Warcraft Game Maker in Spying Row

[Spacetech]

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.

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[stscac]

I wouldn't consider it spyware if its only purpose is to keep players from cheating. As stated, the information is only being used for that purpose, so I don't think that fits under the logical definition for "spyware"

-Steve

 

[armstrong]

Its spyware if players are unaware of what the program does, or that it exists at all. However, it appears that "The Warden" is common knowledge among players. And as someone pointed out, one shouldn't be running other programs anyway while playing WoW - which is what most people do - as it could hamper the game experience.

 

[Dave_Z]

Hopefully Blizzard did explain what The Warden does, why it's there, etc. on
WOW's fine prints or something. Otherwise, users shouldn't play if they don't
like it at all.

I'd play it if I can only find time. :D

 

[Darkfire001]

It's not spyware, it's common knowledge that almost all Games Employ different sorts of anti-cheating software nowadays. With a program like WoW, you can't really multitask anyway because of performance issues so you really shouldnt have any other open programs open.

Furthermore, if your worried about secure information such as Credit Card info being passed along why the heck are you doing financial transactions while playing a game lol. And if your worried about it just close that programs, and wala no problems.

 

[Troubled1]

I'm sure they have it in Starcraft also and I see no problem with it. I'm sure that somewhere in their fine print they tell you that it's there.

 

[Lyte]

I'm sure an advisory is somewhere in all that fine print right above the "I accept." Who really reads all that stuff???

 

[faisj]

Digital rights group The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) branded The Warden "spyware" and said its use constituted "a massive invasion of privacy".