Wacom tablets track every app you open • Hacker News Board

Re: Wacom tablets track every app you open

#11

Post by dmitryminkovsky » Wed, Feb 05, 2020, 3:49 PM UTC

gruez wrote: post #8

dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is getting voted down, but is this not true? My iPhone knows all my top apps and shows them on whatever that screen is called, with the search, and adjusts them over time as usage changes. Maybe it’s not “more important,” but why vote this down? How do I know that data doesn’t go back to Apple with “telemetry”?

Because it’s like saying “well iOS/Android knows your contacts, so what’s the issue with Wacom siphoning your contacts?” > How do I know that data doesn’t go back to Apple with “telemetry”? By checking the privacy policy. Also, you can opt out of telemetry on iOS.

Is OP saying that? The question I interpreted was “how is this different, such that I’m seeing this on the homepage of HN?”

Re: Wacom tablets track every app you open

#12

Post by codezero » Wed, Feb 05, 2020, 3:50 PM UTC

FWIW that isn’t a unique identifier for the author, it’s for Wacom’s GA account. I didn’t see any meaningful identifier being sent. Of course the set of most opened apps and your IP are probably enough to identify you.

That said, yep, it seems lame they don’t disclose this tracking. I can understand why they’d want to know what apps their device pairs most often with, but tracking all app opens seems aggressive, but maybe it’s the only way to identify what app is open when the device is used.

(I work for an analytics company)

Re: Wacom tablets track every app you open

#13

Post by cmcd » Wed, Feb 05, 2020, 3:50 PM UTC

dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #5

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #2

More importantly, don't iOS and Android track every app you open also?

This is getting voted down, but is this not true? My iPhone knows all my top apps and shows them on whatever that screen is called, with the search, and adjusts them over time as usage changes. Maybe it’s not “more important,” but why vote this down? How do I know that data doesn’t go back to Apple with “telemetry”?

A Wacom tablet is not the same as a phone, it is a peripheral. This is like your Dell keyboard tracking your keystrokes and what application they go into.

Re: Wacom tablets track every app you open

#14

Post by efdee » Wed, Feb 05, 2020, 3:50 PM UTC

dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #5

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #2

More importantly, don't iOS and Android track every app you open also?

This is getting voted down, but is this not true? My iPhone knows all my top apps and shows them on whatever that screen is called, with the search, and adjusts them over time as usage changes. Maybe it’s not “more important,” but why vote this down? How do I know that data doesn’t go back to Apple with “telemetry”?

It's downvoted mostly because bringing up iOS and Android in a discussion about Wacom tablets seems pretty off-topic and whataboutist.

Re: Wacom tablets track every app you open

#15

Post by endorphone » Wed, Feb 05, 2020, 3:50 PM UTC

dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #5

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #2

More importantly, don't iOS and Android track every app you open also?

This is getting voted down, but is this not true? My iPhone knows all my top apps and shows them on whatever that screen is called, with the search, and adjusts them over time as usage changes. Maybe it’s not “more important,” but why vote this down? How do I know that data doesn’t go back to Apple with “telemetry”?

It's an attempt at technical whataboutism (alternately it's just confused and thinks a wacom tablet is comparable to an iPad or something). The operating system obvious has to know what apps you're running, and can store metrics to the same -- locally -- to improve your experience. There is no reason Wacom needs to know, much less share it externally. It adds zero value for the end user.

Re: Wacom tablets track every app you open

#16

Post by the_snooze » Wed, Feb 05, 2020, 3:50 PM UTC

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #2

More importantly, don't iOS and Android track every app you open also?

I think the egregious thing with Wacom is that 1) no one expects a drawing pad to have any need for remote connectivity and 2) use said remote connectivity to share usage information with third parties.

More broadly, we need to get away from this whole "but don't other people do the same thing?" dialogue when it comes to privacy. Yes, these issues are prevalent. That doesn't mean it's trivial---quite the opposite, in fact.

Re: Wacom tablets track every app you open

#17

Post by hokumguru » Wed, Feb 05, 2020, 3:50 PM UTC

dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #9

oarsinsync wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An operating system needs to be aware of every application running on it. (It doesn't need to be reporting that back to the mothership, though) I'm not sure what that has to do with a third party peripheral. You may be confusing a Wacom tablet for something like an iPad or Nexus 7? EDIT: For others who may be confused, a Wacom tablet is used to provide a pen/stylus interface to a computer. It's an additional peripher…

Maybe I’m confusing it too. I searched “Wacom tablet” and it seems to be a... tablet.

You could think of it as more like a touchscreen computer monitor. They don't run standalone.

Re: Wacom tablets track every app you open

#18

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Feb 05, 2020, 3:51 PM UTC

gruez wrote: post #8

dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is getting voted down, but is this not true? My iPhone knows all my top apps and shows them on whatever that screen is called, with the search, and adjusts them over time as usage changes. Maybe it’s not “more important,” but why vote this down? How do I know that data doesn’t go back to Apple with “telemetry”?

Because it’s like saying “well iOS/Android knows your contacts, so what’s the issue with Wacom siphoning your contacts?” > How do I know that data doesn’t go back to Apple with “telemetry”? By checking the privacy policy. Also, you can opt out of telemetry on iOS.

[deleted]

Re: Wacom tablets track every app you open

#19

Post by moron4hire » Wed, Feb 05, 2020, 3:51 PM UTC

"their device, which - remember - is essentially a mouse"

... that has per-application configuration settings that change how the tablet can be used. They aren't just wantonly collecting unrelated data. They have features tied to this.

I read the whole article to see if there was any mention of app-specific config. Doesn't come up once.

Re: Wacom tablets track every app you open

#20

Post by diffeomorphism » Wed, Feb 05, 2020, 3:51 PM UTC

While this implementation obviously has privacy issues, the anonymized aggregate data would be quite interesting, e.g. how many people use photoshop, illustrator, etc. with their wacom tablets.

The problem then seems to be more about the false positives. If you use "Half Life 3 Test Build" that is useless info for wacom because it (presumably) doesn't care about pen input. Q: If the data were filtered to just art/graphics apps using the pen, would that still be problematic?