AMD making money from ad revenue from installing drivers!?!?

[leadeater]

18 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

Yes, but putting it on the desktop is a very big difference. Come on leadeater, you know better than this.

Yes, it changes it to an advertisement which it wouldn't be if hidden away. I mean an ad you never see is rather ineffective.

 

The only thing I don't like about this is the tracking service they used, using their own would have been much better and trustworthy. Bitly is a service I associate with the worst parts of the internet. But as you no doubt have seen me express earlier I have no objections at all to what was done, I'd even have preferred them to have been making money off of it.

 

Effectiveness of advertising also needs to be measured so you can analyse the impact of it and potential return on investment, tacking does this as solely counting sign-ups does not measure how many people viewed the ad, interacted with it and then decided not to take up the offer.

 

What would have been better in my eyes and no doubt changed the entire conversation if it was actually a private invite to a closed beta for using Radeon products.

 

Now if anyone has actually taken notice of recent driver installs for Radeon drivers they'll know ads are directly embedded in to the installation process, has been for a very long time. So are we complaining about ads or links being placed on desktops? One of those complaints is a bit late to the party.

[LAwLz]

4 hours ago, leadeater said:

Yes, it changes it to an advertisement which it wouldn't be if hidden away. I mean an ad you never see is rather ineffective.

Exactly

 

4 hours ago, leadeater said:

But as you no doubt have seen me express earlier I have no objections at all to what was done

Well that's where your opinion and mine differs. I do object to drivers putting ads on my desktop (or anywhere else for that matter, including the ads in the driver control panel).

 

 

4 hours ago, leadeater said:

What would have been better in my eyes and no doubt changed the entire conversation if it was actually a private invite to a closed beta for using Radeon products.

I agree, but only if they had handled the entire thing better.

How about having an opt-in "create an account for the Quake Beta" during install? And you would have been guaranteed an invite since you used an AMD graphics card.

That way they would have been upfront about it instead of sneak in an ad which did not even guarantee you beta access.

Edited April 29, 2017 by W-L
Moderation Content

[W-L]

Alright thread has been cleaned, keep things related to the main topic at hand. 

 

 

[Prysin]

8 hours ago, zMeul said:

you forget this is LTT and certain group of people are known to attack me for speaking against AMD 

Have you ever stopped, and asked yourself, whether it is the #fakenews spin you take on almost all news, or the news themselves people are attacking you for?

 

As for the driver.

2 hours ago, W-L said:

Alright thread has been cleaned, keep things related to the main topic at hand. 

 

 

you should lock this thread. It is utter BS. I installed the 17.4.4 driver today, AND ive tried the 17.4.3 driver. NEITHER give you this link. Regardless if you use custom or express. So either AMD fixed it since i DLd the driver last night, or - most likely - this thread is bullshit.

[Dackzy]

8 hours ago, zMeul said:

you forget this is LTT and certain group of people are known to attack me for speaking against AMD 

 

 

Maybe there is a reason why? It might be because you spin things to fit your agenda.

 

To the people that said they didn't agree to this, yes you did. Read terms and conditions and stop doing the fast install.....

[LAwLz]

11 minutes ago, Prysin said:

you should lock this thread. It is utter BS. I installed the 17.4.4 driver today, AND ive tried the 17.4.3 driver. NEITHER give you this link. Regardless if you use custom or express. So either AMD fixed it since i DLd the driver last night, or - most likely - this thread is bullshit.

They fixed it. If you look at the OP you will see that it has been edited to include this info. There was a backlash and AMD changed the driver to no longer include the ad.

 

I don't see why it should be locked. The title should be edited to include the new info that has come out since it was posted however.

 

 

8 minutes ago, Dackzy said:

Maybe there is a reason why? It might be because you spin things to fit your agenda.

 

To the people that said they didn't agree to this, yes you did. Read terms and conditions and stop doing the fast install.....

Barely anyone actually reads the ToS. It is almost impossible to read all of them these days, especially if you expect people to read them every single update because the company you are downloading from might have changed them to include something you do not agree with.

