Nvidia Adds Telemetry To Latest Drivers

Megalith

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I am not sure if this is anything to fuss over, but telemetry has been found in the newest driver package, likely tied to GeForce Experience. The site offers you one option of disabling things if the telemetry doesn’t sit well with you.

It's been brought to our attention that Nvidia now has telemetry included with its drivers most likely if you installed GeForce Experience with the drivers. I'm getting conflicting reports whether it's specific to GeForce Experience or not. Regardless, it also continues the bloat with Nvidia Wireless Controller and ShadowPlay services, something many don't need.
 
At least it's easy to disable. Why didn't Nvidia just leave it as opt-out and put a check box on the installer to disable it?
 
The GeForce Experience app for a few versions now has REQUIRED a user sign in either with FB or Google for it to do anything....Eff that noise.
 
At least it's easy to disable. Why didn't Nvidia just leave it as opt-out and put a check box on the installer to disable it?

It did on mine. A check box next to install GeForce Experience. hehehe.

I just got the new drivers yesterday and didn't know, but I never install GFE anyway. Never have.
 
If you don't want to bother with 3rd party tools:
SchTasks.exe /Delete /TN "NvTmMon_{B2FE1952-0186-46C3-BAEC-A80AA35AC5B8}" /F
SchTasks.exe /Delete /TN "NvTmRep_{B2FE1952-0186-46C3-BAEC-A80AA35AC5B8}" /F
SchTasks.exe /Delete /TN "NvTmRepOnLogon_{B2FE1952-0186-46C3-BAEC-A80AA35AC5B8}" /F
 
I noticed them too and I DON'T install Geforce Experience... but I just disabled them via the Task Scheduler.
 

I don't even see this shit as bad if they collect game specific driver crashes with it.
 
damn, I was too late!

I was going to post a "NB4 Nvidia Fanboys rationalise this and say it isn't bad"

But in truth, I actually don't have anything against this, but it's fun to see people who are usually wearing Guy Faux masks suddenly become complacent followers once their precious video card brand makes ant-privacy decisions.

And to all those complaining: what are you going to do, buy the competition?
 
Doesn't surprise me one bit. Once they announced GeForce Experience as mandatory it was predictable.
 
Just sold my 980TI and got a Fury X. It will tide me over till the new hotness.
 
Even though it isn't mandatory it was still predictable.
I'm surprised they didn't do it earlier.

Either way, no big deal to me. I got nothin' to hide.

It seems you can disable those 3 services in Task Scheduler without ill effect. They're obvious what they are...and the task description even says what it is. Looks like Nvidia wants to know every time you boot or login to your machine.
 
Or it's sending a list of your games to Nvidia so it can show a picture of them:

http://www.gamersnexus.net/industry/2672-geforce-experience-data-transfer-analysis

Then why 3 telemetry processes? One is on every boot/login, the other every hour?

Further I'm still reading but that link seems to think it is GFE doing this...when the telemetry processes clearly have nothing immediately to do with GFE, after after all they get installed and are running whether you have GFE installed or not. The telemetry has nothing to do with GFE....if it does then Nvidia is bloating your system with spyware and registry entries and processes to no point.


Odds are they're datamining...and any other effects are purely coincidental in intent.
 
Fuck them, AMD it is for my next card.

I dont care how bad they are.

We need to send a message that this crap is not acceptable.
 
Telemetry is not a problem. ITts lack of transparency.
Be upfront about it, and tell me what are you trying to collect. And we'll be fine.

But slip it into a driver release unannounced cloak and dagger style, and we have a problem.
 
good for you for voting with your wallet
Too bad that it is just one of many wallets...

For my part, I think my GPU splurging days are behind me. Didn't last long, either. I got 780 sli which I side graded into a 980Ti. This 980Ti is something I don't see much urge to upgrade from for at least another year or two and my monitor is Gsync. (got an ROG Swift when it first came out, not many choices back then anyhow). Now I'm stuck with Nvidia either way. But this crap is pissing me off. First the forced Nvidia login, which I got around by using a public login. Now this telemetry BS. I haven't upgraded to Windows 10 for the same reason, and I'll be leery about upgrading my drivers now.
 
good for you for voting with your wallet
I'm not trying to be offensive, just cynical, but when's the last time voting with your wallet ever solved anything regarding a loss of consumer rights? As in there was a good product, but shitty consumer practices, so people voted with their wallet, and it stopped?
 
Not too thrilled with this... was thinking about going AMD next round when I upgrade my 970, this just about seals it.
 
What's the worst thing telemetry can do in this driver? Send driver reports to Nvidia? I'm not seeing this as a huge deal just like I didn't see the GFE login requirement as a huge deal. Anyone care to enlighten me?
 
Telemetry is not a problem. ITts lack of transparency.
Be upfront about it, and tell me what are you trying to collect. And we'll be fine.

