PunkBuster

[Tumor]

Originally posted by quig
Look man, already said I have nothing to hide. I use this computer for the games. The other one for the porn.

 

.....and I have issues   Wazzamatta quiq?  Fraid the computer monitor can SEE YOU TOO? lol  

[capt. apathy]

Originally posted by Fishu
Truthfully speaking.. if AA would be spying etc. etc., I'm sure there would been already a media coverage over it.
Do not understimate the conspiracy theorists - they surely would do everything possible to find out everything about AA.

...but so far I haven't heard the whine.

me either.

  but why do they need a user-agreement that gives them free access to anything on your hard-drive?  

if they have no interest in snooping around (or reserving the option to do it in the future) and are only interested in protecting game play,  they could simply change this-

Licensee understands and agrees that the information that may be inspected and reported by PunkBuster software includes, but is not limited to, devices and any files residing on the hard-drive and in the memory of the computer on which PunkBuster software is installed.

to this-

Licensee understands and agrees that the information that may be
inspected and reported by PunkBuster software includes, devices and any files residing on the hard-drive and in the memory of the computer that are in use while a PunkBuster protected game is in play.

they may not be overstepping reasonable privacy boundaries at this time.  but you have already given your OK to it if they ever decide they want to.

it seems to me if I were looking to use a program like that for spy-ware purposes, I'd start out not over-stepping my bounds but getting people to sign off on permission.  then after my program was required for a significant % of on-line gaming I'd start mining the info from peoples computers.  the life of your company would be fairly short lived if you had people reporting abuses while you were only used on one or 2 games.  

once your product is required for a significant share of the gaming market you could go ahead and exercise your full rights in the user agreement.  people had agreed to the invasions so there is nothing they could do legally to retaliate and they could only choose to allow your invasions to continue or not play on-line.

the only way to stop something like this is to catch it before the software is wide spread, and refuse to use it until they agree to a more restrictive user agreement.

I missed that line in the user agreement when I installed the game, and didn't see it until it was posted here.  at that point I un installed the game and won't be playing it again until PB changes the wording of their agreement.  I as a good game but not worth trading your privacy for.

anything you allow to go wrong will go wrong.

[Chairboy]

You should probably get rid of your web browser, then, because there's nothing to stop Microsoft or Netscape or Opera from changing their browser to do the same stuff, their legal agreements have equally overreaching texts.

If you decide not to play a game because it has an anti-cheating program, that's your own decision.  Rationalizing that it's because you're afraid they'll turn into a harvester is inconsistent unless you apply the same criteria to every other program on your system (which all have gotchas like that or of equivalent concern) otherwise your motivations become suspect.

[Tumor]

Originally posted by capt. apathy
me either.

  but why do they need a user-agreement that gives them free access to anything on your hard-drive?  

Pongo, seriously... I see and understand your point.  But... your making a big deal about a company that is telling you up front that you will have to agree to ~their~ terms in order to play the game, and included in ~their~ terms, you give them access to your drive/memory/files etc.  The point is, they aren't hiding anything, and they are telling you the specific purpose of the program.  What's the big deal?  I'm not making any accusatory statements by saying that if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.  Not to mention, the wording makes it at least fairly clear of what the program is looking for.  I have no doubt you could save word doc's entirely based on anti-govt, terrorist supporting, desention, revolutionary wording and NOBODY would be any wiser for it with PB running full tilt in the background (err, nobody would know because of PB that is).