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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'

#71

Post by WirelessGigabit »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #12

The time seems to be getting closer to the ubiquitous need for an 'allow list' for outbound internet connections. OpenSnitch or equivalent (per device) + Pi-Hole / Adguard (per network). Inverse WEI. Sorry, this request fails our Web Environment Integrity validation, you will not be receiving any data from this device.

That used to work in the past with different IPs.

Now an IP might have hundreds of DNS records pointing to it. But fine, installing AdGuard works great.

But now we're fighting against 2 things:

Things smashed together on the same domain, so no longer separate subdomains.

And DNS of HTTPS, so we can't even get all our traffic to go over the same DNS server.

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

#72

Post by ollien »

bogwog wrote: post #69
distant_hat wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I do think that's a bit of a stretch. Regardless of your opinions on the ethics of AI companies training on scraped data, how is scraping publicly available artistic works a privacy issue?

Me, personally, I might call it unethical and undesirable, but I wouldn't call it an issue of "privacy" on its face.

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

#73

Post by Retric »

titzer wrote: post #58
Retric wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I would hope they are looking well pat the top 500, top 5,000 or 50,000 perhaps but then the bottom of larger lists also vary more.

I think we can all agree the most likely explanation isn’t so flattering here, but it’s possible they really are trying to model the real world accurately in their test environment.

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

#74

Post by Retric »

pixelpoet wrote: post #54
Retric wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

It’s easy enough to slap a top 500 list as your benchmark but their size is why they should be aiming higher than that.

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

#75

Post by thefurdrake »

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)

I'm still holding out from the days when basically everyone on the internet understood you shouldn't post intimate details about your life online (the age before social ~~cancer~~ media).

I long for a return to common sense. Maybe AI will do the trick, but I doubt it. Plenty of people are happy with behavioral prediction if it means convenience without caring about the implications.

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

#76

Post by HeckFeck »

Dalewyn wrote: post #32
pptr wrote: 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 they need telemetry to know this? I could ask around, but I don't think anyone exists who doesn't game and also watch video on the same system.

Should Creative also track my listening habits, to determine whether soundcard development resources need pooled into system sounds or MP3 decoding? Wouldn't that be a tad silly of them?

It seems a bit post-facto to me.

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

#77

Post by fluoridation »

yomlica8 wrote: post #63
fluoridation wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Someone might be comfortable with Microsoft telemetry but not with Intel telemetry. That's not wrong. Weird, sure, but not wrong.

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

#79

Post by hasmanean »

nine_k wrote: post #44

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.

Hard for a human.

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

#80

Post by amelius »

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…

> 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.

Good thing that extensive user-tracking by advertising companies already prepared us for it!

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