NVIDIA Adds Telemetry to Latest Drivers - How To Disable It




Over the weekend some news broke that Nvidia has added telemetry logging into it's driver. We know that GeForce Experience already is collecting users, hardware and game data, but new to us is that they enabled it directly into their drivers now as well.
We know nothing about what nvidia actually is logging, it might just be that in crash events Nvidia is receiving a crash dump, Nvidia could also be tracking other stuff. The only party that can explain what is logged, is Nvidia themselves.
MajorGeeks posted a small tutorial on how to disable Telemetry using Sysinternals, you can use Registry Editor to disable these as well.
Type nvidia in the filter box. You will find Telemetry in the Task Scheduler section and the nVIDIA Wireless Controller, and ShadowPlay services further down under the registry entries. Uncheck what you don't want, close and reboot. If you get an error, close the program and right click on Autoruns.exe or Autoruns64.exe and "Run as Administrator." Here is an image showing you how to get it done: Read more at: https://tr.im/1deVb
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The only change I want nvidia to make is to remove the forced login from GFE 3.
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What is the purpose of telemetry for a video card driver?
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Types of games played, settings, performance data, logs when driver crashes, etc.
Data is super important for everything, even without any personal information attached. The unfortunate aspect is that many people equate it to spying due to targeted marketing.
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I think driver telemetry could be a good thing, leaving mine enabled
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This.
But people are plagued with paranoia.
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Before telemetry: People experience a bug, they see a BSOD, or stuttering, or a certain part of Windows doesn't work anymore / game crashes
They report to NVIDIA/AMD
NVIDIA/AMD can not reproduce
End user can not explain the problem in enough detail because they can only see the outcome of the bug
Bug remains in subsequent drivers for months and people start flooding forums with angry posts about the same bug still causing the same problem driver after driver
After telemetry: (In theory) - NVIDIA/AMD see a detailed report of the bug and the cause coming in from a whole range of different setups in real-time, quickly get it fixed for the next driver release / issue a hotfix without having to pull teeth from end-user who can only describe the symptoms
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This.
But people are plagued with paranoia.
I think thats unfair.
I didnt start this threadto cause paranoia. I simply think its fair people are aware of what their PC's ...you know Personal computers, are doing.
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I think thats unfair.
I didnt start this threadto cause paranoia. I simply think its fair people are aware of what their PC's ...you know Personal computers, are doing.
Absolutely right and thanks for making us aware of it.
People should have the choice, that is the point.
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This.
But people are plagued with paranoia.
Same here, i stopped caring about data collection. It's what happens all day long even when watching TV, making a phone call, cameras in public etc etc.
If you're too paranoid about that you might as well go live as a caveman again.
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If you're too paranoid about that you might as well go live as a caveman again.
No doubt there will be CCTV in the cave anyway
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I don't mind them adding driver telemetry - I just feel like they should have been opened/talked about it, what they are collecting, why they are collecting it and how it's going to help the driver program.. before they just shoved it into a driver.
I kind of wish Nvidia was just more open/communicable in general about it's drivers/future plans. My experience in the past year or so with their stuff has been less then stellar.
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Not to mention they removed the ability to record short 30 second videos...
I already switched to Plays TV.
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I think thats unfair.
I didnt start this threadto cause paranoia. I simply think its fair people are aware of what their PC's ...you know Personal computers, are doing.
I don't mind them adding driver telemetry - I just feel like they should have been opened/talked about it, what they are collecting, why they are collecting it and how it's going to help the driver program.. before they just shoved it into a driver.
I kind of wish Nvidia was just more open/communicable in general about it's drivers/future plans. My experience in the past year or so with their stuff has been less then stellar.
This is the whole point. Anonymous telemetry, even opt-in, is fine, as long as the option to turn it off exists, and it's not hidden on purpose. I wish they made a nice video about it, explain plainly the implementation and not try to hide.
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I dont have that since I never install gfe and all that extra bloatware, for me they can add even more bloatware and I'll happily delete all before I press install driver setup.exe.

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As long as it's only keeping performance/compatibility statistics without personal identification (and yes, it is possible to do that), it's a smart move.