Block Origin from stealing your info with Sandboxie

[SighKoPath]

I'm happy to announce that with this bit of info, I can go ahead and install Origin/play BF3! I found a way to keep Origin from uploading the data it gathers from your PC to EA. But, it requires installing Sandboxie, a program that runs other programs in a sandbox and can restrict their access. Here's a quick guide:

Note that this entire guide assumes you're running Windows 7 64-bit, and installed Origin to the default location. If this is not the case, you'll need to update all file paths to your own values.

1. Download and install Origin, make sure it DOES NOT start with Windows (if you already have Origin installed, you can skip this step)
2. Download and install Sandboxie
3. In Sandboxie, click the Sandbox menu, and then click Set Container Folder. Put this on some hard drive that has enough free space to contain all games you plan to download through Origin.
4. Create a new sandbox for Origin.
5. Right-click the sandbox, and hit Sandbox Settings. Uncheck the box that says "Display a border around the window" then hit Apply. Go to Restrictions > Drop Rights, and uncheck the box on that page, then hit Apply.
6. Go to Resource Access > File Access > Blocked Access
7. Click Edit/Add, and put this in the box, and hit OK:

C:\ProgramData\Origin\Telemetry*

8. In Windows, edit whatever shortcut you use to start Origin (right-click the shortcut and hit Properties). Go to the Shortcut tab and put this text in the Target box:

"C:\Program Files\Sandboxie\Start.exe" /box:Origin "C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin\Origin.exe"

9. Always use that shortcut when launching origin, so that it runs in the sandbox
10. Done!

This might create some issues with installing/updating games when running Origin in the sandbox, though. I haven't tested this bit out yet, since I don't have any games on Origin. But in theory, it should all just work, as long as you never delete the contents of your sandbox. Any games you install through sandboxed Origin will have the files and registry keys stored in the sandbox's Container Folder location.

[Duke{CLR}]

I wonder if this will cause problems with anti cheat applications?

[SighKoPath]

Turns out, I'm able to add Bad Company 2 to my Origin account, so I'm downloading that into my sandbox now. It appears to be downloading just fine, and is showing up in the sandbox's program files folder, not in my regular program files folder.

Once it's done, I'll try playing and will see what happens with the anti-cheat stuff.

[goldenfooler]

I don't have much of a problem with taking info on the specs of my computer. To me thats not important.
The amount of data that can be used against a person is HUGE. This part doesn't worry me.

What worries me is the no class action lawsuits or anything to that effect. I never did anything,but don't agree with that line. Especially when it can't be run in all countries or provinces means that someone is being taken advantage of.

[{CLR} Cobalt]

How did you get BC2 into Origin?

[K PhaNTOM]

What kind of illegal activities are you doing that you don't want EA to know about? I'm not the most legit person out there and even I don't care. You are doing way too much for something so pointless.

[Smoking]

How did you get BC2 into Origin?

You might be able to take your retail or Steam CD key and input it into Origin.

i have the steam version and don't wanna loose my copy so not even gonna try to attempt it.

[K PhaNTOM]

You might be able to take your retail or Steam CD key and input it into Origin.

i have the steam version and don't wanna loose my copy so not even gonna try to attempt it.

You can put your game on Origin unless you buy it through origin. I tried and failed.

[SighKoPath]

I just took my Steam BC2 key and put it into origin... it didn't activate through origin itself, but said "go to this website" and it gave me the choice of activating standard or digital deluxe. The game works on both Steam and Origin now.

What kind of illegal activities are you doing that you don't want EA to know about? I'm not the most legit person out there and even I don't care. You are doing way too much for something so pointless.

It's not that I'm doing anything illegal on my PC - I've got nothing to hide. But that's still no reason to give them free reign of my info. I don't like the idea of EA snooping through my data in order to sell my info to their advertising partners or track my behavior in any way. I feel like it's a major invasion of my privacy, and unacceptable.

[FrOgM]

I just took my Steam BC2 key and put it into origin... it didn't activate through origin itself, but said "go to this website" and it gave me the choice of activating standard or digital deluxe. The game works on both Steam and Origin now.
It's not that I'm doing anything illegal on my PC - I've got nothing to hide. But that's still no reason to give them free reign of my info. I don't like the idea of EA snooping through my data in order to sell my info to their advertising partners or track my behavior in any way. I feel like it's a major invasion of my privacy, and unacceptable.

AGREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[{CLR} Cobalt]

So what if you didnt get BC2 through STEAM. I have a hard copy, thats it. I dont play BC2 through STEAM.

Can you still put there some way.

[{CLR} Cobalt]

Did a little research and they can add your old games like BF2 and 2142. BC2 also if you have your old codes and email, seems they can do it if you get the right chat person. Some wont do it but others will.

I wont even try this until I can go dig up my games. They are all in storage at the moment.

[majinsnake]

I am sure their is a catch once Origin is updated in the future.


I'd be willing to see if what sighkopath had done doesn't matter and is still effective.

[harpy]

Does this configuration block origin from reading system files? This was the biggest concern I had.

According to the a sandboxie faq :

It should be noted, however, that Sandboxie does not typically stop sandboxed programs from reading your sensitive data. However, by careful configuration of the ClosedFilePath and ClosedKeyPath settings, you can achieve this goal as well.

I'm thinking of simply creating another account to play games with.

[SighKoPath]

As far as I can tell, what Origin does when it reads your data is stores it all in the Telemetry folder, and later uploads it to the servers. By blocking reading/writing to that Telemetry folder, you prevent them from saving your data there and uploading it later. So while Origin is still able to read all your data, the program isn't able to do anything with it or send it to EA.

Granted, they could get around that by saving the scan data in RAM or any other location and uploading it that way. If that happens, then yeah... you'd need to set up blocked paths in Sandboxie, which is a lot more work but still effective. It can block both HDD access and access to selected registry keys.

The big problem with Sandboxie, however, is that the block list takes precedence over the allow list, and there's no way to change that. It would be *so* much easier if you could just tell it to block everything except for certain folders/registry keys, but currently that isn't possible.