If Nvidia put "we are allowed to murder your dog" in the middle of the TOS would you be saying "well you did agree to them murdering your dog. Should have read the TOS!"? But just because you put it somewhere in the TOS does not make it OK. They might be legally allowed to do it, but not ethically (hence the big backlash and quick backpedaling).

 

And if I understand the news correctly, the shortcut got installed even if you picked custom and unchecked everything. Users were not prompted if they wanted it at all, and no info was included about it. It just appeared all of a sudden.

[Prysin]

3 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

They fixed it. If you look at the OP you will see that it has been edited to include this info. There was a backlash and AMD changed the driver to no longer include the ad.

 

I don't see why it should be locked. The title should be edited to include the new info that has come out since it was posted however.

i know they have fixed it later on. But my DL was done just a few hours after zMeul posted... So it shouldnt have been affected....

 

And since the error has been corrected, allegedly, there is no point for this topic other then cause unnecessary flaming, baiting and reports. This thread has no more reason to live, then a troubleshooting question that has been thoroughly solved and repaired.

[XenosTech]

5 hours ago, LAwLz said:

I don't understand what you're trying to say here. What AMD did was not good. Nobody is trying to find reasons to twist a good deed from AMD into a bad thing. Even a lot of AMD fans were upset about this because it is clearly not something that benefits consumers. It only benefits AMD and Bethesda.

Was speaking in general not specific to this per say.

 

5 hours ago, LAwLz said:

Which is a completely different thing.

Putting a suspicious link on my desktop with an URL I can't check where it goes is something malware would do. Putting an icon in the install folder is something programs do, and it's the icon for the program you actually installed.

Steam putting its icon in the steam folder = OK

Steam adding a suspicious shortcut with an obscured URL on my desktop without telling me = Not OK

 

This really should not be that difficult to understand.

At least it's in a place where you can see it and not hidden away in the install directory where you wouldn't check in the first place... which one seems more suspect in that case ? Some of them will open tabs in your browser when you performed certain trigger actions

[zMeul]

24 minutes ago, Dackzy said:

Maybe there is a reason why? It might be because you spin things to fit your agenda.

 

To the people that said they didn't agree to this, yes you did. Read terms and conditions and stop doing the fast install.....

1. I haven't spun anything
2. did the AMD's TOS include installing adware and malware in general, I don't recall seeing that
3. there is no option in the install to skip adding the shortcut

[Dackzy]

8 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

Barely anyone actually reads the ToS. It is almost impossible to read all of them these days, especially if you expect people to read them every single update because the company you are downloading from might have changed them to include something you do not agree with.

If Nvidia put "we are allowed to murder your dog" in the middle of the TOS would you be saying "well you did agree to them murdering your dog. Should have read the TOS!"? But just because you put it somewhere in the TOS does not make it OK. They might be legally allowed to do it, but not ethically (hence the big backlash and quick backpedaling).

 

And if I understand the news correctly, the shortcut got installed even if you picked custom and unchecked everything. Users were not prompted if they wanted it at all, and no info was included about it. It just appeared all of a sudden.

 

I don't say that I agree with what AMD did, but it is in their rights and people have agreed to it, so using this poor excuse that they didn't agree to, is just a poor excuse. It is always a poor argument to say I didn't agree to this when it comes to these things because you never read them and the likely hood of it being in there somewhere is very big. Always go against companies if they do things you don't agree with, to show them that they have done something wrong, but for the love of god don't say "I didn't agree to this", because you did

 

Also no I updated my software around half a day before this topic went live, I went through custom and I didn't get the shortcut and who the fuck really cares if they give you a shortcut for a beta of a game? If you don't want it then delete it. This shit has been blown way out of proportion.

[LAwLz]

Just now, Prysin said:

i know they have fixed it later on. But my DL was done just a few hours after zMeul posted... So it shouldnt have been affected....

 

And since the error has been corrected, allegedly, there is no point for this topic other then cause unnecessary flaming, baiting and reports. This thread has no more reason to live, then a troubleshooting question that has been thoroughly solved and repaired.

