Anti-cheats in games have become an increasing threats for privacy and freedom of choice due to intrusive personal data gathering. This aspect now a real concern as with the rising of cheaters, companies have imposed everyone to give access to all of your data in the name of "fair experience": Such piece of software are now running as administrator only (kernel based anti-cheat) meaning that authoritarian government can spy on all aspect of you (medical data, financial data, etc. on your computer).

To find a compromise and keep cheaters away we propose to force the implementation of the following key elements in each games:

• Allowing in each games to deactivate the anti-cheat and play in separate sessions (i.e a "world" for no anti-cheat).
  • This means that even in solo games, coop games or LAN games where cheating won't impact the community you won't be forced to give unjustified data (GDPR article 5.c) or be deprived of saving or modding the game (interoperability is a right in EU).
• Forcing a user space anti-cheat for competitive games without cash-prize (i.e. a "world" for regular anti-cheat).
  • This means that you would be able to protect your sensitive data by putting them on another folder owned by another user (GDPR article 5.c). The security compromising of your computer won't be total if a vulnerability is found in the anti-cheat.
• Allowing kernel based anti-cheat for competitive games with cash-prize or hens match linked to competition (i.e a "world" where your PC is for "professional gamers" )
  • This kind of anti-cheats increase the trust of the gamers.

Please note that this petition does not encourage cheating at all, just a compromise between freedom, privacy and keeping cheaters away.

Like antivirus anti-cheats even kernel based ones are not protecting you 100% from cheaters:

• User space anti-cheats protects you from regular hacks;
• Kernel anti cheats protect you from kernel cheats.

This does not protect you, in most scenarios, against cheaters that have repacked their code (obfuscation) or that are using DMA cheats (having a PC with thunderbolt to do so cost 600€ today).

So if someone want to cheat, he will. This will be always a cat and mouse game between the cheater and, the community and the editor.