I received an email from Canon today telling me that the magenta ink in my TS8351 inkjet printer was running low and would I like to replace it, just click the link.

I have Little Snitch on my Mac. How the heck did my printer communicate with Canon without my knowledge or permission. Well, I did go online to enable my warranty, maybe I checked a box without paying attention. Still, Little Snitch should have told me there was and outgoing message via some sort of Canon app?

The printer is connected via a USB cable, but also has wi-fi enabled.

Any clues? Thanks.

Perhaps there's a Little Snitch log which its devs can examine and determine what happened? You may have inadvertently enabled the connection sometime in the past.

By any chance do you have another device (iPhone, Android, etc.) that links to your printer? If so that may be where the "phone home" occurred.

My phone has a Canon app on it. I've switched it off now and I'll wait to see what happens when the next ink container needs replacing.

Thanks!

Please let us know one way or the other. I, for one, am curious to see if that is where the "leak" occurred as I have a similar apps on my iPhone for Canon and Brother but so far all I have received are Notifications when an ink cartridge is low.

I will report back, if and when...

Could be. I recently set up a new Canon TR8520 and, in the section where you can agree or not to send information to Canon, it has a line about what is sent: "Usage history such as the type of ink installed, ink usage information, the number of sheets printed, scanning frequency, and maintenance information, etc."