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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'

#151

Post by ek750 »

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…

Sadly yes. I've dealt with product managers that want these sort of things, and when I explain why I think it's a bad idea, it completely flies over their head at mach 2. They really don't get it. At least the ones I've dealt with in this context.

As much as I hate to say it, I think trying to push back at the individual level in a corp setting is not going to work.

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

#152

Post by dmvdoug »

I was most intrigued by the “collect, use, and combine” language. Specifically, I didn’t see anything limiting them to combining only information they collect. So, what’s stopping them from purchasing additional data from data brokers to combine with what they collect in order to develop an even more in-depth profile of you? Nothing in the language quoted.

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

#153

Post by olyjohn »

Dalewyn wrote: post #64
AnonCoward42 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You're just making up reasons why you think they are collecting this data. You haven't even verified this or actually know anything about why they are collecting it.

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

#154

Post by olyjohn »

Espionage724 wrote: post #143
GrinningFool wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> or leak data that I share with them in some manner Like when their video drivers overstep their bounds and gather information on what applications are run and what websites are visited?

No, not like that at all lmao Just wait until you hear about your cursor being tracked on pages and what images and positions on the site you hover and stop scrolling over :p Intel isn't giving my browser data to enemies of the state. What do you really think Intel is doing with this information? And yeah, website URLs are important since people want to bootstrap and toss WebGL all over the place needlessly; all that…

This guy defends Intel so fucking hard it makes me cringe.

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

#155

Post by JohnFen »

Espionage724 wrote: post #144
JohnFen wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If people used those, maybe secret telemetry wouldn't be required. That argument is simple extortion. Secret telemetry is never required, period. If people are unwilling to volunteer such data, then the devs simply have to do without. If that means that software won't improve[1], too bad. [1] Which isn't what that means. Software has always been improving even back when spying on people wasn't a feasible thing to d…

It's not spying. Spying implies being observed without consent, and that the adversary is gaining information to use against you. The average person who is using Windows and likely the only ones to see this do not fall under this. People were unwilling to volunteer the data exactly because of this fear-mongering. Ya'll act like Intel is sitting in a back room watching flowing logcats of your activity and cherry-picki…

> Spying implies being observed without consent

It doesn't imply it, that's what it means. If data is being collected about me, my machine, or my use of my machine without my consent, it's spying.

> and that the adversary is gaining information to use against you.

I disagree that this is required in order for it to be spying. The reason it's collected is irrelevant. If I didn't give consent, it's spying.

> Ya'll act like Intel is sitting in a back room watching flowing logcats of your activity and cherry-picking ones to target you personally

I don't think that's what's happening at all, and certainly aren't meaning to imply it. What I think is happening is that data is being collected without consent. What makes it worse is that some of that data is clearly being collected for marketing purposes.

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

#157

Post by Espionage724 »

amelius wrote: post #23

This kind of thing should be opt-in not opt-out. And not the kind of opt-in where you can still accidentally press "OK" in an inattentive moment.

Yeah that kind of silly selfish behavior is exactly why NVIDIA buries the telemetry deep in their drivers and doesn't offer an option.

Most people have no reason to limit or even be concerned with this. Intel is adding telemetry to improve the GPU drivers. Who would be against improving GPU drivers? Why are you considering Intel hostile?

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

#158

Post by rolandog »

WirelessGigabit wrote: post #71
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.

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

We can refine the regexps so that we approve certain subfolders within a same address.

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

#160

Post by thomastjeffery »

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)

It's great that the bourgeoisie are treating workers so poorly: maybe soon we can start eating them in public!

I don't feel optimistic about any of this. What we know already is that safety should not be determined by the boundary of "what people take seriously".

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