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Tuesday, October 17 2006

Battlefield 2142: Now With Spyware?  by James B at 11:22

PC
Whilst you were probably aware that upcoming EA shooter Battlefield 2142 contained dynamic in-game advertising, you may be shocked to discover just how dynamic it is. Posters on Shacknews are reporting that a boxed copy of BF2142 comes with a worrying disclaimer:

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.

Thoughts?
Related News
23-Nov-09 Battlefield 2142 1.51 Still Coming
04-Nov-09 New Battlefield 2142 Patch On way
31-May-08 Battlefield 2142 1.50 Released
08-May-08 Battlefield 2142 1.50 Beta Available
10-Apr-08 Battlefield 2142 1.50 Beta Soon
01-Feb-08 Battlefield 2142 Hacked Ranked Servers
08-Jan-08 Battlefield 2142 Stats Fixed
13-Nov-07 Battlefield 2142 1.40 Finally Released
04-Oct-07 Battlefield 2142 1.40 Beta 2
Comments
malis
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17 October 2006 11:26
Not impressed by this, sounds very shady - my computer habits are not for EA to trade to ad companies.
Mani
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17 October 2006 11:34
If that's 100% accurate, in-game advertising will finally kill off PC gaming. PC gamers are generally techies who HATE being spied on.
Spitfire
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17 October 2006 11:41
Indeed - this is an invasion of ones privacy. Well I can tell you now my wife will not be impressed by the in game advertising gleamed from my browsing habits <g> LOL
malis
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17 October 2006 11:42
Also mentioned in Gamespot review:

Still, there is a printed disclaimer that comes with the game telling you that Battlefield 2142 will analyze certain "advertising data" on your machine to determine what ads to display to you.
Jammin
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17 October 2006 14:03
i can't believe how low ea will stoop for a few dollars, although they will lose alot through lost sales.
bastafari101
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17 October 2006 14:18
One more reason to go for Quake Wars.
(not that I was going to buy 2142, after playing that demo...)
Stan
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17 October 2006 14:49
SMB EA you bs bastards, is the first thing that comes to mind.
Midnight
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17 October 2006 14:53
lol what a load of crap.
Abstract
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17 October 2006 14:59
Good thing i'm not bothering with 2142.
hobgoblin
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17 October 2006 17:32
ea are such bastards
Perplexer
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17 October 2006 17:53
If this is true then they can kiss my arse. Its not like they need the revenue and who will be looking at these ad's anyway? If I play a FPS then I shoot stuff, not go shopping. Jeez.
Perplexer
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17 October 2006 17:55
.....or it could be just a wind up
Gideon
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17 October 2006 17:58
rascals
limpz
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17 October 2006 18:19
et:qw ftw
Re0sLess
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17 October 2006 21:47
wonder if you can block it with defender?
ig88
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17 October 2006 22:20
Could be to get in info on hackers, I mean they could get in a lot of trouble(sells wise) if it actually was for standard spyware purposes, something else must be going on here
Stan
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17 October 2006 23:04
I wouldnt be too sure, lots and lots of programs are full of spyware and they get away with it. Most of the people who will play bf2142 wouldnt have a clue about it anyway, not like most people read those info screens when installing anyway.
KingKennedy
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18 October 2006 01:34
At least they warn you(not that its good in the first place(. But its hardly the first time something like this has happened, Starforce was around a few years ago.
sanity
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25 October 2006 10:15
It is an invasion of privacy for sure. I play the game from Melbourne Australia, but I just volunteered that information, however where you are playing from is not 'private' and you may not realize your IP address gives a fairly accurate location indexed for relevant ads. just like every second site you visit via www. EA do explain on their bf2142 site, they use your IP to determine which ads to show, and nothing else.


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