Intel's GPU Drivers Now Collect Telemetry, Including 'How You Use Your Computer'

When Intel joined the discrete GPU market almost a year ago, everyone wondered when it would catch up with Nvidia and AMD. As of August 2023, it apparently has, at least in one respect; like its competitors, Intel has introduced a telemetry collection service by default in the latest beta driver for its Arc GPUs. You can opt out of it, but we all know most people just click "yes" to everything during a software installation. Intel's release notes for the drivers don't mention this change to how its drivers work, which is a curious omission.

News of Intel adding telemetry collection to its drivers is a significant change to how its GPU drivers work. Intel has even given this new collation routine a cute name—the Intel Computing Improvement Program. Gee, that sounds pretty wonderful. We want to improve our computing, so let's dive into the details briefly. According to TechPowerUp, which discovered the change, Intel has created a landing page for the program that explains what is collected and what isn't. At a high level, it states, "This program uses information about your computer's performance to make product improvements that may benefit you in the future."

Intel's Computing Improvement Program is enabled by default in the installation process, but you can prevent it from being installed if you don't want Intel having this much information about your computing. Credit: Intel

Though that sounds innocuous, Intel provides a long list of the types of data it collects, many unrelated to your computer's performance. Those include the types of websites you visit, which Intel says are dumped into 30 categories and logged without URLs or information that identifies you, including how long and how often you visit certain types of sites. It also collects information on "how you use your computer" but offers no details. It will also identify "Other devices in your computing environment." Numerous performance-related data points are also captured, such as your CPU model, display resolution, how much memory you have, and, oddly, your laptop's average battery life.

Though this sounds like an egregious overreach regarding the type of data captured, to be fair to Intel, it allows you to opt out of this program. That is apparently not the case with Nvidia, which doesn't even ask for permission at any point during driver installation, according to TechPowerUp. AMD, on the other hand, does give you a choice to opt out like Intel does, regardless of what other options you choose during installation, and even provides an explainer about what it's collecting.

The Computing Improvement Program is listed as an optional feature of Intel's 101.4578 beta drivers for Arc GPUs, and the company provides a link to the page above to see what it's tracking. You can easily uncheck the box if you don't feel comfortable with the amount of data collection it offers, so just be vigilant when installing these drivers.

Also, although Intel's decision to add this feature to its drives may be disconcerting, it's par for the course these days, as we explained above. It's just a surprise it took Intel this long to adopt it. Windows 11 also transmits a lot of user data, though it can be challenging to pin down the exact details.