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Wacom tablets track every app you open

robertheaton.com

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Re: Wacom tablets track every app you open

#31

Post by marcinzm »

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.

Wacom produces multiple devices, the simplest are basically a pen based touchpad. No display and no real computing power, needs to be plugged into a computer to function in any way. The more high end ones are a pen touchpad+display but still requires a computer (ie: they're a monitor). There are also standalone tablets that use Wacom technology although I'm not sure offhand if Wacom makes any directly.

Re: Wacom tablets track every app you open

#32

Post by dmitryminkovsky »

cmcd wrote: post #13
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”?

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.

Oh okay. Makes sense. Thanks for explaining.

Re: Wacom tablets track every app you open

#33

Post by klodolph »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #2

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

When you set up an iPhone, you get this screen:

> Help Apple improve its products and services by allowing analytics of usage and data from your iPhone.

It’s enabled by default, but when you set up a new iPhone, it prompts you and gives you a button to turn it off (it’s not just buried in settings).

Re: Wacom tablets track every app you open

#34

Post by buddylw »

throwaway55554 wrote: post #7
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #2

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

Being actual operating systems, I can understand why. I mean, it's pretty convenient to know what's installed on my phone. However, a writing/drawing tablet doesn't need to. At all. Ever.

Wacom tablet drivers have application specific settings for compatibility. We should scrutinize all data collection, and this may be too far, but "[no need for tablet data collection] at all. Ever" is simply not true.

Re: Wacom tablets track every app you open

#35

Post by egypturnash »

wrkronmiller wrote: post #3

> as far as I can tell anyone with the presence of mind to decline it could do so with no adverse consequences Makes me think one should try declining these kinds of agreements to see what happens, before accepting. As someone who also has an "anti-privacy-policy-policy," I wonder how many of these kinds of things I've agreed to when it was unnecessary.

As far as I can tell the only consequence of declining it is that it pops up the “hey please let us have all this info” dialogue whenever you reboot. I’ve been doing this on my own machine for most of a year.

Might be different with the latest update, I haven’t bothered with that.

Re: Wacom tablets track every app you open

#36

Post by penagwin »

codezero wrote: post #12

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…

Tracking the currently open application software side is perfectly within scope for a drawing tablet - they often have buttons that can be bound to keyboard shortcuts, etc. It makes sense that it should know when you're focused on Photoshop vs Google Chrome.

But why are they sending this data to a server? My best guess is that this helps them focus on what software people are using. This allows them access to the popularity of graphic applications. They get to see what percentage of users use say Photoshop vs [Other program here] - so they know where to prioritize integrations and testing.

But I'm not sure how much "integrations" or work with third parties Wacom does - the drawing tablets are following an api standard after all. But maybe wacom does work directly with application devs, I don't really know.

I doubt they're doing this to try to track individual users - even if there are ways to do it. That said I really wish they approached this with a more friendly "Would you like to enable some basic Telemetry to improve Wacom products - Yes, No" instead of a very unfriendly user agreement where they try to force it.

Re: Wacom tablets track every app you open

#37

Post by cforrester »

buddylw wrote: post #30

Wacom has application specific settings for compatibility. You can't have that feature without tracking individual processes and that data would be important for any sort of troubleshooting. It should be anonymized and they should be clear about what they are collecting, but the data does have a legitimate and benign use at least.

Does this tracking data really need to be transmitted outside of the local environment, though? The driver simply needs to download a list of the available application profiles and compare it to the process list locally. Then, if a specific profile is available, it can request it and Wacom doesn't learn about the other processes running on the system.

Re: Wacom tablets track every app you open

#38

Post by durpleDrank »

Saw this two nights ago installing the driver on Windows 10. Read the UELA. Did not consent, closed the window. Is that good enough?

By the way, My tablet works MUCH BETTER on Ubuntu and Mint than on Windows 10. Krita and MyPaint are cross platform so I might just do my art on a *nix box instead.

Re: Wacom tablets track every app you open

#39

Post by betageek »

moron4hire wrote: post #19

"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.

Unless I'm very much mistaken, there are no application specific configs set on default install of Wacom drivers, just a generic 'All' profile.

If, and only if, I had set up an app-specific config, then maybe Wacom would be vaguely justified in tracking when I open that specific app.

'wantonly collecting unrelated data' is exactly what they're doing.

Re: Wacom tablets track every app you open

#40

Post by penagwin »

buddylw wrote: post #30

Wacom has application specific settings for compatibility. You can't have that feature without tracking individual processes and that data would be important for any sort of troubleshooting. It should be anonymized and they should be clear about what they are collecting, but the data does have a legitimate and benign use at least.

Software side you're right, it makes sense for the driver to keep track of the current application for things like button binds, etc.

But that doesn't mean they need to transmit that information off your computer.

Although I agree, this is likely relatively benign, it's most likely useful as a market research tool to see what applications they should prioritize support/testing for.

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