But slip it into a driver release unannounced cloak and dagger style, and we have a problem.

http://www.geforce.com/geforce-experience/faq

Q: What data does GeForce Experience send to NVIDIA?
A: The application collects data needed to recommend the correct driver update and optimal settings, including hardware configuration, operating system, language, installed games, game settings, game usage, game performance, and current driver version. If a user is signed into an NVIDIA account, the data is identifiable. All data collected is protected by NVIDIA's privacy policy.

Q: Does NVIDIA share data collected by GeForce Experience outside the company?
A: GeForce Experience does not share any personally identifiable information outside the company. NVIDIA may share aggregate-level data with select partners, but does not

GFE has been gathering information since it was released. The only difference now is that it's bundled with the driver.
 
Telemetry is not a problem. ITts lack of transparency.
Be upfront about it, and tell me what are you trying to collect. And we'll be fine.

But slip it into a driver release unannounced cloak and dagger style, and we have a problem.

^ Pretty much this ^

This "telemetry" thing should be opt-in, or at bare minimum opt-out if someone is on the tinfoil hat side of things.

On a side note: nVIDIA gathering info of my system specs and installed games is pretty much meh category after being in circulation for year on the services of Google, Facebook and what not.

PS.: I just realized this is nVIDIA ShadowPlay. :LOL:
 

I'm guessing this is what is sent to Nvidia? I don't see a big deal with this. It appears to only be info on your system and games you play. Maybe if you really, really want everything about your PC and usage to be private then I can kind of see why it can bother someone but I would disagree with them. I guess I could care less about who knows my system info and games list. It's not like it's sensitive data.
 
I'm guessing this is what is sent to Nvidia? I don't see a big deal with this. It appears to only be info on your system and games you play. Maybe if you really, really want everything about your PC and usage to be private then I can kind of see why it can bother someone but I would disagree with them. I guess I could care less about who knows my system info and games list. It's not like it's sensitive data.

I would agree its not really sensitive. For me, its not the point. Do what Steam does - ask nicely and ask permission. The whole "take what we want without asking" bullshit needs to stop.
 
http://www.geforce.com/geforce-experience/faq

Q: What data does GeForce Experience send to NVIDIA?
A: The application collects data needed to recommend the correct driver update and optimal settings, including hardware configuration, operating system, language, installed games, game settings, game usage, game performance, and current driver version. If a user is signed into an NVIDIA account, the data is identifiable. All data collected is protected by NVIDIA's privacy policy.

Q: Does NVIDIA share data collected by GeForce Experience outside the company?
A: GeForce Experience does not share any personally identifiable information outside the company. NVIDIA may share aggregate-level data with select partners, but does not

GFE has been gathering information since it was released. The only difference now is that it's bundled with the driver.

Except THIS IS NOT GExperience.

The telemetry services are installed and activated and calling home even if you choose not to install GFE at all. They get put on simply by installing a recent NVidia driver. They are independent of anything GFE is or does, and independent of any EULA/TOS applicable to GFE.
 
I'm not trying to be offensive, just cynical, but when's the last time voting with your wallet ever solved anything regarding a loss of consumer rights? As in there was a good product, but shitty consumer practices, so people voted with their wallet, and it stopped?

I'm willing to be that if all of us stopped buying their cards, they will change in a heartbeat.

They are not stupid.

But I cannot say the same thing for the majority of users here, going by the replies and how it is ok to pull crap like this.
 
Except THIS IS NOT GExperience.

The telemetry services are installed and activated and calling home even if you choose not to install GFE at all. They get put on simply by installing a recent NVidia driver. They are independent of anything GFE is or does, and independent of any EULA/TOS applicable to GFE.

"The only difference now is that it's bundled with the driver."

As of right now there isn't any proof that the information being gathered is anything more than what GFE was gathering when someone decided to install it.

I figured Nvidia was gathering hardware, crash, and potentially software data for ages now so I tend to look at this and shrug.
 
I would agree its not really sensitive. For me, its not the point. Do what Steam does - ask nicely and ask permission. The whole "take what we want without asking" bullshit needs to stop.

Fair enough. It would be best to ask permission from users to gather this data but at the end of the day the data they collect doesn't harm anyone so it's mainly the principle for some users which I can understand but it simply doesn't bother me and most people won't know it's there. I feel this whole thing will get blown out of proportion but such as life.
 
I'm willing to be that if all of us stopped buying their cards, they will change in a heartbeat.

They are not stupid.

But I cannot say the same thing for the majority of users here, going by the replies and how it is ok to pull crap like this.
Oh I think this is an absolutely a terrible practice and think it's kind of outrageous that I now I have to login online to use Shadowplay, when previously, no such requirement existed. If this is enough to turn someone to another brand, by all means, give them your business.

I just get sick of people saying the phrase "vote with your wallet" like it actually means something, because I basically have NEVER seen that change ANY anti-consumer practice by companies. Companies can get away with any shady practice they want as long as the product runs mostly okay for Joe Average. The only time "vote with your wallet" actually works is when a product is severely defective or so poorly designed it's partially unusable that the majority of people don't want it anyway. In those cases, nobody even needs to be told to vote with their wallet, because the product just flat out wasn't good. Good products laced with a loss a consumer rights almost always win the day.
 