I disagree.

There is clearly a discussion to be had about the ethics of what happened, and just because the issue has been solved does not mean the thread should be locked. Should all threads get locked as soon as the issue is fixed?

 

So if Nvidia released a drive that bricked cards all threads about it should be locked and/or deleted as soon as they release an update about it, even if there is a fairly civil discussion about drivers going on inside the thread?

 

 

1 minute ago, XenosTech said:

At least it's in a place where you can see it and not hidden away in the install directory where you wouldn't check in the first place... which one seems more suspect in that case ?

The one that is put on the desktop will clearly be more suspect, since the other one will probably not even be found by most users. A Trojan horse wants to be clicked on by a user.

[Prysin]

4 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

I disagree.

There is clearly a discussion to be had about the ethics of what happened, and just because the issue has been solved does not mean the thread should be locked. Should all threads get locked as soon as the issue is fixed?

 

So if Nvidia released a drive that bricked cards all threads about it should be locked and/or deleted as soon as they release an update about it, even if there is a fairly civil discussion about drivers going on inside the thread?

 

 

The one that is put on the desktop will clearly be more suspect, since the other one will probably not even be found by most users. A Trojan horse wants to be clicked on by a user.

Ofcourse the bricked driver thread should be locked. A new thread regarding compensation of bricked devices, legal action taken and or compensations made should thus be made.

 

 

[Tomsen]

9 minutes ago, zMeul said:

1. I haven't spun anything
2. did the AMD's TOS include installing adware and malware in general, I don't recall seeing that
3. there is no option in the install to skip adding the shortcut

1) You are spinning in that very same comment.

2) They didn't install any kind of adware or malware. Do you even know what that actually is? They didn't install anything. I'm rather convinced the TOS allows AMD to create a desktop link. You really want to debate that?

[LAwLz]

2 minutes ago, Prysin said:

Ofcourse the bricked driver thread should be locked. A new thread regarding compensation of bricked devices, legal action taken and or compensations made should thus be made.

Well I guess that's up to the mods to decide.

I personally don't think you should kill a thread as soon as the issue the news are about has been resolved. It just kills healthy discussions within the thread. If there is nothing else to discuss then the thread will die naturally. It also becomes a moderation nightmare since you would need to constantly keep track of all threads, making sure not to lock them too soon but not to late either, and if the problem comes back you need to reopen them again. It's just a huge mess.

 

The title should be updated to reflect the new information (remove the part about AMD making money, and add "Update: new update no longer includes the ad") though.

[SageOfSpice]

Politics. Everybody is right and wrong at the exact same time.

 

This really isn't an uncommon practice when it comes to software, but I think that many users feel that they are obligated to have access to these driver updates by purchasing the product, and thus shouldn't be subjected to intrusive forms of advertising when receiving an update for their product. I personally believe that's fairly understandable.

 

The other crowd is coming from the mindset of unauthorized access and modification of a personal environment. I'm not sure if anything is actually installed in this process, but the concept of having files and programs installed to your computer in the background without clear indication can be a concerning issue. Perhaps not for the average gamer, but when you have sensitive information on your computer, or rely on information and content stored on your PC to make a living, trusting that a company has your interests in mind and hasn't installed some sort of malicious program can be difficult to do.

 

I wouldn't personally blow this too far out of proportion. I do think AMD does deserve a bit of a slap on the wrist for not making the installation of this addition software more apparent, but I don't feel they deserve whatever witch hunt this thread is turning out to be.

 

The overarching issue is that trust was broken.

[mr moose]

1 hour ago, Prysin said:

i know they have fixed it later on. But my DL was done just a few hours after zMeul posted... So it shouldn't have been affected....

 

 

That's assuming this thread was posted before the update.    In any case it still happened and is worth discussing.  I have had my opinions changed on many things by discussing them after the fact and after they were resolved. 

