Origin Client Found Snooping Through Your FIles- EA Admits It

[bigdogchris]

Interesting.

I hate game clients that must be on all the time.

Origin Client is File Snooping – EA Representatives Start Investigating the Matter

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. Take a look at the screenshot posted by user drsniper121:

Origin File SnoopingThe screenshot doesn’t appear to give away much at first but the files are hidden using a ROT13 Cypher (credits: brainiac256) used by the Windows Registry. This particular file is the popular PS2 emulator called PCSX2 1.2.1 encrypted with a ROT13 cypher. Dont believe me? Paste “PCSX2 1.2.1″ in this ROT13 encrypter here and see what you get. Infact some of the process shown in this screenshot actively decode to Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, iTunes and Foxit Reader apart from a game or two (Torchlight). This is ofcourse a very serious allegation coupled with weighty proof and it was only a matter of time before an Origin Rep appeared on the site and released a statement:

“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.”

Some users also pitted a much neutral stance by stating that EA/Origin’s TOS (Terms of Service) actually claims that they might do something like this and since you agree to the same TOS before using the client, its not technically doing anything wrong. Here is some of the relevant portion posted by the user:

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.

Ah, so they are doing it for our benefit, whew, that makes me feel so much better. Jokes aside, the thing is, massively collected information or Big Data is the crux of predicting and analyzing marketing trends. However doing so in such a covert and hidden-from-the-user-way is borderline unethical. There should be an opt out option in the gaming client like so many other products offer. Oh wait, there’s this part in the TOS “if you do not want to use this technology, do not play.“. So this is a very interesting conundrum where a very serious allegation, along with proof, has been placed on EA and Origin. Now, I am pretty sure they would be safe from a legal standpoint, but this could turn into an absolute PR disaster if it is not handled correctly. We will be keeping an eye out on the news to see how this turns out.

Read more: http://wccftech.com/ea-spying-file-snooping-origin-client-investigation/#ixzz37PTSPIii

SOURCE

 

[Ragenrok]

if true then foot in mouth to me for saying people bad mouthing origin simply cause it was EA is unfounded, I've stood up for it a few time saying its no worse and sometimes better than steam.

 

[Odellus]

if true then foot in mouth to me for saying people bad mouthing origin simply cause it was EA is unfounded, I've stood up for it a few time saying its no worse and sometimes better than steam.

it was unfounded. they didn't know about this. origin is a good program as well as a good service that's better than or equal to steam in every way. as for the snooping; until i know exactly what it's looking at, i don't care. i mean why should i? as long as it's not negatively affecting me it doesn't matter.

 

[GoldenTiger]

it was unfounded. they didn't know about this. origin is a good program as well as a good service that's better than or equal to steam in every way. as for the snooping; until i know exactly what it's looking at, i don't care. i mean why should i? as long as it's not negatively affecting me it doesn't matter.

QFT...

 

[darkeen]

it was unfounded. they didn't know about this. origin is a good program as well as a good service that's better than or equal to steam in every way. as for the snooping; until i know exactly what it's looking at, i don't care. i mean why should i? as long as it's not negatively affecting me it doesn't matter.

Same reason you might care that google reads your mail. It's just weird.

 

[socK]

what is this even supposed to be proving

UserAssist keys are already ROT13'd, Origin didn't touch them

 

[Dion]

Update: A slight clarification on my part. The screenshot only proves that the origin client is actively looking at the list of the programs recently run. Basically it shows that origin is aware of the files you have on your PC (that have been run).

Steam probably does this to just with its overlay feature. I highly doubt its sending info to EA.

 

[cageymaru]

it was unfounded. they didn't know about this. origin is a good program as well as a good service that's better than or equal to steam in every way. as for the snooping; until i know exactly what it's looking at, i don't care. i mean why should i? as long as it's not negatively affecting me it doesn't matter.

I don't like shit monitoring what's going on my PC. You want to know what size hard drives, video card, ram, etc I use to better tailor games for me? Fine. Anything more than that you're crossing the line.

Can I come over and install a camera on your ceiling in your living room? As long as I don't sell the video or tell others what is going on in your house it's cool right? It'll just be me. Staring at your wife. Wondering what sizes your kid wears. Mind if I take a picture of your bank account statement lying on your coffee table? If you feed the dog biscuits it doesn't bark and alert the neighbors. I have really good intentions I tell you! I provide you entertainment!

