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Intel's GPU Drivers Now Collect Telemetry, Including 'How You Use Your Computer'

extremetech.com

31–40 of 184 posts

Re: Intel's GPU Drivers Now Collect Telemetry, Including 'How You Use Your Computer'

#31
post #2

How will this affect GNU/Linux? They mention an installer and a yes/no prompt, which to me implies Windows. If it can be disabled, I suppose distro packagers will likely make the choice for the user when they create the package. Or is this a driver that would be included in the kernel itself?

It will not affect Linux

Six months later: Our analytics show very little uptake in Linux use so we are reallocating investment towards windows users.

Re: Intel's GPU Drivers Now Collect Telemetry, Including 'How You Use Your Computer'

#32
post #14

I don't understand the need to include "the types of websites you visit" in GPU driver telemetry. AMD's telemetry doesn't seem to include that: https://www.amd.com/en/legal/privacy/user-experience-program... I couldn't figure out what telemetry is collected by Nvidia.

>I don't understand the need to include "the types of websites you visit" in GPU driver telemetry.

Do you visit Youtube and Twitch other streaming services often? Focus on video decoding.

Do you visit sites that heavily utilize graphics[1]? Focus on 3D acceleration.

There are reasons this data can be useful, especially since Intel wants to unfuck their otherwise imperially fucked drivers. Websites aren't just plain text with window dressing anymore, they are entire programs unto themselves.

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37026592

Re: Intel's GPU Drivers Now Collect Telemetry, Including 'How You Use Your Computer'

#33
post #24
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they would collect what games you are playing, to know on which games they have to optimize the drivers / framerate down-the-road that'd be ok. But websites you visit...

To be fair, websites can also contain games and other stuff that might use a GPU.

Hardware accelerated video decoding for Youtube, Twitch, etc. for a very mundane example.

Re: Intel's GPU Drivers Now Collect Telemetry, Including 'How You Use Your Computer'

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will not affect Linux

Six months later: Our analytics show very little uptake in Linux use so we are reallocating investment towards windows users.

While AI companies are buying high end GPUs by the truckload to run on their Linux fleets this is unlikely to be a problem

Re: Intel's GPU Drivers Now Collect Telemetry, Including 'How You Use Your Computer'

#35
post #13

A terrifying side-effect of AI is that everything is now potential "training data" and there's financial incentive to vacuum up any and all possible data. The situation on Windows is much worse than Chrome extensions (which have been attempting this for awhile) because of the near non-existent permission limits on Windows. I was shocked to learn just yesterday that Nvidia drivers were doing this. It feels extremely g…

This might actually be a good thing. For the longest time, very few people cared about privacy issues, which is why we live in a privacy hellscape today. If AI fears can motivate people to start taking privacy issues seriously, then we might actually see some strong privacy legislation, or more privacy-focused businesses to meet new demand.

(or maybe I'm just being overly optimistic)

Re: Intel's GPU Drivers Now Collect Telemetry, Including 'How You Use Your Computer'

#36
post #33
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, websites can also contain games and other stuff that might use a GPU.

Hardware accelerated video decoding for Youtube, Twitch, etc. for a very mundane example.

I don't think Intel needs telemetry to know their customers use Youtube and Twitch.

Re: Intel's GPU Drivers Now Collect Telemetry, Including 'How You Use Your Computer'

#37

One question I don't see asked in the various threads covering this: why does windows freely offer such data? At least Intel does give you an opt out (should be opt in really), but other applications can freely collect this data without you knowing. Windows needs to have much better control maybe a "telemetry" setting to control each apps access to the data, but that would most likely require some serious reengineeri…

A big part of what makes Windows so free and powerful is that it was architected during a time when security simply wasn't a concern. This is good because it enpowers users to use their computers as they see fit, but also bad because with great powers come great responsibilities that are often thrown to the wind.

So to answer your question of why, the answer is simply that Windows doesn't care.

Re: Intel's GPU Drivers Now Collect Telemetry, Including 'How You Use Your Computer'

#38
I know that Nvidia does extensive telemetry with GeForce Experience (the optional but heavily pushed companion software to the driver) but do they do it in the driver package also? The article makes no distinction and says there's no opt out. I thought choosing to not install GeForce Experience was the opt out (though that is not communicated to you at all during installation).

Re: Intel's GPU Drivers Now Collect Telemetry, Including 'How You Use Your Computer'

#39
post #32
post #14

I don't understand the need to include "the types of websites you visit" in GPU driver telemetry. AMD's telemetry doesn't seem to include that: https://www.amd.com/en/legal/privacy/user-experience-program... I couldn't figure out what telemetry is collected by Nvidia.

>I don't understand the need to include "the types of websites you visit" in GPU driver telemetry. Do you visit Youtube and Twitch other streaming services often? Focus on video decoding. Do you visit sites that heavily utilize graphics[1]? Focus on 3D acceleration. There are reasons this data can be useful, especially since Intel wants to unfuck their otherwise imperially fucked drivers. Websites aren't just plain t…

> Do you visit Youtube and Twitch other streaming services often? Focus on video decoding.

> Do you visit sites that heavily utilize graphics[1]? Focus on 3D acceleration.

This is almost cynical. Why not track your user's eyes and record the screen to see where or if visual fidelity at certain parts is necessary? You know, to optimize the architecture.

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