TruePlay: The new Windows 10 anti-cheating system that can spy on users
Windows 10 has been considered by many as a privacy attack because of the large amount of data that the tech giant Microsoft collects from users to improve the user experience, such as where users click or other telemetry data. Now with this system to detect “this kind of behavior” includes the possibility that a Microsoft engineer or a developer can spy our computer at pleasure. TruePlay, when a game uses it, it runs in protected mode to prevent access to the game code, which is often altered to inject hacks. This allows developers to run a game in protected mode, where the user is monitored to find possible trap methods. If TruePlay detects any type of cheating, it will automatically notify the developer and a complete log will be sent with all user session data, with data like all currently open programs. One may think “okay, I never cheat, so I do not have to worry about this system”. This type of systems, although reliable, often give many false positives for a great variety of reasons. Although TruePlay can be deactivated by the user, a developer may require that one of his/her games have the function activated in a mandatory way. This would expose user session data to developers from anywhere with very inadequate data processing methods and policies. Here’s what the tech giant Microsoft states “A game enrolled in TruePlay will run in a protected process, which mitigates a class of common attacks. Additionally, a Windows service will monitor gaming sessions for behaviors and manipulations that are common in cheating scenarios. These data will be collected, and alerts will be generated only when cheating behavior appears to be occurring. To ensure and protect customer privacy while preventing false positives, these data are only shared with developers after processing has determined cheating is likely to have occurred”.
At the moment it will only work with games for UWP
This feature makes the operating system work for developers rather than for users. Developers can enable or disable cheat detection in certain parts of the game, such as offline campaign mode. If the user deactivates the function in the settings, you will not be able to access the multiplayer. Luckily, TruePlay will only be available to developers who create games and applications for UWP, so the rest of Steam games running on Win32 would not be affected by it. The few games for UWP end sooner or later appearing on Steam or other similar platforms since no one buys them in the Microsoft Store. A very clear example of this we find with Call of Duty Infinite Warfare, which had a matchmaking apart from that of Steam players, and which forced the tech giant Microsoft to return the money to those who bought it because they had no people to play online with. So, what do you think about this? Simply share your views and thoughts in the comment section below.
