Some Origin users are reporting that their security settings have changed to allow their EA profiles – along with the name they have associated with it – to be seen by anyone. Players who have accounts dating back to 2011 and earlier are saying their privacy settings have changed to allow their accounts to be publicly visible along with their real name.

EA profiles have privacy settings that allow users to set options for discoverability and what other users are able to see. It seems that for some users, these have been changed without their knowledge. A drop-down box for ‘Who can see my profile’ now is set to ‘Everyone,’ while a tick box is checked for ‘Show my real name on my profile.’

OAPI founder Randi Lee Harper noticed the change Friday, and observed that these settings could make it possible for someone to determine your real name if they search using your Origin profile name. Your Origin profile also potentially contains sensitive information like date of birth, which can be used by hackers to access other accounts.

The privacy settings change hasn’t affected all users, although I checked mine this morning and found that it had indeed been set to public.I also noticed that my region had been changed to Afghanistan.