. We may also share that data with our third party service providers in a form that does not personally identify you. IF YOU DO NOT WANT EA TO COLLECT, USE, STORE, TRANSMIT OR DISPLAY THE DATA DESCRIBED IN THIS SECTION, PLEASE DO NOT INSTALL OR USE THE APPLICATION.

So EA can see your IP address, track what you do on the Internet, what applications you have, your configurations, what software you use, and give this information to anyone it deems fit. That's a lot more than just what stuff you use Origin for, or what cheat programs you use and and how you use EA forums.

This and all other data provided to EA and/or collected by EA in connection with your installation and use of this Application is collected, used, stored and transmitted in accordance with EA’s Privacy Policy located at www.ea.com. To the extent that anything in this section conflicts with the terms of EA’s Privacy Policy, the terms of the Privacy Policy shall control.

This is what Origin users will need to monitor closely for any changes. The company's privacy policy trumps anything you consent to by using Origin, so if that changes to become more or less liberal with what it takes from you and distributes, then what you agreed to by installing Origin won't matter.

Please add anything if I've missed it.

eurin · Aug 25, 2011

Well, EA did say they weren't happy with Steam not letting them "establish an ongoing relationship" with their customers. Now we see how intimate they want to get with them.

Valshistixol · Aug 25, 2011

Can't wait for Battlefield 3.

Roliath · Aug 25, 2011

here we go again....

DITC · Aug 25, 2011

I don't care what data Steam or Origin collects as long as it does not affect my privacy. It's not like they post my data together with my name anywhere public, anyway. And the data they collect is harmless. Your IP address? Hardware, operating system, which games you play, how long you've played them, etc.

boredreflux · Aug 25, 2011

EA may also use this information combined with personal information for marketing purposes and to improve our products and services. We may also share that data with our third party service providers in a form that does not personally identify you.

"Personally identifiable information" consists of a user's name, email address, physical address, or other data about the user that enables the recipient to personally identify the user. While XXX collects personally identifiable information on a voluntary basis, for certain products and online sites, XXX collection of personally identifiable information may be a requirement for access to the product or site. Personally identifiable information will be processed and stored by XXX in databases situated in the United States. XXX may allow third parties performing services under contract with XXX to access stored information but such access shall only be to the extent necessary to provide those services.

Which company does the second quote come from? Better yet, which one looks more scary? The one I voluntarily/were required to give my personally identifiable info to that will only share it as anonymous data or the one that may or may not (you won't know, you've agreed to it anyway) share info that personally identifies me?

By the way, the second quote comes from Valves privacy policy.

Plague_Injected · Aug 25, 2011

boredreflux said:
Which company does the second quote come from? Better yet, which one looks more scary? The one I voluntarily/were required to give my personally identifiable info to that will only share it as anonymous data or the one that may or may not (you won't know, you've agreed to it anyway) share info that personally identifies me?

By the way, the second quote comes from Valves privacy policy.

may allow third parties performing services under contract with XXX to access stored information but such access shall only be to the extent necessary to provide those services.

Therefore the sharing of personal information - when it occurs - is only applicable in very specific circumstances...I'm guessing to do with billing details for subscription-based games like MMOs? It doesn't seem to be for the purposes of marketing or trading like the EA policy allows for.

It's unsettling, yes, but it's not open slather.

rampantandroid · Aug 25, 2011

Should damn well be illegal to collect data without express consent, and the option to opt out.

Ryun · Aug 25, 2011

rampantandroid said:
Should damn well be illegal to collect data without express consent, and the option to opt out.

It is. Which is why you have to agree to the terms of service before you install. The opting out is the uninstallation of the program.

I know that comes out sounding like a dick, but as the law sees it that is good enough. I think what you mean is the ability to opt-out of the data collection with the ability to still use the program though? Yeah, that would be nice.

boredreflux · Aug 25, 2011

Plague_Injected said:
Therefore the sharing of personal information - when it occurs - is only applicable in very specific circumstances...I'm guessing to do with billing details for subscription-based games like MMOs? It doesn't seem to be for the purposes of marketing or trading like the EA policy allows for.

It's unsettling, yes, but it's not open slather.

"Services" is a pretty vague term though.

By using Valve's online sites and products, users agree that Valve may collect aggregate information, individual information, and personally identifiable information, as defined below. Valve may share aggregate information and individual information with other parties. Valve shall not share personally identifiable information with other parties, except as described in the policy below.

