Sunday, November 6th 2016
NVIDIA Telemetry Spooks Privacy-sensitive Users, How to Disable it
Over the past few versions of NVIDIA GeForce drivers, the company has been bundling a telemetry tool that is enabled by default, auto-runs on Windows startup by default, and doesn't appear in the list of things you can choose not to install, when doing a custom-installation with NVIDIA GeForce driver installers. Very little is known about this new Telemetry component. For all we know, it could be a means for NVIDIA to collect crash-reports that help it improve its drivers down the line. Not everyone is convinced with this explanation.
Spanning across three separate startup tasks (a bit much for a crash reporter?), Telemetry is allegedly a means for NVIDIA to send data "back and forth." Users that are the privacy equivalent of germ-freaks might see this as a means for NVIDIA to spy on its users, for a plethora of data, such as usage patterns, etc. MajorGeeks posted a brief tutorial on how to disable Telemetry (and other bloatware included in NVIDIA drivers), using Sysinternals, but you can use Task Manager, msconfig, or Registry Editor to disable these as well.
Source:
MajorGeeks
Spanning across three separate startup tasks (a bit much for a crash reporter?), Telemetry is allegedly a means for NVIDIA to send data "back and forth." Users that are the privacy equivalent of germ-freaks might see this as a means for NVIDIA to spy on its users, for a plethora of data, such as usage patterns, etc. MajorGeeks posted a brief tutorial on how to disable Telemetry (and other bloatware included in NVIDIA drivers), using Sysinternals, but you can use Task Manager, msconfig, or Registry Editor to disable these as well.
69 Comments on NVIDIA Telemetry Spooks Privacy-sensitive Users, How to Disable it
I think one telemetry that every graphic card maker should use is:
- OS version
- graphic card model
- driver version
Such telemetry can tell you a lot of things, like what OS, graphic card and driver combination your users are using. This way you can prioritize things, know what people use most and drop support when number of users for one falls below some very low value. Instead of dropping it based on estimations and not actual data, avoiding pissing off existing users or wasting resources on drivers, graphic card or even OS no one uses anyway.
forums.geforce.com/default/topic/974556/geforce-experience/geforce-experience-update-3-1-0-52-feedback-thread/post/5014090/#5014090NVIDIA's response in a thread in their driver section is exactly the same.
forums.geforce.com/default/topic/975330/geforce-drivers/seems-the-new-nvidia-telemetry-spying-policy-is-a-great-hit-/post/5014091/#5014091
For some reason they don't mention anything about the reported installation on Win8+ and Win10 without GFE.
Double standards all day long, lying scumbags. Shame on you.
Let's have a quick poll on Your primary Windows OS:
- Windows 10
- Windows 7
- Windows 8
- Windows Vista and earlier
Why "primary Windows OS"? Some of us may have alternative OS'es installed (CentOS for me), some of us may have two or more Windows versions installed concurrently.- Do have an issue with telemetry, but aren't convinced it's intrusive enough to justify avoiding the software.
- Do have an issue with telemetry, and do accept the most extreme claims about its intrusiveness, but this is still outweighed by the disadvantages of avoiding the software.
- Do or did have an issue with telemetry but were keen to use the software and weren't able to handle the cognitive dissonance, so they supressed their telemetry concerns either universally, or in this specific instance.
- Have concerns about telemetry, but don't see any harm in this context (e.g. believe it'll only be used for purposes they consider benign, such as product improvement, marketing strategies...).
- Simply don't have any issue with telemetry of any kind (e.g. "it sends them a list of all my passwords and all my files? so what?!").
- Switch between several of the above positions depending what day of the week it is.
Add to that individual nuances and perhaps even people who don't fit any of the above.
In short, it's complicated, but it's very possible to get this without wanting it or Geforce Experience.
nobody in there right mind should buy ANYTHING with a AMD made chip
NVidia is not so stupid as to pull a Microsoft and go behind peoples backs like that. We would roast them for it!
The reality of the Radeon VS Geforce debate is that it is effectively a moot point. The Geforce and Radeon product lines have been in a literal performance tug of war for nearly 2 decades[longer if you count the Rage3D and RivaTNT lines]. Each have had ups and downs, successes and failures. One would make an advance and claim the crown of "performance king". Then the other would do the same and it continues to go back and forth to this day. The ultimate reality is that both product lines have excellent value.
Personal preference is the deciding factor for many purchases. I personally prefer the Geforce driver package methodology. However I have also owned Radeon cards and am impressed with AMD's recent product lines and reshaping of their driver packages.
For anyone on either side of the debate to say the opposite is crap is little more than fanboy engaging in mud throwing. But to say you prefer one VS the other for reasons that have logic and merit to the user in question is a better position. I am an Nvidia user, but have no ill will to AMD or their users. I am very appreciative and and even grateful for them because without them there would be little competition and Nvidia would likely become lazy and product quality would degrade.
So can we dispense with the nitwited drama and 1up-manship?
Also some interesting comment from an user on nVidia forums:
To answer your question, if it is not running, it is not using system resources. Simple as that. As the picture in the OP shows, you can run the Autoruns manager in the "Sysinternals Suite" to check if it's running and disable/delete it if found. The suite can be found here; technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb842062.aspx