- Warden (software)
Warden (also known as Warden Client) is an
anti-cheating tool integrated inBlizzard Entertainment games such as "Diablo II " (since patch 1.11), "StarCraft " (patch 1.15), "Warcraft III " and most notably "World of Warcraft ". While the game is running, Warden uses API function calls to collect data on open programs on the user's computer and sends it back to Blizzard servers as hash values to be compared to those of known cheating programs. [cite web|last=Fulton III|first=Scott|title=Does a "World of Warcraft" EULA compliance mechanism count as spyware?|url=http://www.tgdaily.com/2005/10/24/world_of_warcraft_warden_is_it_spyware/index.html|publisher=TG Daily |date=2005-10-24] Privacy advocates consider the program to bespyware . [cite web|last=Ward|first=Mark|title=Warcraft game maker in spying row|publisher=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4385050.stm|date=2005-10-31]In
November 2005 , it was thought that the XCProotkit secretly included with Sony music CDs in North America for the purposes of copy prevention could be used to disguise cheat programs from Warden.Fact|date=June 2008Privacy Concerns
The
Electronic Frontier Foundation and other groups have labeled Warden asspyware . [cite web|first=Corynne|last=McSherry|url=http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2005/10/new-gaming-feature-spyware|title=A New Gaming Feature?Spyware|date=2005-10-20|publisher=Electronic Frontier Foundation |accessdate=2007-11-27] Blizzard has said that Warden does not gather any personally identifiable information about players other than the account being used.Fact|date=July 2007 It also states that the data collected is only used for finding evidence of malicious programs and cheating.Fact|date=July 2007"The Governor" is a third-party network monitoring tool created by
Greg Hoglund that monitors a portion, but not all, of Warden's activity. Although it may conflict with the World of WarcraftEULA and ToU, there have been no reports of anyone being banned for using the Governor.Moderation Bots
"Moderation Bots" are third-party game clients written to monitor, administer, or moderate in game chat channels. While they are not used for cheating, Warden still disables them. Blizzard's stand on moderation bots calls them "Third-Party Programs".
MDY Industries v. Blizzard Entertainment
Warden has been brought to light by Blizzard's lawsuit with MDY Industries, LLC., the creator of the gameplay automation software Glider (more popularly known as WoWGlider or MMOGlider). Blizzard has alleged in legal filings that Warden prevents players from creating unauthorized copies of the game client, which was previously an unknown function. Blizzard makes no mention of its known function of collecting data on open programs. Furthermore, it is actually referred to as "Warden," the first time Blizzard has confirmed its name. [http://www.wowglider.com/Legal/Feb_16_2007/AnswerAndCounterclaims.pdf WoWGilder.com] ]
Legal Notices
Legal actions have been taken up against Blizzard's RAM scanning for privacy reasons as far back as its first implementation in the World of Warcraft alpha test to watch if users were breaking their confidentiality contract. Within days of the beta test new lines were added to World of Warcraft's EULA.
References
External links
* [http://www.rootkit.com/newsread_print.php?newsid=371 A tool for monitoring Warden's activity] , with download link. (Called: The Governor)
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
