Hey tersa, recall how when we had lunch together you mentioned FFXI watching for processes running on your machine as a way to find bots? WoW does that, and more. (That scary link comes to us by way of gbeans's LJ.)
WoW: The biggest (and worst) piece of spyware you'll ever willingly install.
That is because I am SMRT!
Seriously, though, I read not only the article but the comments on it, and came to a few conclusions:
1) Labeling it 'spyware' is the opinion of the poster, and may not technically be true.
2) The WoW Terms of Service explicitly says that they do this, so it's not as if they went out to hide this fact (which is why I'm not sure I would call it 'spyware').
3) It's unclear whether or not they're actually violating anyone's privacy, because the information Blizzard may or may not be getting seems to be encrypted and not raw.
But, it is interesting that there's at least some verification in the ToS that they're doing exactly what I figured someone would be to prevent cheatbots.
no subject
WoW: The biggest (and worst) piece of spyware you'll ever willingly install.
That is because I am SMRT!
Seriously, though, I read not only the article but the comments on it, and came to a few conclusions:
1) Labeling it 'spyware' is the opinion of the poster, and may not technically be true.
2) The WoW Terms of Service explicitly says that they do this, so it's not as if they went out to hide this fact (which is why I'm not sure I would call it 'spyware').
3) It's unclear whether or not they're actually violating anyone's privacy, because the information Blizzard may or may not be getting seems to be encrypted and not raw.
But, it is interesting that there's at least some verification in the ToS that they're doing exactly what I figured someone would be to prevent cheatbots.