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Nvidia adds telemetry to latest drivers

majorgeeks.com

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Re: Nvidia adds telemetry to latest drivers

#101

Post by Karunamon »

throwaway2048 wrote: post #76
dogma1138 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People aren't bothered about security or privacy, they just cannot be bothered. Giving even the slightest incentive to send data brings those numbers up extensively even if what you get is meaningless. Basically humans need a reason to tick a box. This is why this is under GFE which gives you value added services.

>People aren't bothered about security or privacy, they just cannot be bothered. Says who? You? Facebook? Microsoft? Google? You don't see the inherent conflict of benefiting from that position and declaring it, unilaterally, it to be so? How many people do you think would be comfortable, and explicitly approve the kinds of "opt out" data collection that goes on, if you gave them the true extent of how that data can…

When using "people" in aggregate, this is a completely correct statement . It's why, for example, HN throws a fit[1] the moment a developer goes so far as to add anonymous google analytics to a package manager [2] even when that data couldn't possibly be used to harm them or track them in any way.

If you make $thing opt in, most people will not do $thing, regardless of what $thing is. Defaults matter.

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11566720

[2]: https://github.com/Homebrew/brew/blob/master/docs/Analytics....

Re: Nvidia adds telemetry to latest drivers

#102

Post by andromeduck »

Karunamon wrote: post #100
andromeduck wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you forgot game capture/streaming and automatic game setting optimization

anything he cares about . Windows has built in game capture, and I know how to adjust settings on my games myself. The "experience" app is just superfluous bullshit.

windows has automatic driver updates too so... why not just skip it alltogether

Re: Nvidia adds telemetry to latest drivers

#103

Post by jaytaylor »

brink wrote: post #6

On a related note; I can't even use NVidia's "Geforce Experience" any more without logging in. Thanks for that, NVidia. Just what I wanted; a driver tool that forces me to log in.

I just uninstalled GeForce Experience and it immediately caused the already open Battlefield 1 game instance to crash.

Way to go Nvidia.. uninstalling your non-driver app crashes games :)

Re: Nvidia adds telemetry to latest drivers

#104

Post by treebeard901 »

jaytaylor wrote: post #103
brink wrote: post #6

On a related note; I can't even use NVidia's "Geforce Experience" any more without logging in. Thanks for that, NVidia. Just what I wanted; a driver tool that forces me to log in.

I just uninstalled GeForce Experience and it immediately caused the already open Battlefield 1 game instance to crash. Way to go Nvidia.. uninstalling your non-driver app crashes games :)

> Way to go Nvidia.. uninstalling your non-driver app crashes games

That's a weird edge case to support. After all, the app in question is responsible for recording in game video thus implying some kind of dependency.

Re: Nvidia adds telemetry to latest drivers

#105

Post by dsissitka »

alkonaut wrote: post #71
eswat wrote: post #35

Maybe I haven’t looked hard enough, but I’m surprised this and the forced login for GeForce Experience didn’t make a bigger wave amongst gamers, who’ve historically been very vocal about questionable decisions that provide far more value to the business than to the gamers.

I usually just download and install the latest driver with regular intervals. I don't choose to install/use GeForce Experience, and now that it requires login I certainly won't. Why would I want to use this Exprience thing anyway? It's crapware, right? As for telemetry - as long as software only sends reasonable things (feature usage etc) and uses reasonable bandwidth, I'm completely fine. I honestly don't even mind…

> Why would I want to use this Exprience thing anyway? It's crapware, right?

I use it for NVIDIA Share. It's my understanding that GPU-based alternatives can't compete because NVIDIA won't give them access to NVFBC and NVIFR. The creator of RivaTuner goes into more detail here:

http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=4687310&postcount=61

http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=5294898&postcount=5

Re: Nvidia adds telemetry to latest drivers

#106

Post by jaytaylor »

ronjouch wrote: post #16
brink wrote: post #6

On a related note; I can't even use NVidia's "Geforce Experience" any more without logging in. Thanks for that, NVidia. Just what I wanted; a driver tool that forces me to log in.

So annoying, yes. I since uninstalled GeForce Experience and replaced update notifications (the only feature I was using) with this ugly batch script. Careful, it's ugly! Botched stackoverflow-oriented batch brogramming! But it works for me! Feel free to reuse and improve :) @ECHO OFF setLocal EnableDelayedExpansion rem nvup.bat, a quick & dirty driver downloader since GeForce Experience requires a login. rem In a fo…

Off-Topic: While looking through your script I noticed the `jq' dependency. I went to install it and in the docs it mentioned this thing called chocolatey [0], which is like homebrew for windows, and seems pretty amazing :)

Thank you for sharing your work with us!

[0] https://chocolatey.org/

Re: Nvidia adds telemetry to latest drivers

#107

Post by dogma1138 »

throwaway2048 wrote: post #80
dogma1138 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is, don't install Geforce Experience, GFE has always sent some data to NVIDIA now they are also collecting driver telemetry. GFE requires a separate installation and for you to signup and login. This isn't a service required for you to get GPU drivers. The only thing you lose is NVIDIA's screen capture software and game optimization (and some deals sometimes). You can still use your card to the fullest without…

>This isn't a service required for you to get GPU drivers. That is not true, beta drivers require the login. They are often needed for new games to run without crashing, or bad performance.

Beta drivers can also be downloaded from the geforce.com website.

Re: Nvidia adds telemetry to latest drivers

#108

Post by arkitaip »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #93

First, let me say that I think what they did was wrong and it should only be opt-in and clearly stated. That said, having managed fleets of machines that were nominally running the "same" software, getting updates from all of them is a really powerful debugging tool. Once you get above about 1,000 machines logs comparison of all the machines immediately surfaces software issues (happens on all machines), connectivity…

Isn't the easy option to allow customers to participate in the program? Their software is already so buggy and bloated that a simple checkbox that ANONYMOUSLY sends telemetry would be trivial to implement.

Re: Nvidia adds telemetry to latest drivers

#109

Post by blockoperation »

andromeduck wrote: post #54
z3t4 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nvidia do not want to support linux nor themselves or let anyone else do it.

They've had the best 3D drivers on Linux for years. There were issues with Optimus and Ion but IIRC a lot of it was legal and issues with Linux's driver infra back then meant it required far more effort than it was worth at the time.

Their drivers might work, but saying to users "here, load this giant blob with a history of privesc bugs into your kernel" isn't what I'd call "supporting Linux".

Meanwhile, AMD are active contributors to Mesa and DRM, which benefits everyone.

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