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Steam store pages are now required to disclose kernel-level anti-cheat [2024-10-30]
(steamcommunity.com)
Steam store pages received a new Anti-cheat field. Disclosure is mandatory for kernel-level anti-cheat solutions. And recommended for other anti-cheat solutions (like server-side or non-kernel-level client-side).
The field discloses the anti-cheat product, whether it is a kernel-level installation, and whether it uninstalls with the product or requires manual removal to remove.
[edit] I'd posted something to go into more detail. But I've decided that branch of conversation is not really the way forward.
I'll just say that the software is not installed by choice, and it does things that people don't want it to do... so it could be described as malware. But if you want it on your computer, then I guess for you it is not malware. In any case, it doesn't look like we're going to agree about this regardless.
It is literally installed by choice. It's part of the game installation. It's up to users to know what they are installing. Many games likely install lots of things that aren't immediately obvious.
It doesn't infiltrate the system.
Except when all you get is an UAC prompt when clicking the play button, without giving you any information, other than that it wants to execute an exe in a temp dir with a random name.