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How much data are your GPU drivers collecting about you? Quite a lot in Intel's case
(www.techradar.com)
Can we just not live in a fucking dystopian world ?
this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2023
266 points (93.2% liked)
Privacy
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Has r/aboringdystopia made the move to federation?
Not really sure how this is “dystopian”. Could you explain? It’s a beta program specifically for data collecting.
Everything you own, everything you use collects data. I’m tired of being profiled and analysed. Even a GPU now collects data about me, where does it stop ?
It stops when you don’t sign up to a beta to test drivers for the sole purpose of data collection I guess.
It's a beta. They need to know how things are performing and being used so they can see things that need fixing and prioritize changes that will have the largest effect. Without data they're blind and you get worse drivers. Just don't sign up for the beta if you don't want to participate in beta testing. It's easy.
That’s alright for now. But I’m not comfortable having hardware that can actually share data with manufacturers. It might be used for improvement atm, but tech industry has been quite creative lately when it comes to harvesting data and being intrusive. I’m so disappointed in this industry on that matter that I may have become too cautious, idk
"WONT SOMEONE STOP THIS DYSTOPIAN NIGHTMARE OF BEING ABLE TO SIGN UP FOR A BETA THAT IS ACTUALLY A BETA AND REQUIRES ACTUAL DATA COLLECTION (THAT I CAN ACTUALLY OPT OUT OF IF I DONT WANT TO PARTICIPATE) TO ACTUAL DO ITS ACTUAL BETA JOB OF IMPROVING THE SOFTWARE?! SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!11one!1"
Ah yes, it will stay a Beta for ever and data collected will always be only for improvement. This is 100% sure, tech history has always been this way. There is no possible way to turn this otherwise.
"I'm just gonna ignore the fact that I can opt out with a single click, and continue to be a dick about it, because admitting I'm wrong is not something I am willing to ever consider"
You don’t get what I’m saying at all.
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(15 replies)
These are BETA DRIVERS. The point of beta releases is data collection.
You can also simply opt out if you want.
Mountain out of a mole hill.
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Don't install beta products if you don't want to partake in said beta.
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Read what you're agreeing to and opt out of the data collection if you don't want to have your data collected.
Saw a lot of posts on this topic, but this is the first time I am learning the drivers in question are Beta drivers.
Yeah because it's harder to bitch and moan about data collection when you're opting in to a program that is literally for data collection.
But my privacy! I want all the latest and most unstable shit without giving anything back!
There are reasons to use beta products even if you don't have any interest in sharing data. I have to use a beta version of Firefox for Android, for example, because Mozilla decided stable releases aren't allowed to access about:config or install addons they didn't vet. I've also uses beta drivers for a while when stable release drivers crashed my computer.
If companies didn't push their betas as timely bug fixes as often (and just made the data collection opt-in like they should do anyway) we'd probably see less outcry about this.
huh? Of course you can access about:config on stable releases and install addons from outside their website?
And you installed beta drivers to see if they run better than the latest version. Would have you reported your findings back or just keep it to you?
Firefox for Android does not let you access about:config and comes with an addon whitelist. Your options are to use the beras/nightlies or to use forks that don't support things like EME.
I reported my findings on the bets drivers on the forum that linked them to me, but I doubt anyone ever looked into those. This was years ago, but I've never seen a manufacturer respond to forum topics with anything useful.
If companies would add feedback buttons to their software instead of telemetry, I'd be willing to provide it. I've only seen Microsoft take feedback through their software, though, and that feedback seems to disappear into a black hole that nobody reads or cares about.
could have said that you were talking about firefox for android from the get go :)
Oops, I thought I did! I edited my comment, apologies for the confusion!
I can promise you, the feedback is being read. They won't respond, but it's being seen. They also may not choose to change it in the way you want, because of how much effort it'd take or it going against their goals, but it's being viewed by someone.
I'm not sure if getting left on read makes the situation any better.
The point of betas/alphas is for testing. They aren't really to help you out. If they don't get testing data, there's no sense in them letting users use it, then complaining about it breaking something and not getting the data to fix it with.
I'm opting out of your logic and sensical statements you bastard. Rabbo rabbo rabbo rabbo
Windows drivers only.
If you are on a spyware platform, what can you expect otherwise?
Lol saved me a click thanks
Damn. I was thinking: what the actual fuck, I escaped Windows and now this?
Laughs in Mesa
Can you imagine some marketing firm contacting intel to pay for the user data scraped by their customers GPUs?
Like how is that real.
The fact that Nvidia has been doing this for ages without opt-out (afaik) makes Intel look more humane in comparison.
There might be some bias involved based on the third paragraph:
The good news is that users can opt out of this data collection by deselecting it during the installation process. However, the process isn’t too straightforward either unlike AMD, which explicitly asks the user whether they want to opt out of data collection. Nvidia, however, enables and installs its Telemetry components by default and users are unable to opt out of it.
How is it biased to point out whether you can disable telemetry and how simple it is to do so?
To me, the article title is biased clickbait because it implies Intel is worse than the other GPU options. But Nvidia has been doing the same shit for years.
But I'm not the person you replied to.
Perhaps this is because they expect their readers to know Nvidia is a shit country, while Intel sits squarely in the "meh, they try at least" range?
I would add an entire paragraph titled "at least they're doing better than Nvidia" but people are probably sick of hearing about the bloatware Nvidia installs in your computer.
Claiming that Intel is not as shitty as Nvidia is pretty bold.
Uh by stating how it is during installation of beta drivers from the competition is bias?
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