this post was submitted on 01 May 2024
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Vanguard takes screenshots of your PC every time you play a game. Every time you play a game a function is called to screenshot your PC's screen, in case Vanguard thinks you might have something suspicious, it screenshots your ENTIRE PC screen (all monitors).

Edit: Not trying to spread false info this was shared to me via a friend and there is other data to back up that this is real https://www.unknowncheats.me/forum/anti-cheat-bypass/634974-vanguard-taking-screenshot-pc.html

https://www.unknowncheats.me/forum/valorant/484475-vanguard-screenshots.html

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

It depends. There's 2 different methods that I don't think they're doing that would make it legal:

  1. Explicitly tell the user what data the anti-cheat collects when you install it, and what other companies have access to it.

  2. Anonymize the data. Crop the screenshots in storage media to just the game screen, and have a list of which games need what sections of the screen blurred to remove usernames.

The first is far more useful for them than the second, but it also undermines it's functionality as an anti-cheat because you're telling the cheat creators what to guard against.

Of course, the real answer here is stop doing user-side anti-cheat at all, do it server-side, and trust nothing the client says. That's more difficult than user-side, but it also has the benefit of working, while also respecting the user's privacy.