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

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51–60 of 184 posts

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

#51
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…

[deleted]

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

#52
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…

You could gather that information by just reporting anonymous internal telemetry about what kind of computational work the GPU is doing.

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

#53
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If the product improves quality of life for the user, yes there is value for the user. Everyone likes better software, right?

The problem is, of course, that products seldom improve with use of telemetry, but that is beside the point.

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

#54
post #43
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A tiny scrappy startup like Intel definitely needs to prioritise between YouTube and Twitch optimisation, and the best way to get that information is by spying on everyone, all the time.

I get playing devil's advocate, but come on...

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

#55
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).

You can use NVCleaninstall to remove the telemetry package.

* https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-nvcleanstal...

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

#56

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…

Windows is architected such that any app running as a given user can spy on that user because operations like listing running processes and accessing other processes memory (when run as the same user) are completely unrestricted.

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

#57
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…

It goes without saying at this time, an internet connected computer is a privacy liability.

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

#58
post #42
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…

This is the role of benchmark suites and top 500 lists.

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

#59
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…

Have you ever worked in a big company? Appeals to ethics or even common sense won't get you very far. On the other hand, just doing what you're told is expected and rewarded. Like the Emperor's New Clothes. You either play along with the narrow-minded, often cultish, pursuit of whatever is deemed good for "the business", or you leave.

I have.
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