Canon

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Canon

Basic information
Founded	1937
Legal structure	Public
Industry	Electronics
Official website	https://global.canon/

Canon Inc. is a Japanese multinational corporation specializing in optical, imaging, and industrial products, such as lenses, cameras, medical equipment, scanners, printers, and semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

Consumer impact summary

User Freedom: Printer-Scanners with empty ink cartridges do not allow scanning documents; ink cartridges have DRM to detect when an aftermarket one is installed.

User Privacy: Since 2025 the Camera Connect app requires an online account and full access to the photo library in order to function.

Business Model: In order to use cameras as webcams to their full capabilities users must pay for a subscription.

Incidents

Webcam Utility subscription (2025)

Main article: Requirement for Canon EOS Webcam Utility subscription to enable webcam features on cameras

Canon requires users of their cameras to pay subscription for a software that allows to use it as webcam to its full capabilities.

Camera Connect updates (2025)

Main article: Canon Camera Connect

After an update the app notified users that they would soon be required to to create an online account which lets Canon access a wide range of user information. Following that, the same app, added a requirement of full access to the user’s photo library in order to transfer photos from the camera.

Ink DRM

Main article: Canon Ink DRM

Ink cartridges come with silicon chips to communicate with the printer, preventing them from being refilled or to detect aftermarket ones.

Lack of Driver Support for Legacy Scanners

Many scanners made by Canon become unusable solely due to them not offering current drivers for many older models that are officially out of warranty/support. This leaves customers who upgrade their operating system without an official path for continuing to use their physically perfectly functional device. It also makes it difficult to buy and use second hand scanners with up-to-date computers.

This can be remedied by using scanning software that communicates directly with the scanner by re-implementing the proprietary Canon protocol without relying on the official Canon drivers. Such software includes VueScan (Windows, macOS and Linux), as well as the SANE scanning subsystem under Linux.

Printer-scanner combo units do not scan without ink

Many multifunctional units made by Canon move to an error state when they run low on ink. In this error state, features that have nothing to do with the printer part stop working. For example, it becomes impossible to scan documents with them. Online advice suggests buying cheap OEM ink, but that is unlikely to be cost-effective when someone wishes to repurpose an old unit solely for scanning.

As a result, many units that could be perfectly functional scanners become e-waste because they aren't economical printers anymore.

See also

• HP
• Dymo