sigh... their tablets are quite good if you like to paint digitally. Time to look for non existent third party drivers for windows. This is why a software firewall can be helpful. Since I use Windows I expect there are no alternative drivers. You can use the tablets without drivers in a very restricted manner. I don't know how to solve this besides strong regulations. Big firewall to China?
I mean the author notes that you can decline and the software keeps working. I don't have a Wacom tablet so can't confirm, and it doesn't justify what they're doing but at least it's relatively easy to opt-out.
It's a confirmation bias problem. Customers who fill out surveys and give direct feedback back to vendors are frequently lower-usage enthusiasts that aren't representative of your overall userbase. I work on a product, and we include some telemetry. I'm also a strong privacy advocate, and I believe I've done my best within the corporate realm to ensure that the data we're collecting is extremely scoped AND useful for…
As a user, even if you're up about these things and why they're important for product development, my answer is still "No." Because I will only say "Yes" if I'm being paid or otherwise compensated specifically for that input. I think it's important companies pay for usage testing so that they value that information and are more likely to hold it closely since it represents an investment and is perceived as competitiv…
That's why a sane data collection is aggreggate, upfront about the data it collects, avoidable, and most of all, explicitly opt-in. Alas, this requires eternal vigilance, as the pushback is neverending.
The best part is where the author admits to using google analytics himself to track who visits his blog. At some point we all have to say enough is enough.
Except that visiting a website is a known, expected information leak to the website owner, and for 70% of web users also automatically to Google. On the other hand leaking the list of apps on your local computer, and to a third-party to top it off, is unexpected and thus more harmful.
In theory yes.
In reality no one cares what apps you use. They will do some big data analysis and thats it.
So they got list of apps, and did some analysis on the data.
Should they disclose it upfront? Sure, it would be nice.
If this a big deal? Doesn't seem so.
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…
Isn't the cid being sent specifically to identify the user?
This is just one of many reasons to use StevenBlack's Hosts [1] list to block this type of behavior. While it doesn't currently block link.wacom.com, it would have prevented the subsequent requests google analytics. It works even better when paired with a PiHole [2] to protect all devices on the network. [1] https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts [2] https://pi-hole.net/
I don't know enough about webdev, but why is google analytics request sent by the client? Wouldn't it be easier for the webhost to send a request to google "this IP with this browser connected to me requesting this content", making it impossible to block on the client side?
On Linux you'd be using the community-maintained drivers[0], so I assume this wouldn't be a problem (correct me if I'm wrong). But as far as I can tell, there's not equivalent Open Wacom drivers for Windows. People with more Windows knowledge than me: any thoughts on why? Is it just that someone using Windows probably doesn't care about Open drivers, so the demand isn't there? Or is there something about Windows that…
Here is an open source driver that has been made that supports Wacom and Huion tablets https://github.com/hawku/TabletDriver These were made to reduce input latency to increase performance in a rhythm game called "osu!"
Wow, thanks. Mentioning osu! will probably cost me a few hours after work.
Never thought of using a tablet for it, but I am so going to try that!
Like a survey? I'm not sure the information would be all that accurate. If you want to put resources into "hey folks like to use this product with ours" you need accurate information.
Do what companies have always done: pay for user studies and focus groups.