I was a bit taken aback today when my graphics card driver popped up a notification to get me to subscribe to their e-mail list and receive yet more e-mail I don't want / need. This got me digging into the Adrenalin control center preferences and I simply can't believe the amount of snooping that's on by default.
You should not:
- Send me ads, particularly via notifications, ever.
- Enroll me in a customer improvement without a massive warning and consent, let alone without my approval.
- Provide no way to fully disable the Adrenalin control center.
Yes, yes, I know that a corporate representative will likely respond with some boilerplate about how "we feel that this increases customer value and enables us to better improve software" etc, but it doesn't. It's not necessary in the slightest, and if you want people to participate you should make them opt _IN_, not out. You should never push ads to your customers. We bought an incredibly expensive piece of hardware to use from you. We did not sign up for data mining. This isn't social media.
In this day and age, when companies are facing a backlash about surveillance capitalism and social media companies are being brought up on charges, and with the proliferation of EU-like GDPR laws, this does not show well.
This is a graphics driver first and foremost. Full stop. It should not need to access the Internet for any reason other than updates without me EXPLICITLY opting in, and it should NOT advertise to me. Ever.
I've been an AMD fan ever since the ATI Mach 64 and AMD K6 days and this just makes me incredibly sad. Please do better.