Already went on about personally identifiable info above, so;

"Aggregate information" is information that describes the habits, usage patterns, and demographics of users as a group but does not describe or reveal the identity of any particular user.

"Individual information" is information about a user that is presented in a form distinguishable from information relating to other users but not in a form that personally identifies any user or enables the recipient to communicate directly with any user unless agreed to by the user in advance of such communication. This information may be used to improve Valve's products and online sites, for internal marketing studies, or simply to collect demographic information about Valve's users.

Now:

You agree that EA may collect, use, store and transmit technical and related information that identifies your computer (including the Internet Protocol Address), operating system, Application usage (including but not limited to successful installation and/or removal), software, software usage and peripheral hardware, that may be gathered periodically to facilitate the provision of software updates, dynamically served content, product support and other services to you, including online services. EA may also use this information combined with personal information for marketing purposes and to improve our products and services. We may also share that data with our third party service providers in a form that does not personally identify you

Different words saying essentially the same thing. One gives you an opt in check box, that you probably wouldn't have read and just clicked ok to anyway. The other, the opt in check box is the EULA, which you probably wouldn't have read either, clicked ok to, and wouldn't have known what it said if someone on the internet didn't tell you you should be outraged by it. This is a big deal about nothing brought to you by people who are throwing tantrums because the game is not on Steam.

Another by the way:

EA will never share your personal information with third parties without your consent. We may, however, share anonymous, non-personal, aggregated and/or public information with third parties. There may be circumstances where you may share information on your own. Please see section XI for more details about your rights to information you share publicly on EA and other third party sites and forums. You may also opt in to allow EA to share your personal information with companies and organizations that provide products or services that we believe may be of interest to you.

I don't know about anyone else but I'd much rather have an opt in for my personally identifiable info and couldn't care less about having one for anonymous data (even though I already opted in by agreeing to the EULAs and privacy policies).

piscian18 · Aug 25, 2011

EA reminds me of "the cable guy". I feel like origin is doing this to my computer.

Seriously watch this and just replace Cable with Origin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj259Pi_vrA

boredreflux · Aug 25, 2011

piscian18 said:
EA reminds me of "the cable guy". I feel like origin is doing this to my computer.

Seriously watch this and just replace Cable with Origin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj259Pi_vrA

So, what you're saying is, slip the Origin guy $50 so we can get all the games they offer?

Plague_Injected · Aug 25, 2011

boredreflux said:
Different words saying essentially the same thing. One gives you an opt in check box, that you probably wouldn't have read and just clicked ok to anyway. The other, the opt in check box is the EULA, which you probably wouldn't have read either, clicked ok to, and wouldn't have known what it said if someone on the internet didn't tell you you should be outraged by it. This is a big deal about nothing brought to you by people who are throwing tantrums because the game is not on Steam.

I don't know about anyone else but I'd much rather have an opt in for my personally identifiable info and couldn't care less about having one for anonymous data (even though I already opted in by agreeing to the EULAs and privacy policies).

That's the difference - Steam gives the opt-out option for at least some of its data-collection whereas EA does not. You either agree to everything entirely or you don't get to touch anything EA produces. It's demanding an unreasonable price from gamers - demanding unadulterated access to your personal information just to play a videogame is unacceptable. Paying the $60 and agreeing to not hack and copy the thing should be enough...we shouldn't have to agree to installing spyware on top of it all.

Valve's data-collection is all framed in the context of relating directly to Steam and "servicing" gamers. The agreement explicitly states that there are limits to what these third-parties can do with this information, with a requirement for the user to grant consent before these third-parties can start spamming up email accounts with special offers (which is not done by clicking "I agree" to the Steam Subscriber agreement - it's a separate expression of consent entirely). EA's model is take everything you do with your computer, and sell it to whoever wants it (just like plenty of other companies in other industries do, except EA can get a whole lot more info without needing to stick covert spyware on your PC) while omitting the user's name in the glorious pursuit of privacy protection.

I do not need people to tell me what I should and shouldn't be outraged at, and the implication otherwise is offensive. If Origin was merely a Steam-copycat it would be fine but it's not - it has far more loaded connotations to its data-collection, offers a totalitarian "all or none" choice for accepting it, and is being operated by the most untrustworthy gaming company around. There is no evidence so far that Valve has done anything untoward with gamers' information since its extremely insular, whereas I needn't go through the long list of EA's back-alley practices that only serve itself and do nothing for the customers it claims to service so well.

And I am still yet to see an actual argument that advocates a real reason for why this is acceptable beyond "Valve does it so why can't EA do it?" with the naive assumption that EA will treat the information in the same way.

