Though it was announced in August that Battlefield 2142 would feature in-game advertising (story), when the game appeared on shelves yesterday there were reactions to the references to this in the EULA, some calling the included technology "spyware." This was seemingly first stirred up by a Shacknews comment, with a subsequent comment succeeding somewhat (typos from re-typing it are corrected here) in reproducing the troubling aspects of the agreement, which advises against installing the game onto any computer attaching to the internet if you find the following problematic: When you use the Software while connected to the Internet, the Advertising Technology may record your IP address and other anonymous information ("Advertising Data"). The Advertising Data is temporarily used by IGA to enable the presentation and measurement of in-game advertisements and other in-game objects which are uploaded temporarily to your personal computer or game console and changed during online game play. The Advertising Technology does not collect any personally identifiable information about you, and EA will not provide IGA with any of your personally identifiable information. The servers used by the Advertising Technology may, from time to time, be located outside your country of residence.
There was speculation that this would result in ads being served based on user's cookies, and other sneaky stuff, but EA's response to Joystiq clarifies what sort of information is being collected:
The advertising program in Battlefield 2142 does not access any files which are not directly related to the game. It does not capture personal data such as cookies, account login detail, or surfing history.
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.
Battlefield 2142 also tracks "impression data" related to in-game advertisements: location of a billboard in the game, brand advertised, duration of advertisement impression, etc. This information is used to help advertisers qualify the reach of a given advertisement.
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