Fair enough. It would be best to ask permission from users to gather this data but at the end of the day the data they collect doesn't harm anyone so it's mainly the principle for some users which I can understand but it simply doesn't bother me and most people won't know it's there. I feel this whole thing will get blown out of proportion but such as life.

Got to stop things when they are trickles. Its not their data, and its not their bandwidth. ASK NICELY but ASK.
 
Oh I think this is an absolutely a terrible practice and think it's kind of outrageous that I now I have to login online to use Shadowplay, when previously, no such requirement existed. If this is enough to turn someone to another brand, by all means, give them your business.

I just get sick of people saying the phrase "vote with your wallet" like it actually means something, because I basically have NEVER seen that change ANY anti-consumer practice by companies. Companies can get away with any shady practice they want as long as the product runs mostly okay for Joe Average. The only time "vote with your wallet" actually works is when a product is severely defective or so poorly designed it's partially unusable that the majority of people don't want it anyway. In those cases, nobody even needs to be told to vote with their wallet, because the product just flat out wasn't good. Good products laced with a loss a consumer rights almost always win the day.

That's pretty much what I was saying with my post in this topic. You can vote with your wallet, but you are one of many wallets. Many wallets are less informed than your wallet. One vote never actually meant much.

... Much the same as it is in our "democracy", I suppose.
 
What's the worst thing telemetry can do in this driver? Send driver reports to Nvidia? I'm not seeing this as a huge deal just like I didn't see the GFE login requirement as a huge deal. Anyone care to enlighten me?
Still would rather not have stuff phone home with information about my system. its bad enough MS already does it. This is just one less thing i have running in the background.
 
I'm not trying to be offensive, just cynical, but when's the last time voting with your wallet ever solved anything regarding a loss of consumer rights? As in there was a good product, but shitty consumer practices, so people voted with their wallet, and it stopped?
Oh I think this is an absolutely a terrible practice and think it's kind of outrageous that I now I have to login online to use Shadowplay, when previously, no such requirement existed. If this is enough to turn someone to another brand, by all means, give them your business.

I just get sick of people saying the phrase "vote with your wallet" like it actually means something, because I basically have NEVER seen that change ANY anti-consumer practice by companies. Companies can get away with any shady practice they want as long as the product runs mostly okay for Joe Average. The only time "vote with your wallet" actually works is when a product is severely defective or so poorly designed it's partially unusable that the majority of people don't want it anyway. In those cases, nobody even needs to be told to vote with their wallet, because the product just flat out wasn't good. Good products laced with a loss a consumer rights almost always win the day.

If just me alone? Never. But that is the problem people with bitch and cry and moan about something but then keep buying it. Yes it does require the majority to change. I don't disagree with you in the slightest. The issue is that 99.9% of the people won't vote with their wallets however. They don't want to change, they just want to bitch and expect that to be enough. Fuck you Nvidia. I don't like what you are doing. I will still give you $1000 every year for a new video card but you better know that I am not happily giving you my money so fuck you and just take my money. What does that change? They are still making money so they won't care. Now, if you get 25% of the people to stop buying their cards, that they will notice. But you will never get that because most people just want to bitch and not actually do anything about it. So even if it is just one person to start with that decides you know what, fuck everyone that pisses me off with their practices, I am gong to start only buying from people that I actually agree with or I am happy with the service of, that 1 person can convince other to do the same and slowly it spreads. If every person upset by this change in policy never bought another Nvidia card again and next year bought AMD cards, Nvidia would take notice. People in a group have the power to make good change with something as simple as their purchasing habits but they refuse to change them. As for having vote with your wallet work. I have seen it work a few times. A guy opened a restaurant in the town that I work. After 5 years of great service he sold it to 4 of the employees and left. Since they were paying him monthly out of the profits they decided that they wanted to make more money so that they could actually have larger profits to split 4 ways. So they raised prices 1.5x time what they were, but at the same time cut back on what you got. So for example a chicken tender and fry meal was something like 4.75 and gave you 4 tenders. They made it something like $6.95 and gave you 3 smaller sized tenders. They had a car show there ever tuesday where people would bring classic cars, they put a stop to that saying they didn't want all these people in their parking lot. People started to complain and they did nothing. So everyone stopped going there over time, till it got to the point that they were having a good week to have 6 people stop by the entire week. Within 5 months of them taking over they couldn't afford to pay the original owner and were getting ready to close the place down. The original owner took the place back from them (which was part of the original contract), put the prices back to how they were and put the food sizes back to what they were to start with. He also brought back the car show and started giving them a small discount for being there. Within a week of the reopening the place was back to being packed at lunch time. Now I understand that I am talking about a small place with much tighter margins than a large company, but just giving an example of at least one time that I have actually seen it work.

However you aren't wrong in anything that you are saying. It isn't something that normally has a large impact, but only because as you said Joe Average and even most everyone else doesn't care so the company still makes money hand over first.
 
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