The Wii, Nintendo’s evil little spy.
Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 4:30am by Will
Nintendo is hiding a little spy in the “Nintendo Channel”. That spy will share all your dirty little secrets to Nintendo. To find out how the channel is doing it, hit the jump.
If you downloaded the Nintendo Channel earlier today, and started it up as soon as it finished. You might vaguely remember a little screen asking if you would like to participate in some type of “mailing” program. Most of you probably just clicked to participate, not realizing that by clicking the approval, you accepted “the spy” into your system.
Now each time you sign into your Wii to access the channel, the channel will take the time to record all your information, and various settings and send it back to Nintendo HQ. There is a list of certain things that the channel will check for, and that list is as follows…
- A Summary of your play history
- All your Wii console settings
- All your Wii remote settings
- How many Mii’s you have.
- What type of TV you have.
- Internet Connection type.
- Your WiiConnect24 Settings.
Your play history is that “list” which has records of what you are playing and how long you were playing. The channel sends that information to Nintendo to find out what games you are currently playing, and what the consumer is interested in. Although, you should know that all of the information that is submitted through that channel is supposedly non-identifiable and anonymous, unless you have your Wii account linked to your My Nintendo account. In which Nintendo knows where exactly that information came from, and who is using that console.
Now, if that freaks you out and you decide to turn on your console and change your settings to opt out of this information sending. You will lose your access to any of the DS Demo Downloads, which is a real bummer in itself.
However, there is really nothing to worry about. If you don’t care about Nintendo knowing what you’re playing, then it really doesn’t matter. The only people who should really be concerned is those people with “Homebrew” on their consoles. A small invasion of privacy really never hurt anyone, right?
[Via Nintendo Support]
May 8th, 2008 at 4:35 am
Geez, the way that was written really creeped me out until the last paragraph, in which case, my Wii is pretty legit, even with the My Nintendo account linked. No homebrew here… I think.
And that picture didn’t help ease the mood in the beginning. Gooood stuff, I was wondering what was really up with that “mailing program.”
May 8th, 2008 at 7:08 am
This doesn’t overly bother me. It is kind of annoyin that you can’t download DS demos if you choose not to opt in for this. It’d be like Microsoft deciding you can’t use MSN if you don’t accept the option that sends out anonymous usage information. That’s kinda sucky.
Like Guch said though - creepy article…
May 8th, 2008 at 7:15 am
Hi Infendo!
Maquis here, long-time reader, but first-time post:
Gaygamer.net has posted the full Nintendo-released list of what they’re snooping on… and more importantly, the things they aren’t.
May 8th, 2008 at 7:18 am
Nice headline, you guys a foxnews subsidiary or something.
May 8th, 2008 at 7:34 am
@ Joe, I try my best. I grew up on Fox News. lol.
May 8th, 2008 at 8:32 am
“Invasion of Privacy”? How is it invasion of privacy if I’m allowing the information to be sent? Americans are so weird about this kind of thing…
May 8th, 2008 at 9:43 am
Doesn’t Microsoft do the same once you sign into LIVE to play a game? What game are you playing and how long have you played.
Microsoft does so that knows when you apply cheat codes on a game to speed up the pace.
Micro knows when the power button on the console is being pushed to on and the Xbox LOGO shows up on the screen..
So I dont know whats the big deal if Nintendo does this to a less extended way .
All Nintendo is doing is a Survey of what kind of activitys the Wii users do .. That way Nintendo knows what kinda of games we like to play, what kinda of gamers we are, how old is the average gamer and let the gamers review thier games, that way if there is any big changes to be made would be made according to the survey or on gamers request.
Thats why Microsoft is ahead in a way because it keeps track of its users and make changes according to it (live etc.)
Now Nintendo will see me and ask them self why I play SSBB and dont play it online .. I let them figure that out …
May 8th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Change the Title. Nintendo is not “hiding” anything. You read exactly what they are doing before you click on “I Agree”. If you click on “I Agree” without reading it and knowing what you are agreeing too, you deserve what you get.
Title should read “People who Click Through EULAs without reading them are Ignorant of their agreement to send innocuous data to Nintendo.”
May 8th, 2008 at 9:56 am
OMFG SPYWARE!!!!
May 8th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Yeah, I was going to say exactly what cdondanville said. They are not hiding anything. Anyway, I have no problem with this, either.
May 8th, 2008 at 10:47 am
I’m all for it - there’s a reason why Nintendo wants to know what we do with their console, and I doubt it’s to verify if what we have is legit or now (though it could be a side effect).
They mostly want to know what people like and what they don’t, so they know what to focus on in the future. It’s like a survey, but you don’t have to actively answer the questions!
May 8th, 2008 at 11:15 am
yeah, I also agree with Cdondanville, I think the title should read:
“Help Nintendo make better games”, or “Let your Wii speak for you”.
