EAxian Spyware And YOU!
J. M. Pescado:
As some of you may be aware, the latest Pudding contains an insidious SPYWARE that phones home to its EAxian Masters.
What nefarious things does it report? Well, for starters, the following things have found to be reported:
1. Your device stats. If you've ever read a crashlog, this means the game is reporting back the name of your computer, and your username. This quite possibly means *YOUR* name.
2. Every time you startup your game. Are you home? EAxis knows you are now.
3. The name of your saved games. Do you name your saved games after your fambly members, perhaps because its theirs? EAxis knows this now.
4. Every cheat code you type in. Do any of those things contain any names you wouldn't want someone to know about? EAxis knows this now.
5. Everything you buy from build/buy mode.
6. An enormous number of things your sims do: What jobs join or leave, what moodlets they get, potentially their NAMES...do you name your sims after people you know? EAxis knows this now.
7. Much more not yet uncovered.
Naturally, all internet communications reveal your IP address unless special measures are taken. In combination with some of the above, this information is now potentially life-threatening. A number of early modders were killed, disappearing under mysterious circumstances, when they came too close to the truth, so EAxis has been known to kill people.
How YOU can protect yourself:
1. Do not allow the game to communicate with the Internet.
2. Use AWESOMEMOD. AwesomeMod cripples many of these logging features by disabling their listeners, which will not only protect your privacy, but also improve game performance every so slightly.
Klinn:
Any evidence that the core or script mods you use are being reported? Since we get that nice friendly message on start up listing them, I assume it would be pretty easy for that info to make its way back to the mothership unless blocked.
How about the other mods you might be using. Now that there's an officially sanctioned location for them, are the file names being collected and reported?
YoungOldPrude:
I just want to check something…
If the game is not being played, but the firewall is off …it does not phone home, is that correct? Also, some time ago I switched most of the EAxis reports/web-page-creating-thingamajigs—to open with Notepad. Now, does that actually stop the reporting, or the webpage-creating process?
Note: I know that the reports still update, but I want to know if they still get shipped off somehow.
J. M. Pescado:
Quote from: Klinn on 2010 June 29, 16:18:07
Any evidence that the core or script mods you use are being reported? Since we get that nice friendly message on start up listing them, I assume it would be pretty easy for that info to make its way back to the mothership unless blocked.
Very likely: Anything you buy or interact with is logged, as are your cheat codes. Except if you're using AwesomeMod. AwesomeMod cripples these features so no reports are sent.
YoungOldPrude:
Quote from: J. M. Pescado on 2010 June 30, 03:43:00
AwesomeMod cripples these features so no reports are sent.
Let me make sure I have this straight…
So there is no EAxis-induced automatic sensing feature that pops on whenever you visit the internet? When the game is off the reporting is also off? Completely?
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