Blackhawk wrote:I'm not a pro. I can't compete with your knowledge of computer security. I'm just honestly not sure how you go from someone saying that they don't mind signing into an Nvidia account (for an app that was already connected to the company before the sing-in was needed) to "I get that people do not care about security or data protection."
It has to do with vectors. If you give permission for something to connect to your computer, you want it to be for a good reason, you want to know why, and you want it to benefit you.
You can turn your computer into a bunker, or you can put in more windows and leave them open. One might be over kill, but the other is just tempting fate. One of the main reasons any particular person's windows box (linux box to a lesser extent) doesn't get compromised is because of the sheer number of boxes out there. You're a zebra in a sea of zebras. The other is not running software you don't trust. Less risky but still terrible practice is letting a corporation in because they ask you nicely, or in this case, hold some of the features of their product hostage unless you do.
It's not that I think Nvidia is going to compromise my computer, it's that they want me to leave the door open for them to "help" me. Since everything worked great for years without this sort of "help", it's hard to justify needing it now.
And that doesn't even cover all the different ways that Nvidia could get compromised and suddenly a hacker who as hacked a single corporate computer can push code to run on every single machine Nvidia has decided they need constant access to.
Even if your neighbourhood is safe, it's not a great idea to leave the door open when you leave the house.
I may speak hyperbolically at times, but that's because I am often greeted with at best a complete lack of concern from people, and at worse, vilified for my opinion on this.
For the record computer security is only a small part of my job (we have bigger boys with bigger toys for that) and I'm not very good at it. That said, I'd have my ass chewed off at work if I just let a hole in the firewall because the vendor "asked" me to, after I had already purchased their product.
Also for the record our AIX boxes (IBM unix) have direct lines to IBM. So there's that. In this case though, it's for genuine help and support. Not marketing and (well, less so ) control.