Origin Scans Your PC To Auto-Add Steam Games To Library

All right, so by now we've established that Origin scans your PC, and if you didn't know that by now you know it now. And before talking about suing EA and all that jazz, you might want to thoroughly read over the EULA because EA makes it plain and clear what you're agreeing to in the terms and conditions (although that wasn't always the case).

Anyways, a new report has surfaced indicating that Origin's auto-scan of your PC and files isn't just for EA to be nosey, the scan enables Origin to find games that you may already have from Steam and auto-adds it to your Origin account library. As indicated in the link above, the scan can also check if you purchased those games legally or downloaded them illegally. How convenient, eh?

The report comes courtesy of Day One Patch, where they found out that Dead Space 2 -- purchased via Steam, of course -- was automatically added to the Origin user account library.

Before throwing up your arms and picking up your pitchforks, JoyStiq claims [via Blues] that it's all benign, it's all safe and it's all done in the interest of the consumer...

That's as good a PR response as ever. Free damage control for EA.

Also, it's not true that Origin doesn't transmit information back to EA, the link above in the first paragraph explains what kind of information is transmitted to EA and what they use the information for. As always, it's better to be informed before diving head-first in with a company like EA...there's a reason Origin is no longer called EA Link.

Now, for those of you still up in arms over Origin scanning your PC, the 24 month inactivity deletion clause or the forum bans resulting in account bans, you'll probably still want to steer clear. For those of you undecided, just take into account whether you're okay with a big company sifting through the files on your PC to provide you with better "service" and "convenience".