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

Have any feature requests? No promise they'll get to Reason Studios, but you can still discuss them here.
Post Reply
juafromspace
Posts: 1
Joined: 12 Nov 2021

12 Nov 2021

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

User avatar
jam-s
Posts: 3035
Joined: 17 Apr 2015
Location: Aachen, Germany
Contact:

13 Nov 2021

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).

User avatar
Pepin
Posts: 450
Joined: 16 Jan 2015

13 Nov 2021

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): 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.

User avatar
plaamook
Posts: 2593
Joined: 22 Jan 2015
Location: Bajo del mar...

13 Nov 2021

Maybe the changes it because they knew 12 was a rotter and that they’d need all the help they could get!
Perpetual Reason 12 Beta Tester :reason:

You can check out my music here.
https://m.soundcloud.com/ericholmofficial
Or here.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC73uZZ ... 8jqUubzsQg

User avatar
zebbleganubi
Posts: 33
Joined: 15 Oct 2017

15 Nov 2021

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
Competition Winner
Posts: 3932
Joined: 16 Jan 2015

17 Nov 2021

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

Post Reply
  • Information
  • Who is online

    Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests