Just got an E-Mail Notification about a GuitarRig Update…

And the newest feature is tracking YOUR user behavior…

BUT: at least they gave you an option to turn it of… soooo genrous…

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/support/knowledge-base/show/4519/what-is-usage-data-tracking/

 

Last edited: Jun 8, 2016

Sneaky stuff, but at least you can easily disable it!

 

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Last edited: Feb 8, 2018

Thanks for the tip.

 

makes a lot sense to track user behavior in a virtual instrument

Ableton has this too and it can be turned off

they will not steal your songs but gather data for R&D

 

Features becoming more and more redundant between softs, now a big part of success is WITCH workflow customers use.
And may be protection too ;)

 

For them it's maybe an useful option, but not all users/customers will agree with their policies!
Native Instruments however are serious developers - their customer service is good.
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Ummmmm… Have you read any of the Product Support Forums over at NI lately? Like the Maschine Support Forum? They haven't done shit for half a year or something as far as Maschine is concerned. The just left the remaining bugs in Maschine unfixed, no updates to the sequencer at all and moved straight on to integrating their wack ass Kontrol Keyboard and NKS Protocol. Really greeeeeat customer support… ;)

 

No i haven't. I was talking about the "direct customer support" via e-mail, that was working good...years ago.
I don't know the actual situation. Support Forums can't be as good as direct e-mail communication.
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NI instruments doesnt give a fuck about its costumers,libraries like Action Strings with a known tempo bug didnt fix that with any update.
Thats just one example.

 

WTF! What's the purpose of his?

 

I have nothing against user tracking (which is usually for product improvement purposes) but as @Von_Steyr mentioned, their feedback support is quite confusing. I'm a Traktor & Maschine user and indeed they fail to update critical stuff on both products.

They kinda look focused to launch new products then maybe they somehow "abandon" them if the sales are not enough? No idea.

 

If by any chance the harvesting of User geolocation data worked towards establishing a need for a GUI labelled in Cockney rhyming slang, I'll concede that it's reasonable. Error messages like, "You're 'aving a larf ain't ya!" and "I ain't goin' Sarf at this time o' night!".... Yeah, I'll go for that.

 

Last edited: Jun 7, 2016

Steinberg <~> Microsoft and Native Instruments <~> Adobe

 

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Last edited: Feb 8, 2018

Especially subtitle users. Watch this video with closed captions turned ON and wait for it to reach 01':57"
Caution: NSFW

 

This is sending out the totally wrong message at the wrong time.

The sheer arrogance of doing this without asking angers me to the point where I think I will sell all my NI software and replace it with cracks.

Who the hell gave them permission to use my cpu and my network to their benefit? Who said they could use my electricity without asking. I'll just break into the house of the ceo of NI shall I and take some food from his fridge and start eating it without his permission. Wonder how he'd feel about that.

For those of you that don't know, NI use canvas fingerprinting on their website (you can't log in without it) - this uniquely indentifies your machine, after scanning it of course (which is illegal, but they do it anyway). Say you went to a site that also canvas fingerprinted your machine - that machine provides a unique id that identifies YOU out of all the millions of machines connected to the net. Don't matter if you use a proxy or vpn, your machine has a unique identifier and can be fingerprinted to you forensically even over Tor or whatever.

So you download some crack software from a honey pot. Congratulations, you may very well be a fully paid up member of NI, but they also know that you downloaded that epxander pack from a crack site. I say this not to use it as an argument for what they are doing, but just to illustrate a point. NI have every right to use whatever illegal and invasive means they have at their disposal to protect their IP, and quite obviously, they don't mind breaking the law to do it.

This has gone to court and has been ruled. It is not in dispute.

Canvas fingerprinting is illegal under EU law and NI are actually breaking the law - there was a recent judgement and new test cases are coming up.

I no longer care about the software by this point. I no longer care about audio or making music. I would even go as far as to say I would sacrifice every single bit of NI hardware and software I have just to see them wiped off the face of the planet as a company, never to pull this crap again.

I do realise I'm in a minority, but just thought I'd give a little bit about how I feel about things.

NI get no more money from me now (I've spent thousands on their stuff) - they have lost a customer for good.

Even if they had made it 'opt-in' but no, they have to abuse their corporate power. This is not about making your life better or easier or cheaper. It's about power and control. And they aren't finished yet. And most of you don't even see the ethical issues here that people like me get so upset about.

Yep, I'm in a minority allright. I'm calling NI out as scum for pulling this, just to balance the argument a bit in favour of those of us that still value what little privacy/anonymity we have left (practically zero).

By all means, think that I have mental health problems, think that I am 'mad', call me names, get angry - go right ahead. I just thought I'd post this as a little bit of a heads up as there aren't that many people doing research in this field and sharing the recent findings and rulings about what these corporate monsters are up to.

If you care more about music software than principles in life, well, I just can't help you. I know where my priorities lie.

 

Guys all i know is this, Eric Schmidt went to visit NI there was a pic of him there about a year or so ago. Why in the fuck would he go to a Audio Developer. I don't trust NI for shit and some employees there might be good but the overall company is bullshit .They have made good stuff , not denying that but they also pulled a lot of shady shit on installs and data collection. So yes we can 'disable' this 'for now' ..... I'm really proud of this forum because you guys are 'awake' even the smallest hint of bullshit ! .... to be continued because I know there is something to the google visit that has zero to do with music. I'm NOT ok with NI collecting shit on me and no software is worth giving up my personal liberty. It's not a big deal yet but this is where it starts.

 

im sure you use all facebook google and microsoft products or amazon , they all do the same bitches