Origin End User License Agreement

[badken]

Regarding http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011...more-sinister/

Origin's EULA has changed quite a bit compared the one shown in that article, do they operate differently yes in some ways but it's not like Steam is totally clean. I'd say Valve is more at fault for EA games being removed from Steam than EA is. None of this stuff bothers me anyways and I use both.

Here's the current Origin EULA: http://tos.ea.com/legalapp/eula/US/en/ORIGIN

The section "Consent to Collection and Use of Data" is the same as the RPS article (and a similar Escapist Mag. article).

Am I just a dinosaur? Does nobody really care that EA is rooting around in your system, software and hardware? I wouldn't mind it if there was a specific purpose, but this is just way too broad for me: "that may be gathered periodically to facilitate the provision of software updates, dynamically served content, product support and other services to you". "Facilitate the provision of other services" basically lets them do anything they want with any data they gather from your computer.

I guess the bottom line is that based on their track record, I just don't trust EA. I don't mind them collecting information about their software to help them improve their services, but I do mind when they start collecting other information for unspecified purposes. Especially if they're sharing that information, personally identifying information removed or not.

Incidentally, the only reason I played Reckoning in the first place is because 38 Studios self-published it on Steam. If Origin had been the only PC option, I would have passed.

[Kurik Lein]

If you look up the EULA from the date of that article and the current one it is pretty different. I'm pretty sure everyone here has already expressed their views in old threads here or on the official forums. I'm comfortable with what EA has stated in and outside of their EULA about data collection and it doesn't bother me like it may with other people.

[agra]

I went to great lengths to ensure the Origin client would never phone home. If I could, I would completely eliminate it, but it's not worth the effort, knowing it'll never be able to report back anything to EA.

Personally, I am 100% against the arbitrary harvesting/collection of any of my personal activity or information for any reason. I barely trust the organizations that NEED the information, and do not trust the organizations that WANT the information, at all.

There are data breaches every day. Eventually, someone is going to get a hold of a very large amount (dozens of millions) of complete PHI/PII sets, post it all publicly, and that is going to be a very bad day. Ask around, you'll probably find you're only 1 or 2 degrees of separation from someone who's been a victim of identity theft. That's not a good time, at all.

[DeathtoGnomes]

I totally agree with agra, those that don't care (usually do nothing to stop it) are ten times(or more) as likely to have their identity stolen as those that actively try to protect it. I installed Origin to play the KOA demo, I'm still unsure if I completely removed it from my system, I'm still find bits in my registry. What I want to know is how much EA/Origin is paying to keep their BS from being blocked thru spyware programs. I still haven't heard from Ad-Aware on this yet.

[Bossner]

The only thing that Origin roots around on your system for is past installed EA games so that it can add them to Origin.

Also to note, badken, is that there's nothing stopped Steam from doing the same thing. So it's a bit silly to be okay with Steam and not Origin.

[RingX55]

Do you happen to have a Google account, android phone, Google apps or use Chrome? etc

Yeah, I don't see Google getting hate very often but as soon as it's EA