My prefs was to allow it to Default to Off. However, after longer consideration, for what CW has in mind, that fails inherently. What's the point of developing something everybody has to turn on, many of whom probably won't prioritize it? It fails to do anything useful.
There's a better way of thinking about this:
1 Most companies who develop software are beginning to use Analytics to refine their processes and knowledge of their own customer base. It's the times, get with them. I hate saying that, because I don't like it any more than anyone else. But it's true. If you want low-cost, but POWERFUL software, it's what
has to follow. You can't compete blindly in this business any longer.
2 Some companies prefer to be secretive about it. Eh, Microsoft? CW has let us know up front and why. That's honorable. It's ok to ask questions and ask for CW to keep your Privacy in diligent, secured, and careful hands. They have a responsibility.
3 The idea is in the numbers, more than what you're doing. CW has limited resources to spend every waking moment in DEVelopment (baking) and QC, which means, some things must be assumed working, since those areas of the software weren't touched in the last x-number of revisions. Beta testers are needed, and so are users who report issues. Believe me, they don't have the staff to pick apart what an individual is doing 24/7 on his DAW. I would hope/ask CW doesn't sell the numbers to outside 3rd-party vendors.
4 If you're a company who sells a product that does remotely what Sonar does at the same price, you're general-speaking a bunch of geniuses, or very savvy at illegal money-management (cooking the books). No company lasts very long cooking books, so the former MUST be the case. But at what cost? All the forum users who post issues, and lose faith in Sonar, meanwhile CW spends time wasted on some feature that needed updating for only 6 users. It would be wiser with knowledge of where people spend the bulk of their time and, as a result, where to put more efforts into fixing, refining, and improving for the masses, lessening time wasted on a troublesome feature to appease those 6 users. Sure, they are important 6 users, but their needs can wait ~ another truth in reality.
Sidenote: It's been stated many times by CW that issues reported without due-diligence in testing, recreating, or detail explanation are routinely (READ:
routinely) disregarded because those issues simply can't be recreated or the scenario wasn't duly provided. This is a known problem with people in general. Including....me.
5 You can STILL disable it. If you're seriously paranoid and afraid to give up a tiny shard on bandwidth, of which is getting MUCH faster all the time, turn it off. Granted, Social sites probably transmit/receive more information on you.
6 What if you owned CW and wanted to become better and better by better knowing your better customers? Would that be a better way of doing this, or would you prefer just working with a select few on improvements? Mass or few? Mass or few? What's more valuable knowledge for wisdom?
Keep this in mind: If you are a user who refuses enable-ment the Sonar analytics, but jump on the forum to complain harshly about {
insert feature} that is not working properly, other users may ask if you did and [politely] pick on you for not enabling it.
BUT YOU CAN STILL DISABLE IT! ...if you just aren't sold on it.
It's a way of life. Fighting against it is fighting against our own culture. Want cheap? You have to give something back. Deal's a deal. But this deal is still working for you!
Trust Facebook? It's free...or is it? They collect so much about what you do, it isn't even remotely funny! Do you still use Facebook? CNN? Google? Twitter? Windows? Can you turn off all that reporting? Why aren't more companies up front about it?