Battlefield 2142 Comes With Spyware

silverstrand · Last edited by silverstrand on Wed, 18 Oct 2006 12:04:06; edited 1 time in total

From a comment on ShackNews:

So. In the latest CGW podcast, they received retail boxed copies of BF 2142.

When you open the box, a big slip of paper falls out first, preceeding any discs or manuals. The slip of paper says, essentially, that 2142 includes monitoring software which runs while your computer is online, and records "anonymous" information like your IP address, surfing habits (probably via cookie scans), and other "computing habits" in order to report this information back to ad companies and ad servers, which generates in-game ads.

Now, I can live with certain in-game ads (though apparently there will be Dodge truck and Neon ads in the bleak, futuristic world of 2142), but including a lengthy description - outside of even the Eula - seems to indicate even EA knows that this is some shady borderline spyware s#!7. I don't support it and won't be buying 2142 (for a host of other reasons, too).

All i have to say is wow.

Hellfire · Rated XXX Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Posts: 3473

There a higher res version of the pic? Would like to read that EULA if it's possible...

That's crappy that they are doing that. Wonder how big the backlash is going to be because of it....

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 08:07:06 Post Subject:

Kilamon · Rated XXX Joined: 22 Mar 2005 Posts: 811

Why not get the game, run the game, monitor your traffic and find out what it attempts to contact and then block those ip segments at your router? Then you could publish a list of the IP addresses in a format that people can copy and paste in to their routers and you'll be a hero.

**JimBowy** · Moderator Joined: 02 Aug 2003 Posts: 1627

BeerCheeze · Posted: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 21:06:55 Post Subject:

Nice... so I'm going to do a little "interpretation"

1) You BUY this software, and then they make you see advertisements (which they get paid for).

2) This "program" will transfer information from your computer to an unknown server apparently OUT SIDE the US or EU (where there are laws about protecting your information).

3) It will then UPLOAD data to your computer.

Anyone's "spider sense" tingling?

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 21:13:16 Post Subject:

Something is tingling, but that is unrelated to this browser window... Yikes

The game should be free, IMO, and then I don't know if I'd want in anyway.

**Modulok** · Posted: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 22:31:09 Post Subject:

and having this "spyware" running it will slow down your gaming experience too...

I would like to see someone with a new dell xps with 512mb ram and none of the preloaded software removed play the game. I would bet it's not going to be fun to play while your xps is lagging.

silverstrand · Posted: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 23:34:10 Post Subject:

From widescreengaming:

"You guys are going to love this little story. I just got off the phone with EA. When I inquired about the software they acted like they had no idea about it and that if there is software its only for monitoring BF2142 data, like log on time, gameplay time, ect.

Then I asked them, "So if I was to go and buy this game now, read the documents only available from with in the box about this software, I wont find anything discussing in detail about the monitoring of my web browser data?" The man I was talking to paused a second and asked to put me on hold. He returned roughly 4 mins later and said "Well, I just looked into this and EA is aware of this software. We here at technical support are just as surprised at this as you are. Unfortunately EA is only the publisher and we do not have any info from Dice about this software because the developer has not shared it with us." Confused

You read right. EA, a publisher in charge of sales and distributing doesn't have info about what's inside the game even AFTER LAUNCH. Which is pretty scary and dumb considering this is spyware we are talking about.

So I asked them how could they not have info on this for consumers even after the game launched? I of course got not good answer. Only that the software will not harm my computer but does in fact monitor/share my web browser info, though you have to hassle them to get that info. So I told the guy simply, if your not recording this, record it now. Then I told him that what they are doing is a invasion of privacy and is illegal. It is also not on the box anywhere that this software is included. And that EA has made zero attempts to alert current owners of the game about the software which is also wrong. The man said he will send my message to his superiors right now and watch over this incident himself.

So my advice guys is call them. Know the info you need about the papers and what the software does and call them. Don't play around if they play dumb, they know about this. Call and demand action. It will either go to the superiors or put pressure on tech support till it does."
____________________________

"Players who have the Windows security update KB917422 installed may suffer from an application error when running Battlefield 2142. This error can be solved by uninstalling the KB917422 update"

Taken from the patch notes for 2142 first patch...

COME ON EA... you want us to sabotage our own machines?! LOL!!!

BeerCheeze · Posted: Thu, 19 Oct 2006 09:12:33 Post Subject:

Very nice.... OOO And here is the info on 917422 for those interested: