Therefore, even if a player is 'packet sniffing', they shouldn't be getting ANY data on any 'unspotted' tanks. It was my understanding that ALL the important calculations (equations) are done 'server-side'. And they have been banned a LOT in games like Fortnight, Diablo (all versions of it), War Thunder and many more. It is actually illegal in the EU but not in the States or Asia that I'm aware of. What the 'hack' does is bypass that equation by snooping the entire packet stored in memory to reveal all of it's contents. The information on where you are is always there, it's just that it's only revealed to those who meet the criteria to turn that switch on. The equations in the game tell that switch when to flip on and off to reveal your tank (or a part of the map as you explore it). Even when that switch is off and the light isn't on, there's power running to it. The aimbot hack is very similar to the map hacks of other games: it snoops the packets and obtains information it's not supposed to have, thereby revealing the information and giving that person an advantage. To hack something doesn't mean to change it or modify it necessarily. The big problem are the people that misuse the word 'hack'. There's no such thing as a game that can't be cheated on, only games that don't actively pursue and ban the cheaters. Its possible, people like to discount that this game can't be hacked, but there's a reason WOT has illegal mods.

War thunder hacked client