Wacom tablets are sharing your app usage with Google Analytics

guest · Feb 6, 2020

Wacom tablets are sharing your app usage with Google Analytics
Users can opt out in settings
February 6, 2020
https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/6/21126245/wacom-tablet-app-tracking-google-analytics

Wacom tablets have been collecting data on what apps users open, and it’s not entirely clear what Wacom is doing with the data. Software engineer Robert Heaton writes in a detailed blog post that he discovered the behavior after setting up his tablet on his new laptop.

When Heaton was asked to accept Wacom’s privacy policy, he saw a message saying “aggregate usage data, technical session information, and information about [his] hardware device” would be shared with Google Analytics.

“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,” Heaton writes.
Heaton notes that he wasn’t the first to discover this section of Wacom’s privacy policy, as a Reddit post from last year notes that the privacy policy changed starting with the 6.3.27 driver update. “You gave your permission for this while installing the driver, but not when you were buying the tablet,” the post reads.
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Thank you for reaching! The recent Mac updates added many security features to keep the computer safe from applications not downloaded from the App store. This requires additional security settings to be changed for the tablet driver to work.
Let us know about anything else.
-ET.
— Wacom (@wacom) February 6, 2020
This isn’t really an explanation for why the tablet needs to collect personal user information, though. We’ve reached out to Wacom for clarification on why this data is being collected.
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Wacom drawing tablets track the name of every application that you open

A device that is essentially a mouse has no legitimate reasons to make HTTP requests of any sort. [...]
I had previously noticed that, before sending data to Google Analytics, the Wacom driver sent a HEAD request to the URL http://link.wacom.com/analytics/analytics.xml. I hadn’t been able to work out why, and until now I hadn’t thought much of it. [...]
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guest · Feb 7, 2020

Wacom Explains Why Its Tablet Driver Sends Data to Google Analytics (Update)
February 7, 2020
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/wacom-tablet-sending-data-google-analytics

Update February 7, 2020:
Wacom published a blog post in response to the "many questions regarding data collection" prompted by Robert Heaton's report (detailed in our original coverage below).

Wacom explained that it "collects data through its software driver ... for quality insurance and development purposes only." That data is collected "from time to time" via Google Analytics, which is said to anonymize the information before providing it to Wacom. That way it can view aggregate data without compromising individual users (at least in theory).

"Our development and customer care teams could review across all aggregated users of a product, for instance, the most common function settings for pen buttons (e.g. 'right click' or 'undo') or the most frequently viewed tabs or selected links in the Wacom apps," Melissa Ashcraft, Wacom's director of marketing communications, wrote. [...]
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The Verge: Wacom says it’s not spying on its customers, and users can opt out of data collection

Wacom has responded to reports of its tablets collecting app usage data from its users and sharing it with Google Analytics, clarifying that the company does not have access to personal data.

In a statement to The Verge, Wacom says all data that is collected is “for quality assurance and development purposes only” and that “all data for Wacom anonymized and unidentifiable. We apologize for any confusion regarding data collection being done by the Wacom software driver and the unclarity about the actual information collected.”

“Wacom does not collect MAC addresses and product serial numbers. Although Google Analytics (Apps version) collects IP addresses, we are unable to access such IP address data. To learn more about how Google Analytics anonymizes your data, please check this link,” the statement continues. [...]
Though there is an option to opt out of the Wacom Experience Program, it ought to be the other way around. An apology and clarification should be just the start; users should be opted out as the default setting, with the option to opt in.
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