All these things you mention seem like a good way for the Big N to find out what games are being played, what kind of systems they are being played on, On-line usage, etc… So they can adjust their strategies. Perhaps if they see that not as many people are using Brawl on-line, they will make an adjustment. Maybe they will use the info for deciding how much importance should be given to the Wii remote’s special abilities, or if more games should have standard remote features, and other things like that.
Probably the only ones who would need to worry about any of these things are those who are trying to use illegal features on their Wiis (homebrew as you call it), and those are usually the people who normally know enough about this stuff to avoid it anyway.
May 8th, 2008 at 11:15 am
nothing to hide i guess. unless you’re surfing porn on the internet channel. but even then does the nintendo channel send those details? no homebrew here, nothing to hide. and i am linked to mynintendo acct, so……
May 8th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
“anonymous, unless you have your Wii account linked to your My Nintendo account. In which Nintendo knows where exactly that information came from, and who is using that console.”
Do you have a source to back this statement up? The user agreement that I accepted said nothing about this. In fact, it said the complete opposite - that there is nothing sent that could be used to identify the user OR the console. I’m guessing Nintendo would be in some legal trouble if they blatantly lied in a user agreement. I find it more likely that you’re pulling this out of thin air.
It’s a user agreement that we can opt out of. There’s nothing “evil” going on. Get over it.
I’m used to much better reporting on Infendo.
May 8th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
@ Argus
Nintendo Channel - Details of Information Sent to Nintendo
In order to provide our customers with game recommendations and improved future services, we are asking our customers to share certain non-personal information with us about their game play and Wii console use. Please note that if you choose to share your non-personal information with Nintendo, all of the information you submit through the Nintendo Channel will be non-identifiable and anonymous unless you have linked your Wii account to your My Nintendo account.
http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/wii/en_na/channelsNintendoInfo.jsp
You win a prize for not checking my source.
May 8th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Hey, I WANT Nintendo to know what I’m up to. Hell, I hope it shows them how LITTLE I’m using any of their so-called “online” features.
May 8th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Sounds pretty damn smart to me. That’s the best sort of market research you can get.
May 8th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
This makes it sound like people have reason to worry!
Honestly, this is fine by me and it’s smart to see Nintendo leverage WiiConnect24 to do this. At least they openly let you opt out as they could just as easily spy on all sorts of data without you knowing or asking. I’m sure Live and PSN do this to some extent already.
I’m certainly curious to see how homebrew will be affected if at all.
May 8th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
I opted to let them use my data, I don’t care if they know what games I play or what my settings are. Research data like this is important and there’s no better way to collect it then to have it sent automatically. I wouldn’t call this an “evil little spy”… I wasn’t tricked into agreeing, I read and understood the policy fully before deciding. It’s an optional thing so it’s not a big deal to me… I can always opt out if I want. I think it’s very reasonable and far from any kind of spyware.
May 8th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
I, for one, am also GLAD Nintendo is checking on my gaming habits! I want them to finally find out what games and settings the majority of their users actually have…
May 8th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
creepy- big bro is watching…. I really dislike this type of stuff. It’s everyewhere, but it’s a suboptimal situation.
I hate that there are databases with all my information. And yet, I still use my safeway card… course the information it’s linked to is no longer relevant though… bwahahaha! a minor victory for me!
May 8th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
@ Will:
Yeah, it looks like it was my bad. Sorry about that. (not being sarcastic here)
Let me explain - I wrote my response to you based on the actual user agreement that I accepted on my Wii. Now, looking at your source, I find out that the Nintendo website contradicts what I agreed to on my Wii!
From the user agreement on my TV screen:
“No information that personally identifies you or your console will be shared with Nintendo”
From the Nintendo website:
“all of the information you submit through the Nintendo Channel will be non-identifiable and anonymous unless you have linked your Wii account to your My Nintendo account.”
These are two very different statements! So you see why I was confused? The user agreement that I accepted does not have the “unless…” clause. So it appears we are unknowingly agreeing to more than we are aware of after all.
May 8th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
i selected no and still can do the ds downloads
if when changing the settings you can no longer do the ds downloads than has anyone tried erasing the channel and redownloading it
May 8th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
O M G !
Big Mario BROTHER is watching you !
LOL!
Who cares, its a fun little channel, and if you don’t like it, don’t use it
May 8th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
@Roddy
+1…but please! only the people that live in USA, because I live in Mexico AND, therefore, I also live in America…
May 8th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
1) it’ll be good that nintendo will get a clear idea of how many wii gamers have HD TV’s so they know whether its worth wii 2 being HD
2) @ BlockSS : if they see you arent playing brawl online they might just assume its because gamers dont care about online instead of because smash sucks online
May 9th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Wonder If they are using the sensor bar as a web cam to spy on you.