this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2024
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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.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

and what is their endgame? “Developers are releasing cheats that emualate a mouse. Therefore Riot needs to use a camera to record your hand”?

You mean a device that physically operates the mouse? I don't know, I don't work for riot, but this is done in online chess - to participate in some tournaments with money prizes you need 2 webcams.

If everybody is jumping off a roof, so should Riot?

No, the question is if this discussion also cover all other anticheats that use kernel mode, or is here anything that is League-specific?

Isn’t the whole point of anti-cheat to survey the computer? If you aren’t getting anything new, then why even use a kernel-level anticheat?

This is just splitting hairs on semantics, isn't it? From the moment the app is running in user space, it could collect a huge amount of user info, but it can't look for kernel-level cheat software.

Note that I don't play league, I could care less about the game or the developer, I'm just interested in the privacy vs cheating aspect of the conversation.