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

extremetech.com

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

#61

Post by AnonCoward42 »

Dalewyn wrote: post #53
daneel_w wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What is the point then? Justifying telemetry? Because the value for the user is at least very close to zero, but the privacy implications are not.

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

#62

Post by distant_hat »

bogwog wrote: post #35
xnx wrote: 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)

These are really niche issues and most people aren't even aware, let alone care about this. The only real solution to this is some kind of legislation that makes it difficult to carry on with business as usual. I wonder how this data collection squares with GDPR?

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

#63

Post by yomlica8 »

fluoridation wrote: post #25
steeleduncan wrote: post #19

I'm not familiar with the details of such things, but would it be possible to "port" the Intel's open source Linux GPU driver to Windows? That would make for a working driver without this junk

Even if you were to overcome the massive hurdle of porting a driver between two completely different kernel architectures, you would not be able to load it without enabling driver testing mode at boot time, or without buying a code signing certificate.

Its the wrong priority anyway. Windows is utterly infested with far worse telemetry at this point so it would be like fixing pinhole hull leaks in the titanic after the ship had snapped in half.

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

#64

Post by Dalewyn »

AnonCoward42 wrote: post #61
Dalewyn wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What is the point then? Justifying telemetry? Because the value for the user is at least very close to zero, but the privacy implications are not.

The question posed was why Intel would want to track what websites you visited for their video drivers. I answered why.

That was followed up by asking if telemetry has value for the user. I answered it can.

The reality of products generally not improving with telemetry is beside the point. That is a problem with the people using the telemetric data.

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

#66

Post by the_lego »

rvnx wrote: post #21
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…

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...

It would be useful, it would not be ok.

It's still an invasion of privacy, and Intel has no business knowing I play (and how much), e.g., a gay dating simulator, Postal, Hogwarts Legacy, or any number of other games that either are or will be controversial, incriminating, or just useful as another data point in a personality profile.

So many of the devil's advocate posts justify it by explaining how spying on users can be useful. But the complaint isn't that it's "not useful"!

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

#67

Post by WirelessGigabit »

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).

And it's the only way to get auto software updates.

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

#69

Post by bogwog »

distant_hat wrote: post #62
bogwog wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

These are really niche issues and most people aren't even aware, let alone care about this. The only real solution to this is some kind of legislation that makes it difficult to carry on with business as usual. I wonder how this data collection squares with GDPR?

> These are really niche issues and most people aren't even aware, let alone care about this.

Everyone seems to be aware of the protests in Hollywood, and I don't think it's too much of a stretch to tie that to privacy issues. Those AI models taking artists' jobs were trained with data scraped from the internet. Even if you aren't an artist, there's a risk that the data these companies collect on you will be used to train an AI model that will take your job, so you shouldn't be giving it away for free.

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

#70

Post by unknown_user_84 »

daneel_w wrote: post #47

While Nvidia's driver installer doesn't ask permission, does anyone happen to know if there's a way after installation to disable their telemetry collection?

Best guide I found

https://old.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/euud7u/how_to_prev...

I updated their blocks to cover all the IPs in the range, windows firewall rules accept CIDR notation ala 72.25.64.0/18.

All the ranges for their backend stuff I've found so far:

  72.25.64.0/18
  216.228.112.0/20
  8.36.80.0/24
  8.36.113.0/24
I leave mapping out the rest of their IP space as an exercise to the reader.

Found using `whois` against the IPs and domain from that reddit post. Their primary website appears to be on EC2, so nothing terribly useful there. I'm personally expecting companies that do this nonsense to move all their collection infra to EC2 or similar to make it harder to do simple blocks. Those that haven't already.

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