EA's online "privacy policy"......

L

limelicker

CAGiversary!
How brutal is this. Take a gander at EA's "privacy policy"......

If you sign up to play EA games through Microsoft’s Xbox Live Service, Microsoft will provide your Xbox Live user account information to EA so that we can establish an EA Online account for you. You need an EA Online account to play EA’s Xbox Live titles. By signing up to play EA's Xbox Live titles, you agree that Microsoft can transfer your user account information to EA.
Information collected will vary depending upon the activity and may include your name, e-mail address, phone number, mobile number, home address, birth date and credit card information. In addition, we may collect demographic information such as gender, zip code, information about your computer, hardware, software, platform, media, Internet IP address and connection, information about online activity such as feature usage, game play statistics and scores, user rankings and click paths and other data that you may provide in surveys or online profiles, for instance. We may combine demographic information with personal information.
Click to expand...

HUH??????? So Microsoft is basically giving EA all of the user's personal information as well as credit card numbers and anything related to your computer simply by signing up to play an EA game on the Xbox 360? Does anyone else think EA is really overstepping some boundaries here? Worse yet, they're throwing it into fine print hoping no one even notices?

I'm not an EA fan in the first place, but this just puts me over the edge.
 
Honestly, after EA wanted you to pay for "unsponsored" games, what the fuck did you expect. They did this with Fight Night Round 3 on the PSP and they'll continue to do shit like this until people stop buying their rehashes of once good, original games.
 
I want the same link as mykevermin

But, I'm not so sure this is unusual. Stuff like this is dug into the fine print all the time. They are likely doing this so that, if they so choose to charge for their games in the future, they can get your info from MS, making life easier.

I'm no big EA fan, but this sounds pretty normal for companies now days (what do you think groceries stores do with the info from your value card?)
 
[quote name='lordxixor101']I want the same link as mykevermin

But, I'm not so sure this is unusual. Stuff like this is dug into the fine print all the time. They are likely doing this so that, if they so choose to charge for their games in the future, they can get your info from MS, making life easier.

I'm no big EA fan, but this sounds pretty normal for companies now days (what do you think groceries stores do with the info from your value card?)[/quote]
Probably not give it to others?

I don't know how unusual this is, but chances are I would bypass other things if I noticed that they included similar caveats. If EA decides to charge for their games in the future, they can ask for my credit card; they can't charge it without my authorization anyway, so there's no need for them to have the info.
 
[quote name='botticus']Probably not give it to others?

I don't know how unusual this is, but chances are I would bypass other things if I noticed that they included similar caveats. If EA decides to charge for their games in the future, they can ask for my credit card; they can't charge it without my authorization anyway, so there's no need for them to have the info.[/QUOTE]

There's a certain creepiness about how readily companies and individuals can access information about you, thanks to online technology. AOL recently published information about its users (for academics and others); although stripped of identifying data (names, address, phone, DOB, etc), The New York Times was able to use published search engine queries, supplied by the AOL data set, to identify a particular person in a small town, absent her actual "personal" information. The rapid spread of information between companies without our knowledge (and considered legal under the guide of "EULA" (which nobody fuckin' reads)) is absolutely frightening.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/09/t...&en=9b5fd9ff341e3216&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Perhaps someone will find my google searches for "Husker Du," "Montreal Hotels," and "ECW CM Punk" and know precisely who I am.
 
I think the "pay for unsponsored games" meant that, when you first go online with certain EA games, you can either play for free by giving the sponsor your e-mail address, or you have to pay something like $2. Might have been the case for last years Madden for the PS2.

But honestly, do any of you really think that companies like EA, or really, any videogame publisher, is gonna illegally charge your credit card, or mail you junk mail to your home address, or anything like that? Sure, it probably borders on "invasion of privacy", but they get all that information so they can use it for marketing and whatnot, they don't get it so they can have you credit card number and charge a bunch of Thai porn to your card.
 