Nope snooping on someone's PC is fine. We should welcome it!

 

[Odellus]

I don't like shit monitoring what's going on my PC. You want to know what size hard drives, video card, ram, etc I use to better tailor games for me? Fine. Anything more than that you're crossing the line.

Can I come over and install a camera on your ceiling in your living room? As long as I don't sell the video or tell others what is going on in your house it's cool right? It'll just be me. Staring at your wife. Wondering what sizes your kid wears. Mind if I take a picture of your bank account statement lying on your coffee table? If you feed the dog biscuits it doesn't bark and alert the neighbors. I have really good intentions I tell you! I provide you entertainment!

Nope snooping on someone's PC is fine. We should welcome it!

those things are not even remotely comparable to what's happening here, and i didn't say i welcome snooping.

 

[cageymaru]

those things are not even remotely comparable to what's happening here, and I didn't say I welcome snooping.

I wasn't trying to be mean. Hope you didn't take my statement in a bad way. I got the impression that you were of the mindset that these faceless corporations with internet storefronts actually care about your personal information. Most of the time they don't even mention the fact that they had a data breach until months later. If that's not being dishonest, I don't know what is. That's a general statement about internet security; not one directed at Origin per se.

I had someone in a foreign country attempt to access my Origin account around the same time that a rumor was started that Origin had gotten hacked. According to my Google IP log, they didn't try my email address, but to be safe I figured it would be a good idea to change it. The EA rep I spoke with was helpful and I ended up changing my email address for my Origin account. Did you know that afterwards I couldn't log into my damn EA games because my Origin account email and individual EA game account email addresses were different?

So I tried to change the email address information for every Origin game I own. Guess what, you can't do it for some games. Then you can't play them because all you will see is account error messages on every screen because of the online DRM. So then I had to set them all back to the my original email address because the EA reps couldn't or didn't give a flying F about fixing the little things with their service.

I'm not here to say that service A or B is better about security as I've gotten information from Valve when the Steam service had a breach in 2012. But it sometimes seems that Origin developers will set up barriers that nobody else can think of.

 

[Proxy]

Shocking...

 

[lilbabycat]

it was unfounded.

Its EA and it said so in the TOS. The trash talk when Origin was new was completely founded. Evil company = evil program. Of course they are collecting + using that data for anything you can imagine.

 

[Odellus]

Its EA and it said so in the TOS. The trash talk when Origin was new was completely founded. Evil company = evil program. Of course they are collecting + using that data for anything you can imagine.

"it's EA" is not an argument and it did not explicitly (this is very important regarding legal agreements) say that they're snooping through your files. that is why it's unfounded.

 

[bigdogchris]

It doesn't matter if you have something private on your computer or not. A client that delivers video games to your PC has no reason to be scanning your registry or C:\ drive anywhere outside of the folder it is installed in and manages. If it needs a specific application to co-exist, then that should be a one time detection during the installation process. Otherwise, leave my computer alone.

 

[cageymaru]

"it's EA" is not an argument and it did not explicitly (this is very important regarding legal agreements) say that they're snooping through your files. that is why it's unfounded.

When you sign the EULA you give EA the right to look through your software and see what you install and use. This data is collected by the application and sent back to EA to use as they see fit. Now, since you give them the right to do so this by signing the EULA, it is not snooping because you told them to search all they want. So in fact you're 100% right because all Origin users signed over the data on the PC in which Origin is installed when they signed the EULA. How can a corporation get in trouble for collecting data when they own it? I don't see what the big deal is.

http://eacom.s3.amazonaws.com/EULA_Origin_9.16.11.pdf
2. Consent to Collection and Use of Data.
EA knows that you care how information about you is collected, used and
shared, and we appreciate your trust that we will do so carefully and sensibly.
Information about our customers is an important part of our business, and EA
would never sell your personally identifiable information to anyone, nor would it
ever use spyware or install spyware on users’ machines. We and agents acting
37683v1
on our behalf do not share information that personally identifies you without your
consent, except in rare instances where disclosure is required by law or to
enforce EA’s legal rights.
In addition to information that you give EA directly, EA collects nonpersonally
identifiable (or anonymous) information for purposes of improving our
products and services, providing services to you, facilitating the provision of
software updates, dynamically served content and product support as well as
communicating with you. The non-personally identifiable information that EA
collects includes technical and related information that identifies your computer
(including the Internet Protocol Address) and operating system, as well as
information about your Application usage (including but not limited to successful
installation and/or removal), software, software usage and peripheral hardware.
As noted above, this information is gathered periodically for purposes such as
improving our products and services, troubleshooting bugs, and otherwise
enhancing your user experience.
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 or is
inconsistent with the terms of EA’s Privacy Policy, the terms of the Privacy Policy
shall control.

