A tweet alleging Valorant's anti-cheat system captures desktop screenshots, including Discord chats, and sends them to Riot Games' servers went viral, racking up over 2 million views and igniting panic among gamers. The user, known as "wait", shared a code snippet as purported evidence, claiming it proved the clandestine desktop capture.

However, analysis of the C++/C# code revealed no explicit connection to desktop screenshot functions. The code appeared designed to obtain window or screen dimensions and coordinates within the operating system for processing or visualization purposes.

While the anti-cheat does capture in-game screenshots during matches to detect cheaters, a common practice, many commenters dismissed the notion of comprehensive desktop monitoring. Riot Games has yet to officially address the claims, but its privacy policy outlines data handling exceptions for combating cheating.

ValorantImage: EnsigameThe viral tweet's allegations sparked a firestorm of debate around anti-cheat measures' bounds and user privacy concerns in the gaming community.

Main image: ExCharny, reddit.com