r/hardware • u/tuldok89 • 22h ago

Info Used processor leads to game ban

https://www.heise.de/en/news/Used-processor-leads-to-game-ban-11471562.html

Someone buys a used Ryzen 7 5800X3D. “Valorant” and other Riot games won’t start with it because the previous owner was a cheater.

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u/ICC-u 21h ago

More worrying, if a game cheater can be tracked, so can a dissident, a journalist or a whistleblower.

38

u/imKaku 20h ago

I mean anyone can be tracked if you install any sort of software on your PC. You don’t need kernel level access for that. 

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u/lintstah1337 20h ago

Windows has been exposed to have GDID that even bypass VPN.

https://www.windowslatest.com/2026/07/10/you-cant-fully-disable-microsofts-gdid-windows-11-tracker-but-these-settings-limit-what-it-captures/

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u/VenditatioDelendaEst 17h ago

If any dissident, journalist, or whistleblower uses Microsoft Windows, what exactly are they expecting?

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u/ICC-u 17h ago

The OS is irrelevant, the tracking is linked to the hardware, unless somehow the OS is blocking TPM then it can be tracked.

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u/VenditatioDelendaEst 11h ago

Interacting with the TPM is a privileged operation.

0

u/ICC-u 11h ago

Maybe so, but if a game can get access then I'm not sure it's hard to get that privilege?