 

[Pastuch]

Origin is a piece of shit. I can't believe anyone is arguing it compares to Steam.

Steam doesn't charge tax. Origin does. I'll never give Origin another cent. To my knowledge Origin is the only online game vendor that charges Canadian sales taxes. (13%)

Origin download rates are slower than Steam (For me)

Origin has shitty sales and hardly any third party titles. I can't remember ever seeing a good sale on Origin, I see great deals on Steam every week and have bought many smaller third party games. Xenocide is a terrific example of a game with hundreds of hours of enjoyment for only $20!

Origin has had multiple memory leaks since it's inception. Steam is rock solid.

The ONLY reason I have Origin on my computer is because I can't play Battlefield 4 without it. If BF was available on Steam I would uninstall Origin tomorrow.

 

[pcjunkie]

Origin is a piece of shit. I can't believe anyone is arguing it compares to Steam.

Steam doesn't charge tax. Origin does. I'll never give Origin another cent. To my knowledge Origin is the only online game vendor that charges Canadian sales taxes. (13%)

Origin download rates are slower than Steam (For me)

Origin has shitty sales and hardly any third party titles. I can't remember ever seeing a good sale on Origin, I see great deals on Steam every week and have bought many smaller third party games. Xenocide is a terrific example of a game with hundreds of hours of enjoyment for only $20!

Origin has had multiple memory leaks since it's inception. Steam is rock solid.

The ONLY reason I have Origin on my computer is because I can't play Battlefield 4 without it. If BF was available on Steam I would uninstall Origin tomorrow.

Anybody that says Origin is as good as Steam is full of shit. And I use whatever game client for whatever game needs it. Not one of those haters...I don't like installing them but it is what it is.

 

[LeninGHOLA]

Origin is nowhere near being on the same footing as Steam. Burn the heretic.

 

[Yakk]

The EULA does indeed seem to give EA the rights to your information.

This got me curious about Uplay, since Ubisoft says their clients are pirates...

 

[dgz]

Valves most likely does this as well. Kind of like your AV snoops everything on your drives and you even pay them to do it hah

I remember quite well someone talking about EA's snooping with Origin quite some time ago. I believed him. Only game in my library is Alice. Man, that was a long time ago.

 

[LeninGHOLA]

Valves most likely does this as well. Kind of like your AV snoops everything on your drives and you even pay them to do it hah

I remember quite well someone talking about EA's snooping with Origin quite some time ago. I believed him. Only game in my library is Alice. Man, that was a long time ago.

Steam only does it if you opt in.

 

[DPI]

The ONLY reason I have Origin on my computer is because I can't play Battlefield 4 without it. If BF was available on Steam I would uninstall Origin tomorrow.

Ding ding ding. Likewise. I stopped getting up in arms about Origin because at the end of the day it's irrelevant except for a handful of EA titles. For me its a Battlefield 3 & 4 launcher and that's pretty much it. This isn't the first time Origin has been caught snooping local files, but this time I just don't care - again, because it's irrelevant.

It isn't a serious challenger to Steam by any metric, nor does EA appear to be actually trying to compete with Steam. And I don't discriminate in any fanboy sense, because every time Origin has a sitewide sale I will look through the titles hoping to find something interesting. Problem is, there never is.

 

[Pastuch]

Ding ding ding. Likewise. I stopped getting up in arms about Origin because at the end of the day it's irrelevant except for a handful of EA titles. For me its a Battlefield 3 & 4 launcher and that's pretty much it. This isn't the first time Origin has been caught snooping local files, but this time I just don't care - again, because it's irrelevant.

It isn't a serious challenger to Steam by any metric, nor does EA appear to be trying to be a Steam competitor. And I don't discriminate in any fanboy sense, because every time Origin has a sitewide sale I will look through the titles hoping to find something interesting. Problem is, there never is.

