Why not remove the spyware installer from the executable?
Assuming you know your way around a disassembler
Why not remove the spyware installer from the executable?
Assuming you know your way around a disassembler
That would work...but unfortunately, not every coder is a hacker.
The main issue here is not with store bought games. The problem is with downloaded games and/or downloaded add-ons that are not released in a box such as add-ons to Pacific Fighters by Maddox Games...distributed by UbiSoft.
What I foresee is a major shift to attempt to force us to download add-ons rather than release a DVD or CD with the add-on. This is not a problem until they add in their nifty spyware. If you run the PE-2 addon for Pacific Fighters it will spawn a Boonty Box process in your process list. This is 100% unacceptable. If you remove Boonty Box from your registry and re-run the PE-2 version exe (il2fb.exe) it will add all the keys to the registry you just deleted.
So what they are doing is selling software as an add-on, complete game, etc,...but they are adding their own spyware to the exes of the games in order to better track your game habits so I suspect they can then bombard your email with offers from their site for more games in the genres you play.
The current Boonty Box sends back information about which games are installed on your system, your system specs, and several other pieces of information during installation of the add-on. To my knowledge the boonty box process that runs along with the game does not attempt to access the internet...but again it may be able to mask itself behind the actual parent process and thus a firewall would not detect it. The firewall would see that your game is trying to access the net and would let it through. The only way to block it would be to block the game....but thus no multiplayer in your game. It defies logic as to why the boonty box process would run along with the game...if it does not need to access the internet. There have also been reports of memory issues in the game caused by the boonty box process which means this process is masking itself behind the parent process and actually using the same memory pool as the parent process.
It is a deceptive practice that should be illegal. Spawning processes just to track my habits and sys specs is a clear violation of my privacy and is not what I paid for. I paid for a game or an add-on...not a spyware filled piece 'o trash.
Steer clear of boonty box or wild tangent. Google it and you will see the mess.
Last edited by VirtualAce; 12-06-2006 at 12:08 AM.
