[Malevolent]

So i logged in to POL to start downloading the update lastnite to only have my process guard and virus scanner pop up telling me a unidentified scanner was trying to scan my computer. After a lil digging i found out it was POL Trafic Data.

Now according to User Agreements and Policies section 3 part 2: Collection of Traffic Data

SEI may also collect certian anonymous usuage data, such as pages visited and services used WITHIN PLAYONLINE (collectively, "Traffic Data"). This information is not Personal Informationand generally is not aggregated with Personal Information. We generally use Traffic Data to improve our services to youand to custimize and enhance you Playonline experience.


ok so why are you scanning my computer...i see POL was trying to get my ffxionline username and password and also my totalffxi.net UN and PW. To me this is personal becasue in these forums I express my opinions and thoughts. Thats personal to me. Plus why were you scanning my internet history? Do you wanna know what porn sites i go to or what i like to watch?? These sites are in no way shape or form POL services. I will continue to pay my monthly fee and enjoy the game but you will not scan my computer for unrelated info to FFXI or POL. I will have my Process Guard report you my local authorities if you continue to scan my computer for unrelated information.

[hongman]

Suddenly Personal COmputers dont seem so "Personal"

[Murphie]

I don't really care. I suppose I should, but I don't.

[Hantz]

I'm on PS2. What are they going to do to me? Find my "I <3 Katamari" high scores? Maybe this is the one area where FFXI is better on PS2....

[Murphie]

My high score in "I <3 Katamari" could be higher.

I'm just saying.

[Hantz]

Originally Posted by Murphie

My high score in "I <3 Katamari" could be higher.

I'm just saying.

Not to derail or anything, but: In the level where you get to roll for 17 minutes or so, I damn near got big enough to roll up the King of the Cosmos. He got pissed and started puffing a rainbow scoop out of his mouth, bumping me around. So I'm sure my high scores could be higher as well, but not by much.

[Malevolent]

lol i like how it got on to the subject of Katamari high scores ^^

[Hantz]

Yeah, sorry to derail. I can see how you might be alarmed about the OT. As long as it isn't an endless chain of prawn pop-up adverts, I wouldn't give a hoot.

[IfritnoItazura]

To OP:

Not sure what you mean; your wording is a bit vague. However, this may be related: A report of where pol.exe (PlayOnline) is trying to read memory allocated to launcher.exe (FFXI Windower).

[Malevolent]

Yeah thats what its looking for but didn't find it. Like it says in the forums its reading everything from winamp-firefox-IE not just FFXI related stuff. i don't think SE should be doing this.

[Liquidedust]

Originally Posted by Malevolent

Yeah thats what its looking for but didn't find it. Like it says in the forums its reading everything from winamp-firefox-IE not just FFXI related stuff. i don't think SE should be doing this.

No you're correct, you need a disclosure agreement (which SEI has none except for actions performed within POL and FFXI itself e.g. their own service) to even initiate a scan on your computer.

And here is the thing that makes it even more fun, you have to agree to such disclosure agreement before the scan starts.

POL/SEI does neither take it as you wish, but we're a lot of people that are to say quite upset about this issue since you guessed it, it is illegal in US, Canada and EU.

(before anyone says something, it is the scan that is illegal doesn't matter what you do with the data you cannot even initiate the scan without breaking law unless you have a disclosure agreement)

[Telera]

Glad I'm on PS2 then.

That's seriously fucked up. No other term for it. They have no business trying to scan your browsers to snatch up codes. What in the hell could they possibly want with it? Meh... I think I've decided *not* to upgrade to PC version afterall.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Are you really sure this isn't just a trojan looking like its from POL? What would SE want with your FFXIOnline, Killing Ifrit or Allakazham information?

If it is from POL, it probably looking for third party tools and no matter how much of an invasion you think that is, FFXI is their property, POL is their property and they reserve the right to look for violators of EULA by any means. And before you argue that particular point, MS does that all the time on Xbox Live to lock out third-party mod users. Its their network and their right to do so.

If this is from POL, I think they're looking for windower.
If its not POL, you have something malicious and need to run some scans.

In any event you should be looking for the true source of this program before pointing fingers, it might not be FFXI. Spyware off other FFXI sites is not unheard of.

[Raydeus]

This is the first time I hear about such thing, is this happening to other players as well?

My security programs don't say anything about that, so if it's indeed happening then I think I'll have to switch to another provider that catches that sort of thing.

Also it would be really dumb from SE's part to start with such practices without the proper paperwork, so there's something fishy about all this.

[IfritnoItazura]

Originally Posted by Omgwtfbbqkitten

Are you really sure this isn't just a trojan looking like its from POL? What would SE want with your FFXIOnline, Killing Ifrit or Allakazham information?

Well, if what OP saw was the same as the link I pointed to, then it's an attempt to read memory of launcher.exe. In the screenshot I saw, at least, the pol.exe is from the location where it's usually installed.

At a different site (Blue Gartr), people reported that pol.exe attempted to access memory of other running processes as well. One person claimed pol.exe is taking a hash of program entry point of every process, though he gave no info on how he managed to figure that out.

There's no evidence this "scanning" is actually about figuring out what you see in your web browser. In fact, there's little evidence of what it's actually doing beside attempting to read memory not belonging to itself, at least from what I've read so far.

The question to S-E really should re-phrase as something like: "Why is pol.exe trying to access other running processes' memory, and what information does it send back to S-E from this scan?" A follow question should be "If security software intercepts pol.exe's process examination, would it cause any problem with using POL and playing FFXI?"

I see no cause for panic... Still, it's stupidity on S-E's part not to announce this change before giving us the update. No programmer would have thought this kind of behavior change would go unnoticed or arouse no suspicion.