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Question - Do Emulator Servers (such as P99; P2002) Put Players' Personal Info At Risk?

Oldskool

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I'm new to learning about Emulator servers , such as Project 1999 and Project 2002, both offer the classic feel I'm interested in. I know there are other interesting Emulator servers as well.
Before I download one of these Emulators, and P99 is the one that interested me the most to consider, I wanted to know how invasive the GM's can be on players' computers and home devices on same IP address.
This site seems to have lots of computer savvy people.
By playing on P99, am I exposing my personal information on my computer to those who run the server ?....Does playing on an Emulator expose your computer easier to hackers who are fellow players ?
Is playing on an Emulator easier to get hacked when compared to a live server ?
But my main concern is the worry that GM's , especially on P99 , can access pretty much anything on a players' computer ? But if P99 can, then isn't it true of any Emulator server ?
Would other devices in my home that share my IP address (smart phone , tablet), also have personal info exposed to those who run the server , even if I only use one laptop in my home to play EQ.
I worry since I read an interesting post in Redguides, that P99 uses
"NSA Type" software. That sounds scary.
Even if the GM's are legit and won't use players' personal info for dubious reasons , BUT can the folks running the server access personal information that's not related to Everquest ? Let's say if they are just curious ?
(Such as photos , sites we visit, banking information, etc).
If it's NSA type software , then the GM's probably could access anything they want on players computers ...even if it's just a GM viewing our personal info out of curiosity.
There seems to be multiple people running P99. What happens if one of them decide to access personal information to commit Identity Theft?
I'm retired law enforcement, I saw Identity Theft occur as a chronic crime. And those who commit ID theft would never admit what they are doing.
But in life , people in power can become desperate at times in their life and steal information to benefit themselves. People usually think they will never get caught.
But my 20 years in law enforcement helped me experience the unfortunate cases of people with power , stealing personal info for profit. Humans are capable of many things when desperate.
So what if one of the GM's turns Rogue (literally ), it's happened to Governors and trusted public officials in power. So can't it happen on an Emulator server?
I even read that a person running an Emulator server , can access players' webcam and view into our homes via the computers camera. I'm not sure how true that is.
Sorry for the long post. But I see so many folks playing P99. I see lots of RMT, I wonder how much RMT is successful , based on the "witch hunts" I've read about by the GM's.
But my main concern is the potential access to personal information and access into the private lives of players. Where people should have an expected right to privacy as per the law. Geez, in law enforcement , a warrant is needed to be signed off by a judge to access personal information. So who wants a GM to have that access? Even if there isn't much to steal on a players' computer , it's just the point of "Invasion of Privacy".
But by agreeing to download an Emulator server , do players give up their right to privacy ?
I'm not computer savvy. But I see many play P99 and many players know computers well. That's why I thought that maybe RMT on P99 isn't safe, but my personal info would be safe. I figured why would so many out there put their info at risk to play P99?
But it's the post I read about the GM's "invasive software " that sounds spooky.
Once I read about "NSA Type Software", I then have major concerns that the GM's could see sites, files, photos and all of our personal stuff.
I really wanted to play P99 badly. Or maybe P2002. Those servers have the original Freeport and other cities/zones. These places are revamped on PHINIGEL.
But I worry if it's worth the risk.
Is anyone familiar with the risk involved?
 
Comes down to how much you trust them, like anything else.

Fact is, ANY software running on your computer can pretty much access anything across your computer once you let it in. It comes down to how difficult that is to do and if they want to try.

It's not like it would be hard for a program to just do something like take all of C:\ and ftp it to a fileshare some place. Yes, anything pretty much can. Will it? Never seen it, and don't expect it to.

Realistically, P99 as far as I'm aware from other threads, just looks at what else is currently running on your PC. And by that I simply mean the .exe name and titles (if you open up task manager, it basically sees what you see there). No bank info, other devices on network, webcams, etc. They are more invasive than most, but hardly something I'd deem a real threat to identity theft or something.

And if someone went rogue, they wouldn't have enough information currently is my understanding to do anything useful. They would literally have to start patching in code to run on your local machine, which would be found quite quickly, I imagine, if it was truly invasive. Even most virus scanners would pick up something like that usually.

I wouldn't worry about playing it, personally. If you really, really want to be safe, simply install a second copy of windows in parallel on your computer with no personal information on it, and maybe VPN to suppress access to your local network. That should cover 99.9% of standard privacy attacks. Honestly think it's overkill by about 100 miles, but if it makes you feel safe with your background, go for it.
 
Thank you for the advice. When I read that P99 had "NSA Type" software , it felt like "big brother will be watching ".
But I guess it applies more to RMT than other info.
Thank u :)
Project 1999 and 2002 seem amazing that they preserved cities and zones before the revamp.
 
Is TAKP now what's called Project 2002?
From what I've read, the server re-rolled a year ago as Project 2002 and it's the former TAKP server.
I have no idea why it changed a year ago.
 
Are there RMT posts for TAKP? I know there are never RMT posts for P2002...but I see older posts for other Emu servers.
I can't seem to find RMT for TAKP.
Anyone know of any for that server ?
 
Question - Do Emulator Servers (such as P99; P2002) Put Players' Personal Info At Risk?

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