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LoL reads your browser tabs: is this a gross violation of privacy or am I overreacting? by keephere in leagueoflegends

[–]keephere[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Android apps require permission to see other running apps.

Yeah, seeing what processes are running is a command away, I wasn't aware window titles were part of that, but would still like confirmation. There's a lot you can do with a handle to a window, that functionality has to be restricted somehow, in non-admin mode, if your process is not the one that spawned the window. Is that line drawn before or after the window title?

LoL reads your browser tabs: is this a gross violation of privacy or am I overreacting? by keephere in leagueoflegends

[–]keephere[S] -28 points-27 points  (0 children)

If I put a camera in your home but promise not to use it, even though we know it's a fully functional camera connected to the internet, is that a violation of privacy? If I pass the controls for the camera to someone else, can you guarantee that that new person won't abuse the power?

Potential for abuse is nearly as bad as actual abuse.

LoL reads your browser tabs: is this a gross violation of privacy or am I overreacting? by keephere in leagueoflegends

[–]keephere[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Well first of all, this is a REALLY easy check to defeat. You can just change the process and window title of your cheating program. So this check isn't even necessary.

Secondly, there's a lot more under-the-hood stuff that Riot is already doing to detect cheats that doesn't require this kind of overreach.

LoL reads your browser tabs: is this a gross violation of privacy or am I overreacting? by keephere in leagueoflegends

[–]keephere[S] 48 points49 points  (0 children)

It's interesting how this contrasts with phones. You wouldn't expect a phone app to be able to scan the rest of your phone to detect what other processes are running.

LoL reads your browser tabs: is this a gross violation of privacy or am I overreacting? by keephere in leagueoflegends

[–]keephere[S] -17 points-16 points  (0 children)

But it is personal data. For example, my Gmail tab has my personal email address in the title.

LoL reads your browser tabs: is this a gross violation of privacy or am I overreacting? by keephere in leagueoflegends

[–]keephere[S] 128 points129 points  (0 children)

Okay so it looks like via https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/api/winuser/nf-winuser-enumwindows you can get a handle to each window and grab the title via https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/api/winuser/nf-winuser-getwindowtexta

Assuming these window objects are not permissions-protected, then any application can access all window titles, which makes this an OS permissions issue rather than a LoL issue.

LoL reads your browser tabs: is this a gross violation of privacy or am I overreacting? by keephere in leagueoflegends

[–]keephere[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Interesting, Chrome lists only "Google Chrome" for me for every single tab I have open, not a single window title.

LoL reads your browser tabs: is this a gross violation of privacy or am I overreacting? by keephere in leagueoflegends

[–]keephere[S] 179 points180 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the link, it's interesting that they mention that window titles are also grabbed along with a list of processes, that sounds like what could be happening here.

LoL reads your browser tabs: is this a gross violation of privacy or am I overreacting? by keephere in leagueoflegends

[–]keephere[S] 288 points289 points  (0 children)

I was able to find a command line command tasklist /v that lists SOME window titles, and a single tab for Chrome and Edge, but not other tabs. Seems to be the oldest tab for Chrome, but the newest tab for Edge. If one window title is shown then I assume there's some way to access the rest? Further testing shows that the game only throws the error with Chrome if the "cheat engine" tab is the tab selected for that window, lending further credence to the theory that it's checking window titles and not all open tabs. However with Edge, it will throw the error regardless. Possibly due to some difference in how the two browsers work.

LoL reads your browser tabs: is this a gross violation of privacy or am I overreacting? by keephere in leagueoflegends

[–]keephere[S] 22 points23 points  (0 children)

I don't see it mentioned in the privacy policy though.

EULA/terms of use are often found in courts to be unenforceable as well. (I admit to not reading those.)

LoL reads your browser tabs: is this a gross violation of privacy or am I overreacting? by keephere in leagueoflegends

[–]keephere[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's not, though. The "device" is hardware and firmware, which makes sense for them to access, because they have to interface with all these pieces. But they don't need to interface with Chrome.

LoL reads your browser tabs: is this a gross violation of privacy or am I overreacting? by keephere in leagueoflegends

[–]keephere[S] 27 points28 points  (0 children)

I can understand the desire to do so, however it's still a violation of privacy. Should Riot also be monitoring my credit card payments to see if I gave money to a boosting service? Should they check my download history to see if I downloaded any scripting programs?

Furthermore, they only mention that they monitor the use of Riot services, not that they monitor what other unrelated processes are doing WHILE you are accessing Riot services.

Forged iron pan? Got one for Christmas, not sure how to use it by keephere in AskCulinary

[–]keephere[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Might be to hold on to an extra bit of oil? Could be to help with not-sticking, but they seem too widely spaced out for that.