iain-simpson.org

Battlefield 2142 to include spyware?
Tuesday, 17 October 2006

Apparently, Battlefield 2142 will be bundled with software that tracks your online activities, to deliver targetted in-game advertising.

Fuck That™

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.

It's a pity, because it looked pretty sweet from the screenshots that I've seen. Never mind though, NWN2 looks rather pretty. I might have to upgrade my system again to play it though...

Update:

According to The Register, "BF 2142 delivers ads by region. The advertising system uses a player's IP address to determine the region of the player, assisting to serve the appropriate ads by region and language. For instance, a player in Paris might be presented with ads in French. The information collected will not be repurposed for other uses."

Comments
Stephen Strowes said:
on Tuesday, 17 October 2006 at 03:51 pm
Fuck That indeed.

Or you could figure out where it's sending this "anonymous" information, and route those hosts to 0.0.0.0 in your HOSTS file, where ever Windows puts that...
Iain Simpson said:
on Wednesday, 18 October 2006 at 12:21 am
Yeah, that's the problem though - will Windows allow you to do that, and will the spyware be able to reverse those changes? It might even disable the game if it can't phone home.

You could stick it behind a Linux box and do whatever you wanted with its network traffic I suppose - although that's probably too much effort for all but the most fanatic tin-foil-hat wearers.

Hopefully EA get so much bad publicity from this that they have to pull their spyware - otherwise this sort of shit will become commonplace.
qazxsw said:
on Wednesday, 18 October 2006 at 01:01 am
Windows NT/2000/XP Pro c:winntsystem32driversetchosts

Windows XP Home c:windowssystem32driversetchosts
qazxsw said:
on Wednesday, 18 October 2006 at 01:02 am
Windows NT/2000/XP Pro c: SLASH winnt SLASH system32 SLASH drivers SLASH etc SLASH hosts

Windows XP Home c: SLASH windows SLASH system32 SLASH drivers SLASH etc SLASH hosts
Stephen Strowes said:
on Wednesday, 18 October 2006 at 02:06 am
As, um, "qazxsw" said, Windows does follow the rules outlined in the hosts file, and the format is the same as the Linux hosts file. Windows ought not to let most applications alter the hosts file, though you never know.

Whether the game stops working because you've blocked the spyware is a completely different matter, of course...
Alec said:
on Saturday, 21 October 2006 at 04:56 pm
Who cares, i've been playing bf2142 and it is a great game. Personally, I don't feel threatened by the gathering of this information. As long as it doesn't compramise my machine or collect any information other than what they state then i'm fine with it.

I realise you have to draw the line somewhere, I just don't think it's here!
Iain Simpson said:
on Monday, 23 October 2006 at 10:19 am
Aye, from what I'd read initially it looked worse than it actually seems to be.

Regional based ads are fair enough - although no ads would be better... :)
Jimbo said:
on Saturday, 2 December 2006 at 07:50 am
Hehe says the guy that works for an advertising/marketing/communications company.
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