Even Balance, Inc. the developer of Punkbuster software has gone way too far this time. Besides as usually causing myriad of technical problems and lag this time their software is also invades your privacy and makes your PC an easy target for hackers and identity thieves available anytime your computer is on and connected to the internet.
Read their new PBEULA.txt. They reserve rights to look anywhere they want on your PC at anytime. Your address book, your bank and credit card information, anything private you have on your PC they can look at, examine and transfer to their servers.
Their software is filled with bugs and flaws. Any hacker who hacks into PC of one of the gamers by means of flawed Punkbuster software will have access to all computers that have Punkbuster installed.
The Punkbuster services run automatically every time PC starts. These services stay and run even if you uninstall all games that use it.
If any of the installed Punkbuster files get corrupted then you can get banned by the hardware unique IDs from all the games that utilizes it and there is nothing you can do about it but complain which often simply goes unheard.
Even Balance, Inc. does not provide any guarantees. Any problems that their software may create is basically a gamer’s own problem and responsibility.
This is the worst case of invasion of privacy and abuse of power I have ever seen or heard of as a gamer.
Do gamers have any rights? Gamers spent thousands of dollars for new PCs that can run current games, pay money for games and in some cases monthly fees, work as beta testers for free and give up their privacy and security. Is that the price that PC gamers have to pay nowadays in order to enjoy their gaming hobby?
- Uncle Tera