Shalafi · Aug 25, 2011

Who gives a fuck, the sheeple will buy Batttlefield 3 anyway.

Plague_Injected · Aug 25, 2011

Fail said:
Who gives a fuck, the sheeple will buy Batttlefield 3 anyway.

Oh no, this is a fabulous thing for PC gaming! Do you know why? It's because people will go and build/buy another PC for playing Origin-locked games and doing nothing else

. That way EA gets the bare minimum of the personal data it wants to fleece from its customers.

I don't understand why people are okay with this. Like I said in the other thread, the fact that it's EA doing this and not another, more reputable game company should be sending alarm bells...but because the company with the most respected name allows for a similar thing (with restrictions that protect the gamer - why do you think EA threw the tantrum and fled Steam in the first place?), it's ok for the worst one to do it.

Appa · Aug 25, 2011

I don't care, my gaming PC is only for games so bring me BF3!!!

P4rD0nM3 · Aug 25, 2011

Heck, they can look at whatever they want on my PC. It's not like I'm doing anything illegal. They can even watch me take a crap if they want to. I don't mind. Maybe I'm seeing things differently but I haven't been hit personally by this 'privacy' issues.

socK · Aug 25, 2011

oh god EA might know that I have GAMES installed on my computer

seriously the only people that care are idiots that are trying their hardest to look too hard into it. EULAs are potentially vague, have contradictions, and change all the time.

valve is allowed to completely null and void your steam account because they feel like it and nothing more. they can also monitor your forum posts, chat logs, names, etc, look at your hardware with no way of you opting out (driver check, not the survey), and beam the fact that you play video games on your computer back to the mothership.

there are clauses for fucking everything but that doesn't mean they will do it. there is even a but that basically means you accept EULA changes (thus effectively even if you are not aware of them) taking place by simply not getting your account killed within 30 days for that sole reason.

yes, congrats, you cannot opt out of steam looking at your hardware one way or another when you go to run a game and get a nice DRIVER IS OLD warning. world is ending.

STEAM LOL EULA said:
User Generated Information may include, but is not limited to, chat, forum posts, screen names, game selections, player performances, usage data, suggestions about Valve products or services, and error notifications...you expressly grant Valve the complete and irrevocable right to use, reproduce, modify, create derivative works from, distribute, transmit, broadcast, and otherwise communicate, and publicly display and perform the User Generated Information and derivative works thereof in any form, anywhere, with or without attribution to you, and without any notice or compensation to you of any kind.

ShadowStriker · Aug 25, 2011

P4rD0nM3 said:
Heck, they can look at whatever they want on my PC. It's not like I'm doing anything illegal. They can even watch me take a crap if they want to. I don't mind. Maybe I'm seeing things differently but I haven't been hit personally by this 'privacy' issues.

While they're at it, maybe they can send you a eHealth warning when your poop is the wrong color?

boredreflux · Aug 25, 2011

Plague_Injected said:
Oh no, this is a fabulous thing for PC gaming! Do you know why? It's because people will go and build/buy another PC for playing Origin-locked games and doing nothing else . That way EA gets the bare minimum of the personal data it wants to fleece from its customers.

I don't understand why people are okay with this. Like I said in the other thread, the fact that it's EA doing this and not another, more reputable game company should be sending alarm bells...but because the company with the most respected name allows for a similar thing (with restrictions that protect the gamer - why do you think EA threw the tantrum and fled Steam in the first place?), it's ok for the worst one to do it.

I'm ok with it because I don't see anything sinister with it where as you do because you hate EA. They're not scanning your text files, your music, your 30gigs of Hentai. They're not trying to steal your shit while you have your pants down making knucklebabies (although those kinky bastards might be trying to watch if you have a webcam. why else would they want to know what peripherals you have installed?).

It's a bad thing if they poll hardware to find out the average user has current gen hardware and passes that info onto to devs, which would be third parties, so we can get more games that actually take advantage of our machines? Or polling software after a crash and seeing that 823 out of 1000 are also running RandomRetardedProgram v2.6 which seems to be causing problems and pass that info onto RRP's dev to try and fix the issue? Or (absolutely, totally talking out of my ass on this one there's nothing true about it that I know) because of the way BF3 launches, they have to integrate Punkbuster or something like it into the Origin client instead of the game itself? But no, the evil genius criminal mastermind EA, is in cahoots with every hardware manufacturer to make you build a better, faster, stronger, sexier gaming machine.

