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Jakanden
RealPoor Master of Posts
Joined: 11 Nov 2003
Posts: 5334
Location: Fuck if I know - I am always lost
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 Posted: 11/01/05 - 23:04 Post subject: BBC Article on the WoW Spyware
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By now you have all heard about it though I still thought this article was pretty good: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4385050.stm
| Quote: | Warcraft game maker in spying row
By Mark Ward
Technology Correspondent, BBC News website
Game maker Blizzard has been accused of spying on the four million players of World of Warcraft.
Net activists branded software used to spot cheats "spyware" because it gathers information about the other programs running on players' PCs.
In its defence Blizzard said nothing was done with the information gathered by the anti-cheat software.
And many players seem happy to have the software running if it cuts the amount of cheating in the game world.
Home invasion
The watchdog program, called The Warden by Blizzard, has been known about among players for some time.
It makes sure that players are not using cheat software which can, for example, automatically play the game and build up a character's qualities.
However, knowledge of it crossed to the mainstream thanks to software engineer Greg Hoglund who disassembled the code of The Warden and watched it in action to get a better idea of what it did.
Screenshot of stone giant from World of Warcraft, Blizzard
Warcraft players back Blizzard's anti-cheat system
He found that it performed a quick analysis on other programs running on a PC to see if their characteristics match known cheating programs.
But Mr Hoglund found that The Warden also scans the text in the title bars of any Window for any other program.
Writing in his blog about what he found Mr Hoglund said: "I watched The Warden sniff down the e-mail addresses of people I was communicating with on MSN, the URL of several websites that I had open at the time, and the names of all my running programs."
Mr Hoglund noted that the text strings in title bars could easily contain credit card details or social security numbers.
Digital rights group The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) branded The Warden "spyware" and said its use constituted "a massive invasion of privacy".
The EFF said that it was not acceptable simply to take Blizzard's word that it did nothing with the information it gathered. It added that the Blizzard could get away with using The Warden because information about it was buried in licence agreements that few people read.
Fair play
Blizzard took to the forums on the central community site for World of Warcraft to defend itself and correct what it saw as "misinformation" about its actions.
It said that The Warden did not gather any personally identifiable information about players only data about the account being used. It also re-iterated that the only thing done with data gathered was to look for evidence of hack or cheat programs.
For their part many gamers seem happy to tolerate The Warden even though they acknowledged that it eroded their privacy to an extent.
Jason Justice, speaking on behalf of members of the Low Red Moon guild, said many in its ranks supported the programs used by Blizzard if it kept the cheats out of the game.
"The concern most have is that the program has the capability to read text from open programs, potentially compromising the privacy of some sensitive programs."
"If someone is afraid of the program reading sensitive information from their programs, one possible solution is simply to not run any additional programs while playing World of Warcraft," he said, "which is certainly advisable from a performance standpoint to begin with."
He told the BBC News website: "It is entirely Blizzard's responsibility to protect their intellectual property and the fairness of the game experience, and if they have code sophisticated enough to detect when a cheater is running illegal programs on their computer, they're doing a right good job of it."
Paul Younger, one of the administrators on WoW community site worldofwar.net, said: "With cheating being a real concern to Blizzard I feel they have few options other than to check what people are running on their machines."
"Blizzard have learnt since Diablo II that cheating can seriously hamper the enjoyment of a game," he said.
Warcraft players debating the issue on the worldofwar.net forums seemed happy to have The Warden keeping an eye on what they are doing. Many said they trusted Blizzard not to exploit the information being gathered.
Some pointed out that it would be hard for Blizzard to gather more useful information than they already have given that most use a credit card to pay the monthly fee to keep playing the game.
For those worried by what The Warden does, Mr Hoglund has produced a program called The Governor that reports on what it is watching. |
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Thenger
Can't Stop Posting
Joined: 17 Oct 2002
Posts: 715
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Posted: 11/02/05 - 10:10 Post subject:
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I can understand what they did, I just don't think it's cool. It's kind of dirty to be able to get all that information on someoen while playing a game, I normaly have at least two to three things running no matter what game I am playing, it's just what I do.
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Tura
RealPoor Guru
Joined: 29 Oct 2003
Posts: 4866
Location: Raleigh, NC
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Posted: 11/02/05 - 11:40 Post subject:
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I was questioning this software too when it first came out, but after you think about it, its not really a threat. I think I made a thread about this earlier, but what do you guys think?
Heres the bullet points from that article that I think justifies Blizzard:
| Quote: | | It added that the Blizzard could get away with using The Warden because information about it was buried in licence agreements that few people read. |
| Quote: | | And many players seem happy to have the software running if it cuts the amount of cheating in the game world. |
| Quote: | | "If someone is afraid of the program reading sensitive information from their programs, one possible solution is simply to not run any additional programs while playing World of Warcraft," he said, "which is certainly advisable from a performance standpoint to begin with." |
| Quote: | | "Blizzard have learnt since Diablo II that cheating can seriously hamper the enjoyment of a game," he said. |
| Quote: | | Some pointed out that it would be hard for Blizzard to gather more useful information than they already have given that most use a credit card to pay the monthly fee to keep playing the game. |
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halfbent
RealPoor Guru
Joined: 11 Oct 2002
Posts: 2944
Location: Kentwood, Mi
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Posted: 11/02/05 - 15:33 Post subject:
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I'm almost 100% sure it doesn't scan any content either, ONLY process names/titlebars of browser/applications.
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Nahualli
RealPoor Master of Posts
Joined: 11 Oct 2002
Posts: 8461
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Posted: 11/03/05 - 02:56 Post subject:
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Well, and isn't there some Sony program that f***s The Warden in the ass anyways?
-Nah-
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slack82
Luke Warm
Joined: 16 Oct 2004
Posts: 382
Location: St. Louis, Mo
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Posted: 11/03/05 - 03:01 Post subject:
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I don't understand all this b******t, every single f*****g FPS since the days of QuakeWorld has used a form of anticheat software that does the same exact thing the one blizzard is using does, and nobody has given a shit. Blizzard uses one and everybody freaks.
What the hell is the big deal?
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Xieroth
RealPoor Sensei
Joined: 17 Oct 2002
Posts: 1902
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Posted: 11/03/05 - 04:31 Post subject:
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| slack82 wrote: | I don't understand all this b******t, every single f*****g FPS since the days of QuakeWorld has used a form of anticheat software that does the same exact thing the one blizzard is using does, and nobody has given a shit. Blizzard uses one and everybody freaks.
What the hell is the big deal? |
The difference is that the FPS stuff doesn't check window titles, only looks at the program's memory and doesn't report home as to what it found. Furthermore the FPS stuff can be uninstalled, and isn't forced upon you.
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halfbent
RealPoor Guru
Joined: 11 Oct 2002
Posts: 2944
Location: Kentwood, Mi
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Posted: 11/03/05 - 10:44 Post subject:
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So basically you're worried that Warden is going to notice you browsing gay porn, and not report anything back because it's not flagged in the list.
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Aviger
RealPoor Sensei
Joined: 11 Oct 2002
Posts: 1509
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Posted: 11/03/05 - 11:43 Post subject:
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| Quote: | | Some pointed out that it would be hard for Blizzard to gather more useful information than they already have given that most use a credit card to pay the monthly fee to keep playing the game. |
this is one of the things the author of the article was mostly worried about,a nd it's true.
you give any company enough info to basically rob you blind when you become a member of their game anyhow 
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Jakanden
RealPoor Master of Posts
Joined: 11 Nov 2003
Posts: 5334
Location: Fuck if I know - I am always lost
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