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Wacom drawing tablets track the name of every application that you open

robertheaton.com

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Re: Wacom drawing tablets track the name of every application that you open

#31

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

tailspin2019 wrote: post #6
haxiomic wrote: post #2

This was a wonderful read I think when I was younger I’d assumed the sheer number of technical users out there would mean it would be hard for companies to get away with things like this but these days I realize this sort of analysis and public exposition is actually rare and the number of skilled developers investing time in this is slim Perhaps collectively as a community we can create public bug and privacy bounti…

> Perhaps collectively as a community we can create public bug and privacy bounties that enable and incentivise more work like this Interesting idea! If it was ethical (ie still properly followed responsible disclosure processes etc) I’d donate to something like this. EDIT: Also if supported by someone like the EFF maybe there could be a degree of legal cover for any potential issues.

What ethical issue do you see? What is there to responsibly disclose? Software vendors do this on purpose; they don't need notification.

Re: Wacom drawing tablets track the name of every application that you open

#32

Post by d3nj4l »

xoa wrote: post #11
JKCalhoun wrote: post #7

I never thought I would want a "walled garden" on my desktop, but these shit software stacks that companies are integrating into their products are forcing me to want to fight back to lock down my machine. I would love a simple utility that could not only neatly encapsulate and display the data being sent from my machine out on the network but also allow me to merely check a box to block that traffic. A smart initial…

> I would love a simple utility that could not only neatly encapsulate and display the data being sent from my machine out on the network but also allow me to merely check a box to block that traffic. Does Little Snitch not meet your needs there? I believe even with the challenges caused by Apple's unfortunate elimination of kernel extensions it's still powerful and effective. The GUI is solid and I've had solid succ…

OpenSnitch is a good equivalent for Linux users, btw. Don’t assume you’re not being mined for data because you’re on Linux!

Re: Wacom drawing tablets track the name of every application that you open

#33

Post by amelius »

encryptluks2 wrote: post #8

Start voting with your wallet. I think this is specific to Wacom tablets, but there are many vendors that provide Wacom hardware without their specific OS. I wonder if there is a good open source ROM for drawing tablets?

Voting does not work if the majority of voters doesn't care.

Re: Wacom drawing tablets track the name of every application that you open

#34

Post by vorpalhex »

derekjdanserl wrote: post #26
haxiomic wrote: post #2

This was a wonderful read I think when I was younger I’d assumed the sheer number of technical users out there would mean it would be hard for companies to get away with things like this but these days I realize this sort of analysis and public exposition is actually rare and the number of skilled developers investing time in this is slim Perhaps collectively as a community we can create public bug and privacy bounti…

[flagged]

Wacom collecting kinda intrusive information (likely justified under knowing what applications to test their product against) is not some sort of oligarchial/royalty based plot.

I mean, everything you wrote sounds great, it just doesn't mean anything or have any relation to reality.

Re: Wacom drawing tablets track the name of every application that you open

#35

Post by reaperducer »

nbzso wrote: post #28

For OS X: Little Snitch. For Linux: Open Snitch. The other option: Offline first, air-gapped. There is no way that I run a computer without host-based application firewall.

I use Little Snitch, but find it a bit... intrusive. I find myself turning it off occasionally just to get work done.

For those of you who are in this same boat, there are Little Snitch config files you can download that come pre-loaded with lots of blocked hosts, so you don't have to do them on your own one-by-one, which is frustrating on a new system.

What I wish I could find is a Little Snitch list that only filters out tracking and profiling. I'm OK with seeing ads. I know the web sites have to make money. But I don't want to be tallied by some random social media company just because I visited a web site about artisanal brake clamps. Something that will allow ads.google.com, but not analytics.google.com. Or if they're the same, then dump the whole thing.

Re: Wacom drawing tablets track the name of every application that you open

#36

Post by wyager »

tailspin2019 wrote: post #6
haxiomic wrote: post #2

This was a wonderful read I think when I was younger I’d assumed the sheer number of technical users out there would mean it would be hard for companies to get away with things like this but these days I realize this sort of analysis and public exposition is actually rare and the number of skilled developers investing time in this is slim Perhaps collectively as a community we can create public bug and privacy bounti…

> Perhaps collectively as a community we can create public bug and privacy bounties that enable and incentivise more work like this Interesting idea! If it was ethical (ie still properly followed responsible disclosure processes etc) I’d donate to something like this. EDIT: Also if supported by someone like the EFF maybe there could be a degree of legal cover for any potential issues.

“Responsible disclosure” is a concept mostly proposed by companies looking to accommodate their own willful irresponsibility. This is even more true in the case of intentional privacy violations by software vendors. The responsible thing is to immediately put these companies on blast the moment this kind of spying is uncovered.

Re: Wacom drawing tablets track the name of every application that you open

#37

Post by tailspin2019 »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #31
tailspin2019 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Perhaps collectively as a community we can create public bug and privacy bounties that enable and incentivise more work like this Interesting idea! If it was ethical (ie still properly followed responsible disclosure processes etc) I’d donate to something like this. EDIT: Also if supported by someone like the EFF maybe there could be a degree of legal cover for any potential issues.

What ethical issue do you see? What is there to responsibly disclose? Software vendors do this on purpose; they don't need notification.

> Software vendors do this on purpose; they don't need notification.

I must admit I didn't put much thought into my comment on ethics but I guess what I had in mind is perhaps a scenario where the behaviour is not actually intentional, and the vendor should at least be properly informed that there may be leakage (to them) of private data as opposed to just jumping straight to blogging about it.

So rather than "responsible disclosure" perhaps just a code of conduct to ensure that such a program doesn't just attract people looking for glory and blog posts, but actually has a standardised way to report these issues to the vendor and give them an opportunity to fix and/or respond.

I don't mean to dilute the core of the idea though, it's a good one, and it definitely needs to be geared towards being in favour of the consumer rather than letting the vendor off the hook.

Re: Wacom drawing tablets track the name of every application that you open

#38

Post by ivanmontillam »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #15
rocqua wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't take much of a walled garden to prevent mouse drivers from surreptitious network access. It only takes a capability based permission system.

You're right. I shouldn't have said "walled garden" — a permissions system is a perfectly adequate solution.

We could go a bit further with MAC (Mandatory Access Control). Something like SELinux.

Properly understood, SELinux can provide rock-solid security. Of course, it's not a replacement of other security software, but it can prevent most of sneaky leakages such as the we had just seen in this post.

MacOS doesn't ship with SELinux, but I believe it has something similar.

Re: Wacom drawing tablets track the name of every application that you open

#39

Post by tailspin2019 »

wyager wrote: post #36
tailspin2019 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Perhaps collectively as a community we can create public bug and privacy bounties that enable and incentivise more work like this Interesting idea! If it was ethical (ie still properly followed responsible disclosure processes etc) I’d donate to something like this. EDIT: Also if supported by someone like the EFF maybe there could be a degree of legal cover for any potential issues.

“Responsible disclosure” is a concept mostly proposed by companies looking to accommodate their own willful irresponsibility. This is even more true in the case of intentional privacy violations by software vendors. The responsible thing is to immediately put these companies on blast the moment this kind of spying is uncovered.

I do see your point, but I still think a standardised way to at least make sure the vendor is aware of the issue would be needed if we're talking about a formal program. Not necessarily holding off publishing to do so though.

But I don't mean to back the side of vendors unduly here...

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