Q-BZ · Aug 25, 2011

Fail said:
Who gives a fuck, the sheeple will buy Batttlefield 3 anyway.

And that's the end of yet another thread on the subject. What are we up to? 1-2 new ones a day per average?

What's left to say? Yes, Origin sucks in its present form. No question about it. Most of us get it.

Even at that, I'd say a decent chunk of even the people complaining are still going to buy BF3 anyways if they can.

Yes, I dislike a lot of what I'm seeing about Origin. Yes, there are some legit concerns but guess what? It just doesn't matter any more than boycotting Ubisoft games or any of the rest of it.

BF3 is going to sell like hotcakes. End of story.

Plague_Injected · Aug 25, 2011

Q-BZ said:
And that's the end of yet another thread on the subject. What are we up to? 1-2 news ones a day per average?

What's left to say? Yes, Origin sucks in its present form. No question about it. Most of us get it.

Yes, I dislike a lot of what I'm seeing about Origin. Yes, there are some legit concerns but guess what? It just doesn't matter any more than boycotting Ubisoft games or any of the rest of it.

BF3 is going to sell like hotcakes. End of story.

Yes it will sell like hotcakes, but I disagree that any kind of protesting or boycotts will do no good. In the last little while we have seen that butthurt complaining from "hatersgonnahate"s has made Ubisoft renege on always-on DRM again, made the glowing crap in Deus Ex HR optional, got Square Enix to get rid of the region-locks on Deus Ex HR, and got a whole slew of changes to BF3 that in all likelihood would have remained until release otherwise.

Making noise is on a winning streak at the moment, for a change. Yes it might not change anything but it's better than being complacent and letting EA and the rest of them take more and more freedom from gamers and the PC platform, driving more people to the consoles and making decent PC games even less viable for developers.

TheCommander · Aug 25, 2011

They all get some kind data one way or another. Blizzard does it as well. You could opt out of it before. Now it is automatically submitted with SC2 and BNET2.0 and done without your permission. Can't say that I like them getting any data but that will probably be more common asd more games use these services or their own.

Chihlidog · Aug 25, 2011

It's presumptuous. I dont really give a shit if they want to see what's on my PC, but the attitude they take about it is what irks me. It's "we'll scan your rig for anything we want to see, and spread that information however we damn well please. If you dont like it, we're taking our toy and going home". And they know we want that toy pretty damn bad.

BF3 doesnt concern me, but I will admit, it's going to be hard for me to resist ME3. Still, this pisses me off enough that I'm willing to say "fuck you, I dont want your toy with that attitude".

jiminator · Aug 25, 2011

lol, its harmless, assuming you have no cause to require law enforcement to request that information. but then that makes everything harmless.

Q-BZ · Aug 25, 2011

Plague_Injected said:
Yes it will sell like hotcakes, but I disagree that any kind of protesting or boycotts will do no good. In the last little while we have seen that butthurt complaining from "hatersgonnahate"s has made Ubisoft renege on always-on DRM again, made the glowing crap in Deus Ex HR optional, got Square Enix to get rid of the region-locks on Deus Ex HR, and got a whole slew of changes to BF3 that in all likelihood would have remained until release otherwise.

You know what? You're right. I was pleasantly amazed at all of those things.

Making noise is on a winning streak at the moment, for a change. Yes it might not change anything but it's better than being complacent and letting EA and the rest of them take more and more freedom from gamers and the PC platform, driving more people to the consoles and making decent PC games even less viable for developers.

Fair enough.

Keep making noise people! You never know.

Plague_Injected · Aug 25, 2011

Chihlidog said:
It's presumptuous. I dont really give a shit if they want to see what's on my PC, but the attitude they take about it is what irks me. It's "we'll scan your rig for anything we want to see, and spread that information however we damn well please. If you dont like it, we're taking our toy and going home". And they know we want that toy pretty damn bad.

BF3 doesnt concern me, but I will admit, it's going to be hard for me to resist ME3. Still, this pisses me off enough that I'm willing to say "fuck you, I dont want your toy with that attitude".

Or, in the case of PC gaming especially, people could say "fuck you, I'll get my ninja mates to steal your fucking toy for me."

Not that I'm advocating that by any means, but stating a likely response by a few of our more rebellious PC gamer brethren.

refraxion · Aug 25, 2011

Cool. I'll be enjoying BF3.

Spewn · Aug 25, 2011

tuksonrider · Aug 25, 2011

Origin wants to steal all my pr0n!

Tudz · Aug 25, 2011

Plague_Injected said:
...we have seen that butthurt complaining...has made Ubisoft renege on always-on DRM again

While I'm happy they did it, I reckon that was largely due to fear of a false advertising backlash rather than actually wanting to do something good for the gaming community. I'll start being surprised if/when the next few Ubi games are offline capable.

Though some companies do definitely listen to the consumer, CDProjekt is my prime example of a gamer oriented game development company. The likes of Activision, Ubisoft and EA haven't shown themselves to fall in the same category.

ShadowStriker · Aug 25, 2011

Yet we aren't complaining about it when Windows does it?

Chihlidog · Aug 25, 2011

Plague_Injected said:
Or, in the case of PC gaming especially, people could say "fuck you, I'll get my ninja mates to steal your fucking toy for me."

Not that I'm advocating that by any means, but stating a likely response by a few of our more rebellious PC gamer brethren.

I was thinking it, but as I understand it, it's a taboo subject here on [H], so I didnt go there. I couldnt agree with you more.

Climber · Aug 25, 2011

Once again Origin just needs to reword some stuff and provide an optout clause. That is all. Like Plague said we've seen some major changes to these policies as of late due to the complaints of gamers.

There is nothing wrong asking for options. I really don't understand the reluctance from many of you who are against that. Many of you turn this into some Steam vs Origin debate but the simple fact of the matter is Steam provides us the options many of us are askin for. The argument isn't how great Steam is but that we want the options for this stuff, not what steam, bent, origin, Uplay, etc...etc...does.

socK · Aug 25, 2011

Spewn said:
Some of you are just plain bonkers. You know what kind of data Origin wants to collect?

Data like this:

Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 @ 2.4Ghz stock | Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H | 2GB 800Mhz DDR2 RAM | Inno3D GeForce 8600GT 512MB | Antec Earthwatts 650W | Seagate 160GB SATA-II 7200rpm HDD | Pioneer SATA 20x -/+ DVD-RW | Coolermaster Elite 331 Case | 56K Modem! | BenQ E2400HD @ 1920 x 1080 | Windows XP SP3 | Sennheiser HD202 | Logitech X-530
Xbox 360 20GB
Xbox Live, GFWL Gamertag and PSN ID: Plague Injected

And this:

Intel Core i7 950 @ 3.5 | Thermalright TRUE-120 | Asus Sabetooth X58 | EVGA GTX 580 | Intel 510 250GB SSD | ASUS Xonar Essence STX | 12 GB DDRIII-1333 | Pioneer DVR-212 | Zune 120GB Originals | Zune HD 64GB | Shure SE530s | Westone UM3Xs | Beyerdynamic DT250s | Alienware AW2310

Springfield Armory M1A | Glock 21 | S&W Model 58 | S&W Model 29

And this:
I5 760 3.75Ghz Corsair H50 W7 U 64bit, MSI P55-GD80, 2x4GB OCZ Platinum 1333Mhz, GTX460 SLI Surround, 3x1 HP LP2465, 2x750GB Raid-0 2x1TB, Cooler Master Storm Sniper, OCZ 1010w GameXtream

Better make sure Origin can't get it, guys!

if only you posted this on a steam chat room, i'm sure gabe would have been nefariously rubbing his hands together at this very moment, pleased as punch with his haul for the day

yesss, yeshhh, all goes according to plan. more hardware specs to feed into the global, completely unprotected, valve hivemind super computer. they have a column for your pc specs right next to the ones for your name, ssn, ccn, and your darkest secret. at the end of the month it's all sold off at a high price to a depraved lunatic who can be roughly compared to dr. claw from inspector gadget.

Parmenides · Aug 25, 2011

It's only a matter of time before Steam or EA gets hacked by some rogue hackers. I'd rather them not know all my information when they do.

Plague_Injected · Aug 25, 2011

Spewn said:
Some of you are just plain bonkers. You know what kind of data Origin wants to collect?