I buy all my Origin games through gamefly to avoid the taxes.

Example: Battlefield 4 Premium on sale for $40 at Origin and $40 at Gamefly, Origin costs $8 more because they charge tax through an ONLINE STORE! NO ONE ELSE CHARGES TAX YOU ASSCLOWNS! FUCK Retail!

 

[lilbabycat]

Example: Battlefield 4 Premium on sale for $40 at Origin and $40 at Gamefly, Origin costs $8 more because they charge tax through an ONLINE STORE!

EA may/may not have a non-competition agreement with B+M stores (read: Gamestop and Walmart) that requires them to charge sales tax so they aren't "putting them out of business". Or some other bureaucratic BS.

 

[DPI]

EA may/may not have a non-competition agreement with B+M stores (read: Gamestop and Walmart) that requires them to charge sales tax so they aren't "putting them out of business". Or some other bureaucratic BS.

There are definitely politics involved between the big publishers and B&M stores like Gamestop, and EA is beholden to them since they push a lot of console copies of multi-platform titles. Hell, the very reason games continue to release "On Tuesdays" is because of B&M store politics.

 

[MavericK]

origin is a good program as well as a good service that's better than or equal to steam in every way.

BAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Putting aside entirely whether or not you "like" EA/Origin, it doesn't even come close to the level of functionality and features that Steam does. Not even close.

 

[Nytegard]

This is a very sensationalist title.

The only thing the EA rep stated was that they'd look into it to find out if it was true, not "Origin monitors everything you do including turning on your webcam silently to spy on you".

Another person in the reddit thread stated that they tried reproducing the steps of the OP, and only found Origin monitoring programs installed via Origin, and it's buried in the reddit post deep down and accused of being stupid, because it only ran for a few seconds. I'd agree that running it for longer is definitely a better test, but people still need to be very cautious around taking a stranger's word for something, just because it agrees with the hive-mind.

 

[Odellus]

BAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Putting aside entirely whether or not you "like" EA/Origin, it doesn't even come close to the level of functionality and features that Steam does. Not even close.

uh huh... what does steam do that origin doesn't?

 

[MavericK]

uh huh... what does steam do that origin doesn't?

Family sharing? In-home streaming? Among other things...Steam Workshop, Greenlight, Big Picture Mode...

The real question is, what does Origin actually do? It has a friends list and has a game library. Oh, and achievements. That's about it.

 

[Odellus]

Family sharing? In-home streaming? Among other things...

The real question is, what does Origin actually do? It has a friends list and has a game library. Oh, and achievements. That's about it.

yup, just as i predicted. i like how people always say some variation of "and other stuff" when they don't actually have anything else to say. now please, tell me why you need it to do anything else other than let you buy and play games and add people you meet. origin is significantly faster than steam and uses less resources, the only real issue it has is its lack of games. i don't need a bunch of useless features i'm never going to use (family sharing is nice, but it has some pretty ridiculous limitations and is unintuitive to set up.)

 

[yourgrandma]

uh huh... what does steam do that origin doesn't?

How about updating a game while playing another. I tried playing mass effect 3 while bf4 was doing a update and it will just sit there endlessly checking for dlc until you cancel or pause any downloads you have going in origin. It's been a bug that hasn't been fixed for years now.

Verify game integrity is a huge one for me i can move my games to different drives or computers, convert non steam games i already owned to the steam version without redownloading just by placing the game folder in the steam one.

The way steam handles updates and game installs in general is soooo much better.

 

[DPI]

yup, just as i predicted. i like how people always say some variation of "and other stuff" when they don't actually have anything else to say. now please, tell me why you need it to do anything else other than let you buy and play games and add people you meet. origin is significantly faster than steam and uses less resources, the only real issue it has is its lack of games. i don't need a bunch of useless features i'm never going to use (family sharing is nice, but it has some pretty ridiculous limitations and is unintuitive to set up.)

"The only real issue is its lack of games". Haha.

That's like saying the Titanic's only real issue was an iceberg.

 

[piscian18]

hmm ok I just checked, yep still dont have origin installed. Fuck EA.