[mr moose]

7 hours ago, Bouzoo said:

Oh, I thought you left like 2 years ago? LTT nostalgia got you?

 

Not quite nostalgia, funnily enough I got drawn back in responding to an NBN thread (that's why I joined in the first place). NBN and politics being a fascination for me.

Also I haven't read the last 2 pages of this thread so I don't know what has been discussed.

[HimymCZe]

... still better then linking mandatory nGreedia account with facebook and TELEMETRY.

[zMeul]

22 minutes ago, HimymCZe said:

... still better then linking mandatory nGreedia account with facebook and TELEMETRY.

1. installing GFE is optional
2. logging into GFE is optional
3. telemetry can be blocked from within a firewall, even Windows' integrated one
4. what AMD did was not optional
5. if nVidia does something anti-consumer when did it became OK for AMD to do it too?

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, zMeul said:

what AMD did was not optional

You don't have to click on the link.

You can delete the link.

Sure it wasn't option but it's still less dickish than GFE.

[Jito463]

1 hour ago, zMeul said:

installing GFE is optional

Only if you select the custom install option

1 hour ago, zMeul said:

logging into GFE is optional

Only if you don't want automatic driver updates.

1 hour ago, zMeul said:

telemetry can be blocked from within a firewall, even Windows' integrated one

That requires manually configuring the firewall, something most people don't know how to do.

1 hour ago, zMeul said:

what AMD did was not optional

No, but it's easy to delete.  Don't want them to track you from the bit.ly link?  Don't click on the shortcut.

1 hour ago, zMeul said:

if nVidia does something anti-consumer when did it became OK for AMD to do it too?

It's not, but that assumes that a shortcut on your desktop qualifies as "anti-consumer".

[zMeul]

20 minutes ago, leadeater said:

You don't have to click on the link.

You can delete the link.

Sure it wasn't option but it's still less dickish than GFE.

how the fuck is it less dickish than GFE?

did AMD gave the option to not add the shortcut on the desktop? they did not! and that's where the problem lies and that's why AMD's own fanboys went up in flames

you simply can chose not to install GFE

[zMeul]

5 minutes ago, Jito463 said:

Only if you select the custom install option

Only if you don't want automatic driver updates.

That requires manually configuring the firewall, something most people don't know how to do.

No, but it's easy to delete.  Don't want them to track you from the bit.ly link?  Don't click on the shortcut.

It's not, but that assumes that a shortcut on your desktop qualifies as "anti-consumer".

• nVidia gives you this option, AMD did not; also, AMD didn't inform anywhere that the drivers will include a promotional link
• how hard is it to check for driver updates manually?
• -
• that's what adware is
• yes, see above ^

[MoonSpot]

Amazing.  AMD did fix/remove the shortcut after a handful of hours of people pointing out the problem with it, but for whatever reason here we are weeks later /w people pretending like it still happening.  Personally I happen to like it when people/organizations acknowledge a problem/error and correct it.

 

This thread is just...

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, zMeul said:

how the fuck is it less dickish than GFE?

did AMD gave the option to not add the shortcut on the desktop? they did not! and that's where the problem lies and that's why AMD's own fanboys went up in flames

you simply can chose not to install GFE

 

1 hour ago, zMeul said:

• nVidia gives you this option, AMD did not; also, AMD didn't inform anywhere that the drivers will include a promotional link
• how hard is it to check for driver updates manually?
• -
• that's what adware is
• yes, see above ^

Yea lets not pretend a shortcut is anything more than it is please. If you have a credible complaint then bring it to the table otherwise the minor issue has been resolved already.

 

By deleting the shortcut you aren't straight up locked out of features, punished in any way, or inconvenienced by some other means.

 

The link was not monetized and was used for marketing assessment. Any link like that always will be, obvious or not which this one was cos you know... they were using a paid service that does that who also does monetized links as well.

 

The service they choose to use is also one I extremely dislike and is one I put in with the rest of the gutter trash of the internet.

 

49 minutes ago, MoonSpot said:

-snip-

And I'll beat that darn horse till it regains life lol.