[quote name='VanillaGorilla']But honestly, do any of you really think that companies like EA, or really, any videogame publisher, is gonna illegally charge your credit card, or mail you junk mail to your home address, or anything like that? Sure, it probably borders on "invasion of privacy", but they get all that information so they can use it for marketing and whatnot, they don't get it so they can have you credit card number and charge a bunch of Thai porn to your card.[/quote]

Very shortsighted point. What if there is a leak in the EA system at any point in time? You don't think hackers would target EA's system if they knew that there was a lot of credit card and personal information available? How about an wronged employee at EA who wants to get back at his employer or profit from the information contained in the system? The less places your personal information is located, the safer you are against identity theft or wrongful use of your information.
 
[quote name='limelicker']Very shortsighted point. What if there is a leak in the EA system at any point in time? You don't think hackers would target EA's system if they knew that there was a lot of credit card and personal information available? How about an wronged employee at EA who wants to get back at his employer or profit from the information contained in the system? The less places your personal information is located, the safer you are against identity theft or wrongful use of your information.[/QUOTE]

Well if you are worried about that, then use a subscription card. Now there is no need to enter your credit card, plus to be completely honest, if you do not think that EA, Google, or Microsoft do not already have that information then that is short sighted.

Privacy is dead.
 
Well, if you wanna be paranoid about hackers stealing information, then you should probably just live in caves, because EVERYONE has their personal information on some type of computer, even if they have something as simple as a checking account. I try not to worry about it. I look at my checking account, credit, and other things on a daily basis, and being vigilent is the best way to make sure that if it DOES happen, you can be quick enough to do something about it.
 
Aren't things like phone number, address and SS# all readily available through official channels?

VG, while you are right, you're only partially right. Banks use exceptionally hard core encryption on everything. If a hacker did manage to break in and steal something the FBI would be at his home, job and favorite porn shop before he could even start decrypting any of it.

I doubt EA has anywhere near that type of security. Look at Valve. The were working on one of the most prolific and highly anticipated games of this decade and it was "stolen" right out from under then and vomited onto the net.

Think about how most games are on the internet weeks before they're in stores.

Video games are worth $50. Can you imagine what would happen if they had actual information of value? IE- Credit cards for 2 million people!
 
[quote name='Kayden']Aren't things like phone number, address and SS# all readily available through official channels?

VG, while you are right, you're only partially right. Banks use exceptionally hard core encryption on everything. If a hacker did manage to break in and steal something the FBI would be at his home, job and favorite porn shop before he could even start decrypting any of it.

I doubt EA has anywhere near that type of security. Look at Valve. The were working on one of the most prolific and highly anticipated games of this decade and it was "stolen" right out from under then and vomited onto the net.

Think about how most games are on the internet weeks before they're in stores.

Video games are worth $50. Can you imagine what would happen if they had actual information of value? IE- Credit cards for 2 million people![/QUOTE]

Well the Valve thing is a little different. They left a production machine outside of their intranet. This was an unencrypted format on the machine, it would be pretty easy. As for the leasked games, it is not usually a hacking incident, it is someone inside the duplicating centers, or if the game released earlier in another area, or shipping/recieved early product and a thieving employee.

As for your personal information, Google has all of it already, or Ebay, or any other large internet company. Yes there is ways to change it so your are less vulnerable, look into your CC company for temp card numbers for online use is one example. But if you think they do not have your name, address, card number, SS, and other info.

Again, it is tough to shallow, but privacy is dead.
 
[quote name='VanillaGorilla']Well, if you wanna be paranoid about hackers stealing information, then you should probably just live in caves, because EVERYONE has their personal information on some type of computer, even if they have something as simple as a checking account. I try not to worry about it. I look at my checking account, credit, and other things on a daily basis, and being vigilent is the best way to make sure that if it DOES happen, you can be quick enough to do something about it.[/QUOTE]

I have a great cave up for trade, near-mint, if anyone's interested. CML!!!!
 
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