 

[MavericK]

yup, just as i predicted. i like how people always say some variation of "and other stuff" when they don't actually have anything else to say. now please, tell me why you need it to do anything else other than let you buy and play games and add people you meet. origin is significantly faster than steam and uses less resources, the only real issue it has is its lack of games. i don't need a bunch of useless features i'm never going to use (family sharing is nice, but it has some pretty ridiculous limitations and is unintuitive to set up.)

Cool, so you're a troll then. What you claimed was that Origin did everything Steam did, at least as well or better. Clearly that is false, and now your argument has turned to:

"It doesn't have features that I want so they're irrelevant".



Plus I mentioned 2 things, and then added 3 more after the fact. Just because I couldn't make a complete list in my head doesn't mean the features don't exist.

 

[Ebernanut]

uh huh... what does steam do that origin doesn't?

The interface is clunky and unintuitive, it seems like every time I use it after a couple days not using it I have provide login info, it displays the ad filled store every time I open it even though I know I've set it to go to my game library. They used to allow you to choose where to install games but when I installed Mass Effect 3 the other day it didn't give me that option and ended up installing it in an odd place that was more difficult to find than it should have been(wanted to edit the coalesced file).

Steam is far from perfect but it's been steadily improved(offline, family sharing, ability to specify install location for games, limit bandwidth use, etc) while Origin actually seems to be getting worse.

If Steam allowed me to sell or give away my games, choose which patch to use on a game, and offered better customer service they would be nearly perfect. I'm not sure what EA could do to make Origin nearly perfect short of starting from scratch, and that's not even addressing how little I trust EA based on their actions.

Edit: I'm also not sure why you think Origin uses less resources, with both open and idle Steam uses about 71 MB of memory while Origin uses about 83 MB and more importantly Origin shows 1% CPU utilization every couple of seconds while Steam doesn't.

 

[Odellus]

Cool, so you're a troll then. What you claimed was that Origin did everything Steam did, at least as well or better. Clearly that is false, and now your argument has turned to:

"It doesn't have features that I want so they're irrelevant".



Plus I mentioned 2 things, and then added 3 more after the fact. Just because I couldn't make a complete list in my head doesn't mean the features don't exist.

no, i'm not a troll, i didn't have "features" in mind other than what i use both for when i wrote that, because i only use them to buy/play games and talk to friends, nothing else.

The interface is clunky and unintuitive, it seems like every time I use it after a couple days not using it I have provide login info, it displays the ad filled store every time I open it even though I know I've set it to go to my game library. They used to allow you to choose where to install games but when I installed Mass Effect 3 the other day it didn't give me that option and ended up installing it in an odd place that was more difficult to find than it should have been(wanted to edit the coalesced file).

Steam is far from perfect but it's been steadily improved(offline, family sharing, ability to specify install location for games, limit bandwidth use, etc) while Origin actually seems to be getting worse.

If Steam allowed me to sell or give away my games, choose which patch to use on a game, and offered better customer service they would be nearly perfect. I'm not sure what EA could do to make Origin nearly perfect short of starting from scratch, and that's not even addressing how little I trust EA based on their actions.

i don't understand. what you said doesn't make it clunky or unintuitive. the program opens and then you have big buttons that say 'my games' and 'store.' you click 'my games' and it takes you to your games, you click 'store' and it takes you to the store. you click 'origin' at the top and go to settings and there you can choose where to download/install games to, which is the exact same process as doing it in steam. i can't comment on the default tab resetting because i've never used it. it does forget my login info occasionally, though.

 

[Dion]

Debating which is better is dumb. Origin is here to stay.

When it comes to getting games and playing. They work virtually the same and work fine. Extra features or bloat is another debate.

 

[dgz]

Steam only does it if you opt in.

Pretty sure they only ask you about that specific public survey the publish every month or so. Of course they gather way more data than that. They need that data to make Steam better

 

[lilbabycat]

Debating which is better is dumb. Origin is here to stay.

When it comes to getting games and playing. They work virtually the same and work fine. Extra features or bloat is another debate.

Extra Features and/or Bloat are exactly the metrics you compare the two against. Them "working" is a minimum requirement that at all times should be achieved.

 

[stooleywood]

Debating which is better is dumb. Origin is here to stay.

When it comes to getting games and playing. They work virtually the same and work fine. Extra features or bloat is another debate.

seriously probably the only reasonable person in this thread. i rage so hard internally hearing these morons argue back and forth over this nonsense.