Data like this:

Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 @ 2.4Ghz stock | Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H | 2GB 800Mhz DDR2 RAM | Inno3D GeForce 8600GT 512MB | Antec Earthwatts 650W | Seagate 160GB SATA-II 7200rpm HDD | Pioneer SATA 20x -/+ DVD-RW | Coolermaster Elite 331 Case | 56K Modem! | BenQ E2400HD @ 1920 x 1080 | Windows XP SP3 | Sennheiser HD202 | Logitech X-530
Xbox 360 20GB
Xbox Live, GFWL Gamertag and PSN ID: Plague Injected

And this:

Intel Core i7 950 @ 3.5 | Thermalright TRUE-120 | Asus Sabetooth X58 | EVGA GTX 580 | Intel 510 250GB SSD | ASUS Xonar Essence STX | 12 GB DDRIII-1333 | Pioneer DVR-212 | Zune 120GB Originals | Zune HD 64GB | Shure SE530s | Westone UM3Xs | Beyerdynamic DT250s | Alienware AW2310

Springfield Armory M1A | Glock 21 | S&W Model 58 | S&W Model 29

And this:
I5 760 3.75Ghz Corsair H50 W7 U 64bit, MSI P55-GD80, 2x4GB OCZ Platinum 1333Mhz, GTX460 SLI Surround, 3x1 HP LP2465, 2x750GB Raid-0 2x1TB, Cooler Master Storm Sniper, OCZ 1010w GameXtream

Better make sure Origin can't get it, guys!

Origin has access to far more than that. Read the damn OP.

merlin704 · Aug 25, 2011

Origin rapes baby Jesus while Steam watches!~!!!111!!11!!

TheAmazingXemo · Aug 28, 2011

boredreflux said:
I'm ok with it because I don't see anything sinister with it where as you do because you hate EA. They're not scanning your text files, your music, your 30gigs of Hentai. They're not trying to steal your shit while you have your pants down making knucklebabies (although those kinky bastards might be trying to watch if you have a webcam. why else would they want to know what peripherals you have installed?).

Imagine if they base their BF3 DLC on what people have on their PC's. Come git yo Hentai Combat Pack!

rampantandroid · Aug 28, 2011

Spewn said:
Some of you are just plain bonkers. You know what kind of data Origin wants to collect?

Data like this:

Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 @ 2.4Ghz stock | Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H | 2GB 800Mhz DDR2 RAM | Inno3D GeForce 8600GT 512MB | Antec Earthwatts 650W | Seagate 160GB SATA-II 7200rpm HDD | Pioneer SATA 20x -/+ DVD-RW | Coolermaster Elite 331 Case | 56K Modem! | BenQ E2400HD @ 1920 x 1080 | Windows XP SP3 | Sennheiser HD202 | Logitech X-530
Xbox 360 20GB
Xbox Live, GFWL Gamertag and PSN ID: Plague Injected

And this:

Intel Core i7 950 @ 3.5 | Thermalright TRUE-120 | Asus Sabetooth X58 | EVGA GTX 580 | Intel 510 250GB SSD | ASUS Xonar Essence STX | 12 GB DDRIII-1333 | Pioneer DVR-212 | Zune 120GB Originals | Zune HD 64GB | Shure SE530s | Westone UM3Xs | Beyerdynamic DT250s | Alienware AW2310

Springfield Armory M1A | Glock 21 | S&W Model 58 | S&W Model 29

And this:
I5 760 3.75Ghz Corsair H50 W7 U 64bit, MSI P55-GD80, 2x4GB OCZ Platinum 1333Mhz, GTX460 SLI Surround, 3x1 HP LP2465, 2x750GB Raid-0 2x1TB, Cooler Master Storm Sniper, OCZ 1010w GameXtream

Better make sure Origin can't get it, guys!

You fucking fail at reading. The OP clearly states they intend to monitor everything running on the PC. Moreover, even if all they want is system info, they should legally be required to ASK PERMISSION.

I mean...it'd be like opening a letter that said "By opening this envelope you agreed to pay us $5,000. Hell, I wish that worked...I'd be off buying tons of postage and burning all mail I received. :-p

The difference between Steam and Origin with data collection

Supreme [H]ardness

[H]ard|Gawd

[H]ard|Gawd

2[H]4U

Limp Gawd

Limp Gawd

Supreme [H]ardness

[H]ard|Gawd

Limp Gawd

Limp Gawd

[H]F Junkie

Limp Gawd

Supreme [H]ardness

Fully [H]

Supreme [H]ardness

2[H]4U

[H]ard|Gawd

Supreme [H]ardness

[H]ard|Gawd

Limp Gawd

Fully [H]

Supreme [H]ardness

2[H]4U

[H]ard|Gawd

[H]F Junkie

Fully [H]

Supreme [H]ardness

[H]F Junkie

2[H]4U

Gawd

Supreme [H]ardness

[H]ard|Gawd

[H]ard|Gawd

Supreme [H]ardness

Supreme [H]ardness

Supreme [H]ardness

Supreme [H]ardness

The Great Procrastinator

Weaksauce

[H]ard|Gawd