Vanguard, the controversial anti-cheat software initially attached to Valorant, is now also coming to League of Legends.

Summary:

The article discusses Riot Games’ requirement for players to install their Vanguard anti-cheat software, which runs at the kernel level, in order to play their games such as League of Legends and Valorant. The software aims to combat cheating by scanning for known vulnerabilities and blocking them, as well as monitoring for suspicious activity while the game is being played. However, the use of kernel-level software raises concerns about privacy and security, as it grants the company complete access to users’ devices.

The article highlights that Riot Games is owned by Tencent, a Chinese tech giant that has been involved in censorship and surveillance activities in China. This raises concerns that Vanguard could potentially be used for similar purposes, such as monitoring players’ activity and restricting free speech in-game.

Ultimately, the decision to install Vanguard rests with players, but the article urges caution and encourages players to consider the potential risks and implications before doing so.

  • @shadow
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    345 months ago

    If you uninstall is there any guarantee that the kernel level anticheat gets removed, too, or are they in there forever?

    • @chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world
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      305 months ago

      And today we read from the Book of Sony, Chapter 2005, verses 10-11: Sony BMG quickly released software to remove the rootkit component of XCP from affected Microsoft Windows computers, but after Russinovich analyzed the utility, he reported in his blog that it only exacerbated the security problems and raised further concerns about privacy. Russinovich noted that the removal program merely unmasked the hidden files installed by the rootkit but did not actually remove the rootkit. He also reported that it installed additional software that could not be uninstalled. In order to download the uninstaller, he found that it was necessary to provide an e-mail address (which the Sony BMG Privacy Policy implied was added to various bulk e-mail lists) and to install an ActiveX control containing backdoor methods (marked as “safe for scripting” and thus prone to exploits). Microsoft later issued a killbit for the ActiveX control.

      On November 18, 2005, Sony BMG provided a “new and improved” removal tool to remove the rootkit component of XCP from affected Microsoft Windows computers.

      courtesy wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal#XCP_rootkit

    • @nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca
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      5 months ago

      I don’t know but if you get a law degree then spend 3 months reading their extremely long and intentionally complicated user agreement I’m sure you’ll find out that they have the right to keep it installed whether they currently choose to or not.