Serious Discussion Vanguard: a privacy concern for gamers

[RoboMan]

Riot Games, developer of several games such as Valorant and League of Legends, says:

Riot Vanguard is Riot Games’ custom game security software, designed to uphold the highest levels of competitive integrity for our offerings. Riot Vanguard consists of a client that runs while VALORANT is active, as well as the usage of a kernel mode driver.

Both the client and the driver of Riot Vanguard have been developed in-house, with both game safety and personal computer safety being a priority. We’ve made this commitment through extensive testing and by reviewing the product both internally and with external security reviews by industry experts.

Our commitment to safety includes our commitment to your privacy. Riot Vanguard was made with Riot Games' dedication to data privacy specifically in mind, and we worked with our legal and compliance teams to ensure it adheres to regional data privacy laws. Specifics on what data we use and collect are available here.

All in all, Vanguard is Riot Games' anti cheat software, which is necessary and mandatory to let be in your computer, as long as you want to play League of Legends or Valorant.

Security & privacy concerns:

• Vanguard has kernel-level access to your PC
• It must be running at all times, and if you close it, you must restart your PC before trying to play one of the company's games
• Data collection is huge, including key binds, key strokes, information about times you play, geolocation, ISP details
• Software can SCREENSHOT your entire PC if they think you're up to something
• Voice can be recorded and updated to their servers if needed
• The parent company of Riot Games is a chinese company, Tencent, and we know about chinese and personal information
• According to Riot Games' terms and conditions, this information can be sold to third parties.

What do you think about this software that is imposed to gamers? Would you play these games anyways? Would you uninstall?

More important: do you think that this software operating at kernel level could be a potential risk if a vulnerability were to be found and exploited?

Nice reads:

Riot Requires Kernel Level Anti-Cheat Software

League of Legends and Valorant Players Being Forced to Run Closed Source Low-Level Software.

tuta.com

League of Legends Responds to Claims of Vanguard Bricking PCs

Riot Games addresses rumors claiming League of Legends' implementation of its custom anti-cheat software, Vanguard, is bricking players' PCs.

gamerant.com

 

[Bot]

While Riot Games assures that Vanguard is developed with both game safety and personal computer safety in mind, it's understandable that users may have privacy concerns due to its kernel-level access and data collection. It's crucial to always stay informed about what data is being collected and how it's used. Whether to continue playing Riot Games' titles or not is a personal decision based on individual comfort levels with the stated privacy policies.

 

[RoboMan]

While Riot Games assures that Vanguard is developed with both game safety and personal computer safety in mind, it's understandable that users may have privacy concerns due to its kernel-level access and data collection. It's crucial to always stay informed about what data is being collected and how it's used. Whether to continue playing Riot Games' titles or not is a personal decision based on individual comfort levels with the stated privacy policies.

Hey Bot, can you check the web for me and see if Vanguard can really screenshot your entire PC if they find it necessary?

 

[Bot]

Hey Bot, can you check the web for me and see if Vanguard can really screenshot your entire PC if they find it necessary?

As an AI, I'm unable to perform real-time web searches. However, I recommend checking Riot Games' official statements and privacy policies for the most accurate information about Vanguard's capabilities and the conditions under which they might be used.

 

[CyberDevil]

Unfortunately, I've been playing League of Legends for 10 years and I don't have the option to quit it. It's like a home for me, where I can always come back to during hard times in my life. In general, since this is a cyber sport game, it's clear that anti-cheat is needed and without kernel level protection it's very hard to defend against the whole zoo of cheats, but the ability to screen capture and record voice scares me if it's true.

 

[Kongo]

 

[Kongo]

The main reason why Vanguard is considered as spyware is because it always runs after pc startup while other popular anti-cheat software only runs while actually playing the game.

 

[CyberDevil]

The main reason why Vanguard is considered as spyware is because it always runs after pc startup while other popular anti-cheat software only runs while actually playing the game.

Is it possible to load an application into the kernel if the application will not be in the autostart? I think that's the problem.

 

[blackice]

Almost every multiplayer PC game has something like this. It’s a trade off. I honest just don’t worry too much about it. Except Easy Anti Cheat leaves remnants even when you uninstall Fortnite. And Fortnite’s implementation is incomparable with the Kernel protections in Core Isolation. You get a driver warning. It’s pretty annoying.