http://gamepolitics.com/2011/11/01/ea-under-fire-germany-over-origin-battlefield-3

"Overclock.net has gathered an avalanche of stories related to how Battlefield 3 and Origin are being received in Germany (thanks to Solarian for tip). The short answer is that Germans seem to hate it because of the company's terms of service and what Origin is doing on people's PCs.

The first article in German gaming magazine GameStar features an analysis of the ToS by a German lawyer, who says that it enables EA to gather all kinds of information on the computer for some vague use. They call this a "massive privacy violation."

Another damning bit of information comes from the Amazon forums, where a user shows off a YouTube video of Origin accessing programs it shouldn't. The video maker claims that Origin accessed a tax management program and their cellphone management software. They found this by using a process monitor. That video can be found here. Naturally this is not helping the game's rating on Amazon's German site.

Another story linked by Overclock.net says that German retailer Media Markt/Saturn is accepting opened returns of the game at its retail outlets.

The print media is even getting on the bandwagon; Lübecker Zeitung ran a story recently with the headline, "Datatrap in new shootergame." "Games giant wants to spy on customers" is a recent headline of weekly newspaper Der Spiegel. Finally, if you understand German, this news report will be of interest. So far, EA has not publicly commented on this raft of stories about Origin.

We'll have more on this story as it develops. In the interim, check out Overclock.net's exhuastive list of news stories, forums posts, and online petitions for more details."

From what I've seen, there is outrage over the TOS of Origin and what it also access for 'marketing'. In a way, I'm kind of glad there is outrage about it because I'm still not comfortable using it so while I played on Origin for the Battlefield 3 beta, I was only logged into it when playing the game and installed it not long after the beta was finished.

It's kinda hard to believe that EA would make a program to access all that stuff.. you need skills and talent for that and we are talking about EA..... >_>

yes it's true i'm from germany. origin is like a spyware searching you pc for everything! it's a huge scandal here (it's against german law what they do) just look at amazon score:

http://www.amazon.de/product-reviews/B004M17DVM/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

in their eula they particulary point out that they get this right if you agree (if not you can't play) and this is, what i said, a huge crime and against german law.

Hey Sony was able to do it, why can't EA. Given I hope like Sony, EA gets shunned by the media/consumers. 

Zing!

I downloaded origin to play the beta, and uninstalled after the beta ended.  No thank you.

EA has responded

""We have updated the End User License Agreement of Origin, in the interests of our players to create more clarity," EA Germany announced in a statement yesterday. "Origin is not spyware. Neither do we use nor install spyware on the PCs of users.

"We do not have access to information such as pictures, documents or personal data, which have nothing to do with the execution of the Origin program on the system of the player, neither will they be collected by us.

"EA takes the privacy of its users very seriously. We have taken every precaution to protect the personal and anonymous user data collected."

Origin's license agreement matches "industry-standard privacy policies", EA stressed.

But "where necessary, we will of course work together with the relevant Government agencies to ensure that our policies are and remain legally compliant."

One of the comments said it best, "if it is standard industry policy, then the standard industry policy should be changed".

Damn right, and I wonder why only we Germans complain about Origin.

You essentially have to install a spyware just to play Battlefield 3.

aha ha

Well rootkit, did cause it to be shunned. Infact I think it encouraged individuals to rather pirate music. Given I know Rootkit can't easily be compared to this. 

that's a lie wow there are some guys who let a process monitor run together with origin and origin simply scanned files for example it scanned skype and a document about diabetes

btw it was in the television here in germany as well on really every channel (RTL,ARD,ZDF,PRO7...!)