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

  • 13-07-2014 10:39pm
    #1
    Rucking_Fetard
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,260 ✭✭✭


    http://wccftech.com/ea-spying-file-snooping-origin-client-investigation/
    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-Snooping-635x377.png

    The 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.”

    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.


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