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

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

#41

Post by fooker »

AnonCoward42 wrote: post #39
Dalewyn wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

> Why not track ...

Coming soon to software near you!

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

#42

Post by Retric »

titzer wrote: post #4

What is the thought process that goes into thinking such a thing is a good idea, then proposing it, arguing for it, and then it being approved (presumably) by product managers and executives? It's just a downward spiral at this point as each new generation of software and each new year brings a worse and worse privacy default with even more self-justification and half-assed anonymization. Drivers need to know website…

Knowing what websites people visit and for how long isn’t unreasonable if you want to create a test that mimics how a GPU gets used in practice.

Compare your GPU’s performance with competitors across the top X popular websites looking for outliers. Then start optimizing and retest while regularly updating that list with new data in case something starts to become popular.

They could get this kind of data from a third party, but collecting it themselves is more representative of their customers and possibly cheaper.

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

#43

Post by Retric »

bogwog wrote: post #36
Dalewyn wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The ratios might be important if they want to optimize battery life, performance, and video quality.

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

#44

Post by nine_k »

The problem is that the driver is closed-source.

Even if the driver sent data in a format which is easily inspectable by user, and with only benign-looking data, it would be really hard to prove that something nefarious and underhanded is not being sent instead under that guise.

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

#45

Post by veave »

AnonCoward42 wrote: post #39
Dalewyn wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

What's cynical is saying that there is no value in knowing if users watch video in browsers and comparing it to eyeball tracking.

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

#46

Post by yomlica8 »

fooker wrote: post #41
AnonCoward42 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> Why not track ... Coming soon to software near you!

Isn't this already a part of meta VR headsets?

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

#48

Post by AnonCoward42 »

Dalewyn wrote: post #37
aboringusername wrote: post #22

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.

> 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.

Wouldn't that be true for BSD and Linux as well? Windows seems to be slow with implementing meaningful security/privacy features to the end user. Windows also has a good track record with backwards compatibility (compared to Linux at least), but that might also be the underlying problem here.

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

#49

Post by daneel_w »

veave wrote: post #45
AnonCoward42 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

What's cynical is saying that there is no value in knowing if users watch video in browsers and comparing it to eyeball tracking.

Though that wasn't their statement. Of course there's value in it. The question is if it's value for the customer or just plain abuse.

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

#50

Post by daneel_w »

mastax wrote: post #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).

I never install it myself, since I don't need it for anything. Would love to get a confirmation that tossing "GFE" disables their telemetry drone.
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