Electronic Arts has changed its licence agreement for Origin after gamers raised privacy concerns.
Origin is Electronic Arts' online vendor which sells games for download over the internet. The service was set up to compete with Valve's Steam service.
Some gamers raised concerns over the End User Licence Agreement (EULA) which users must accept before using the service.
One of the clauses in the EULA read: "You agree that EA may collect, use, store and transmit technical and related information that identifies your computer, operating system, application usage (including but not limited to successful installation and/or removal), software, software usage and peripheral hardware, that may be gathered periodically to facilitate the provision of software updates, dynamically served content, product support and other services to you, including online services.
"EA may also use this information combined with personal information for marketing purposes and to improve our products and services. We may also share that data with our third party service providers in a form that does not personally identify you."
Gamers on the forum of The Escapist Magazine expressed concern that this meant that EA had the freedom to gather a vast array of information about users' computers and sell it on to third parties. Origin's competitor Steam has a similar clause in its EULA but Steam expressly restricts the gathering of data to Steam related products.
In response to the backlash EA have now changed their EULA to read: "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 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."
The change in wording is more consumer focused and does restrict how EA may use information gathered from users and provides a guarantee of anonymity, but it does not restrict how much information is gathered.
