If you are using Wacom tablets you might be interested to know that software engineer Robert Heaton has discovered that Wacom, “is collecting way more data than could possibly be justified”. After purchasing anywhere, product Heaton’s suspicions were triggered by the Wacom privacy policy and its need to send customer data Google Analytics, yet was very vague about the type of data it would send. Heaton Explains more about his discoveries :
“Data collected includes ‘aggregate usage data, technical session information, and information about [my] hardware device.’ The half of my heart that cares about privacy sank. The other half of my heart, the half that enjoys snooping on snoopers and figuring out what they’re up to, leapt. What requires more explanation is why Wacom think it’s acceptable to record every time I open a new application, including the time, a string that presumably uniquely identifies me, and the application’s name.”
“I suspect that Wacom doesn’t really think that it’s acceptable to record the name of every application I open on my personal laptop. I suspect that this is why their privacy policy doesn’t really admit that this is what that they do. I imagine that if pressed, they would argue that the name of every application I open on my personal laptop falls into one of their broad buckets like ‘aggregate data’ or “technical session information,’ although it’s not immediately obvious to me which bucket.”
If you have a Wacom tablet and would like to disable the data collection which is part of the Wacom Experience Program carry out the following. “If you too have a Wacom tablet (presumably this tracking is enabled for all of their models), open up the ‘Wacom Desktop Center’ and click around until you find a way to disable the ‘Wacom Experience Program.’”
Wacom have reached out explaining why and what data is collected :
We understand that this is a sensitive topic and people have a very valid interest in finding out what is happening with their data.
The reason why Wacom collects data through its software driver is for quality insurance and development purposes only. This is very much a standard procedure for hardware manufacturers and software developers. We only collect anonymized aggregated data, so we cannot single out or identify individual users. The data is limited to the Wacom model, the pen functions used and the names of the software applications which are active when the device is used. And as you mentioned, users can of course opt out at any time without affecting functionality or performance of the Wacom products.
Wacom pen tablets and pen displays are complex and highly adaptable input devices. The driver allows the pen to be set to different functions for each individual software (e.g. Do, Undo, Pan, Zoom, Scroll, Brush Size, Rotate, etc …). When addressing driver issues it is therefore helpful for us to know which software is used and which pen functions are used most frequently.
Wacom is committed to protect the data privacy of its users, partners and customers across all touch points. Our processes and policies are constantly monitored to reflect this. On our blog you can find a detailed explanation of the data we collect through the driver and how it is used:
https://eu.shop.wacom.eu/wacom-infochannel/wacom-experience-program/
Source : Robert Heaton : 9to5mac
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