Wacom Tablet Data Exfiltration Raises Security Concerns [UPDATED]

martyb writes:

Wacom Tablet Data Exfiltration Raises Security Concerns:

[Editors' Note UPDATE 200211-14:16]: It has been pointed out that this story is a duplicate of a previous story. The editor concerned will be made to sit on the naughty step for 15 minutes.]

The Wacom digital drawing tablet appears to be silently exfiltrating user data, according to an investigation by software engineer Robert Heaton - and the company responded on Friday, downplaying the report. However, security researchers say the tablets still pose a risk and a privacy problem.

Wacom devices hook up to a laptop or desktop computer as a plug-and-play peripheral device, just like a keyboard or mouse would. It allows users to "paint," draw, create photo montages, sketch and more, all to be digitally rendered on the associated computer. It's aimed at commercial graphics designers as well as amateur enthusiasts.

The downside, according to Heaton's investigation, is that its drivers also silently track the name of every application that users open while the devices are running.

Heaton scoured the privacy agreement for the device and found that in section 3.1, Wacom asks permission to send information to Google Analytics "[including] aggregate usage data, technical session information and information about [my] hardware device."

The phrase "aggregate usage data" gave Heaton pause due to its vagueness. After investigating, he found that Wacom was recording some innocuous operational data, such as timestamps for "driver started" and "driver shutdown." But it was also recording every time he opened a new application, including the time, "a string that presumably uniquely identifies me," and the application's name.

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