Reason12: please bring back option to opt out of user data collection

[juafromspace]

Hello,

in this post I would like to voice my request to please bring back the option to disable the "Send Error Reports and Statistics" setting, which was removed Reason 12. In the "Reason 12 has arrived" thread is was determined that the setting is gone in version 12 and Reason will now always collect user data with no way to switch off.

I value privacy and do not understand the move to not give users a choice. For me personally this is important enough that I am not going to buy the upgrade to Reason 12 unless the option is brought back. I'm sad because I was really looking forward so much to the high-DPI UI! Now I have to stay on Reason 11

Given the discussion from the "Reason 12 has arrived" thread: I know that there are many people who don't care about this and are just fine with the way things are now. That's fine too of course, it's everyone's personal choice. And yes, I know that Reason Studio's bottom line surely doesn't care about one user not upgrading - but who knows, maybe I'm not alone...

I'd also like to preemptively answer to a point that was brought up in that other thread and which keeps coming up in such discussions: yes, I am aware that many other software titles, websites and even operating systems these days are also collecting user data ("telemetry") with no way to opt out. However, the fact that I have to make some unfortunate compromises in my privacy choices does not mean that it is okay for Reason to join in on this bad practice. Other companies doing bad stuff does not legitimize Reason Studios also doing bad stuff. I guess most people learn this as kids: someone else doing something bad does not justify that you join in on doing something bad.

I'm not even in principle against sharing usage data or crash reports. For example, I occasionally report bugs in software and then happily share crash reports and other info to help the developers with debugging. But the important thing is that I'm not forced to do that - good software puts up a dialog to ask the user first. And shows me exactly what it wants to send before it sends it so I can make an informed decision. To me, this is about having respect for the user. Just ask them, give them a choice. Many will say yes - including me, not always, but sometimes. It would be nice if Reason Studios would continue to give this respect to the user, as it did in the past.

Thanks for listening

[jam-s]

I hope you've also sent this to Reason Studios via their support form, so that this actually reaches the right addressee.
Also I do agree that we should have the option to opt out (rather it should actually be opt in or it might even be a GDPR violation).

[Pepin]

I still bought Reason 12, but I agree this change was a bad move.
Previous discussions focused on how data gathering is "standard" for software these days. However, that's beside the point, because the issue here is lack of opt out--not data gathering in general. And it's further complicated by the fact that there was an opt out feature in R11 that was actively removed.

I did a bit of research on other DAWs and found the following (Please correct me if any of those are wrong):

• Bitwig lets you opt out.
• Live lets you opt out.
• Pro Tools lets you opt out (search "Pro Tools Analytics")
• Reaper has no data gathering it seems.
• I'm not certain about Logic, but I'm pretty sure it respects the OS setting. The license contain the qualifier "If you opt in to diagnostic and usage collection ..."
• Cubase has manual submission of diagnostics. I found no mention of other data gathering.
• Studio One has manual submission of diagnostics. I found no mention of other data gathering.
• I found no info about FL Studio.

So it looks like providing at least an opt out is standard among paid DAWs. That should indicate that an opt out won't hinder development significantly. I hope RS rethink this change or at least explain why they think it was necessary.

[plaamook]

Maybe the changes it because they knew 12 was a rotter and that they’d need all the help they could get!

[zebbleganubi]

good points. im surprised how many reasons are piling up not to upgrade. i usually upgrade most of the time but with this forced telemetry and reason being buggy (last i heard anyway), i dont think i will bother. the high res graphics would be nice to have i suppose but i dont really think its worth the upgrade price just for that

[avasopht]

What if that was causing all the bugs? That would be hella awkward