As per my news post the other day here I reported from a couple sources that people were now going insane over the in-game advertising system that EA had put in Battlefield 2142. Some of the responses from Neowin members, well, weren"t pretty let"s just say that. Regardless, EA has kinda clarified the matter, pretty much saying exactly what I said in a comment I made in that same news post the other day. But it doesn"t matter, because the damage is done in the eyes of alot of people, Neowin members included. Here is what EA said to Joystiq about the situation:
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.
So there you have it, there is no huge ad or spyware conspiracy by EA to track the porn sites you visit, or infest your PC with horrible crapware. It is just region specific ad serving tracked by IP, and tracking of how long you actually look at an ad, or if you look at an ad (I assume) at all. Still not going to buy the game?