Kyle F. Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 Apple's latest desktop operating system, known as Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite, sends location and search data of users without their knowledge to Apple's remote servers by default whenever a user queries the desktop search tool Spotlight, which questions users' privacy once again. The technology firm faced criticism on Monday when users came to know about the company's About Spotlight & Privacy which clearly states that anyone who uses the Spotlight feature in either Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite or its newly launched mobile operating system iOS 8 will have their location and search information passed back to Apple's servers to process. APPLE COLLECTS USERS' DATA AND FORWARDS IT TO MICROSOFT AS WELL On one hand, where Apple decided to enable hard drive encryption by default, despite the FBI requests not to do so. But on the other, the company is itself putting its users' privacy on risk. The same data Apple collects from the users' searched term on Spotlight will also be forwarded to Microsoft's Bing search engine as Apple freely admits in its terms of service. "When you use Spotlight, your search queries, the Spotlight Suggestions you select, and related usage data will be sent to Apple," Apple's "About Spotlight & Privacy" document states. "If you have Location Services on your device turned on, when you make a search query to Spotlight the location of your device at that time will be sent to Apple." Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite, which was officially released on Thursday, allows Mac users to upload and organize any file types on their own, meaning users can store any type of file they wish in iCloud drive, as long as it's less than 15 gigabytes in size. With Yosemite, Apple is beginning to unify its desktop and mobile computing platforms. Read the full article here... I knew Apple would try and do something like this in 10.10... they just can't seem to help themselves with giving out our private data. It wouldn't at all surprise me if government agencies have free access to their servers that contain customers information... Governments disgust me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fffeee Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 News flash, using Location Services allows service providers to access your Location! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iRipper Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 News flash, using Location Services allows service providers to access your Location! OH NOES! Who could've thought! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle F. Posted October 21, 2014 Author Share Posted October 21, 2014 News flash, using Location Services allows service providers to access your Location! The general fact that Yosemite sends location and browsing history data to Apple is a little concerning for those who have Internet history to hide. At the end of the day, it's still a violation (per se) to privacy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beasty uk Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 Ok did some research and you can turn it of. Disable "Spotlight Suggestions" and "Bing Web Searches" in System Preferences > Spotlight > Search Results. Safari also has a "Spotlight Suggestions" setting that is separate from Spotlight's "Spotlight Suggestions". This uses the same mechanism as Spotlight, and if left enabled, Safari will send a copy of all search queries to Apple. You'd be forgiven for thinking that you'd already disabled "Spotlight Suggestions", but you'll also need to uncheck "Include Spotlight Suggestions" in Safari > Preferences > Search. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maniac10 Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 The shared information is completely anonymized by using a random code that changes every 15 minutes, so you cannot be identified no matter how hard they try. And no, I don’t believe it’s a violation of your privacy because the first time you open Spotlight you are informed of the additional functionality and requirements. How else do you expect it to find a restaurant or cinema near you? And if you are that much concerned about privacy don’t ever enter google.com or bing.com. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mnfesq Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 I disabled those services for my laptop. I still have them on my iPhone. If I want information that relates to my vicinity, I think it's sufficient to be able to get that information from my phone and not my laptop. That's just me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pike R. Alpha Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 The shared information is completely anonymized by using a random code that changes every 15 minutes, so you cannot be identified no matter how hard they try. And no, I don’t believe it’s a violation of your privacy because the first time you open Spotlight you are informed of the additional functionality and requirements. How else do you expect it to find a restaurant or cinema near you? And if you are that much concerned about privacy don’t ever enter google.com or bing.com. IP profiling can be used by any on-line service, which makes Facebook even worse than Bing and Google. Apple is collecting a lot more data with their services, which you agreed to when you use them, but IP profiling would give Apple access to an unlimited amount of data. basically everything you do. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle F. Posted October 23, 2014 Author Share Posted October 23, 2014 IP profiling can be used by any on-line service, which makes Facebook even worse than Bing and Google. Apple is collecting a lot more data with their services, which you agreed to when you use them, but IP profiling would give Apple access to an unlimited amount of data. basically everything you do. Would is even worse than collecting even the slightest bit of data that is unharmful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vbetts Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 IP profiling can be used by any on-line service, which makes Facebook even worse than Bing and Google. Apple is collecting a lot more data with their services, which you agreed to when you use them, but IP profiling would give Apple access to an unlimited amount of data. basically everything you do. And this would hurt us how....? The general fact that Yosemite sends location and browsing history data to Apple is a little concerning for those who have Internet history to hide. At the end of the day, it's still a violation (per se) to privacy. What would someone honestly have to hide that could be used against them in legal situations? Did they kill someone and emailed someone that they hid the body? The simple solution is disable it. You agree to the terms when you accept them, doesn't matter if you read them or not. I understand UELA's are long, sometimes confusing, and downright boring. But they do keep it pretty well separated and organized so you can glance at the sections. I urge this to people when I used to sell phones, always always always read the guide lines of your user agreement. Usually they're in bold, and will always having more information following it. You got no one to blame but yourself if you don't read it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle F. Posted October 24, 2014 Author Share Posted October 24, 2014 And this would hurt us how....? What would someone honestly have to hide that could be used against them in legal situations? Did they kill someone and emailed someone that they hid the body? The simple solution is disable it. You agree to the terms when you accept them, doesn't matter if you read them or not. I understand UELA's are long, sometimes confusing, and downright boring. But they do keep it pretty well separated and organized so you can glance at the sections. I urge this to people when I used to sell phones, always always always read the guide lines of your user agreement. Usually they're in bold, and will always having more information following it. You got no one to blame but yourself if you don't read it. I haven't got 10.10 working yet anyway. I haven't even attempted it. It kinda looks {censored}e compared to 10.9 but that's just my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pike R. Alpha Posted October 25, 2014 Share Posted October 25, 2014 And this would hurt us how....? What would someone honestly have to hide that could be used against them in legal situations? Did they kill someone and emailed someone that they hid the body? The simple solution is disable it. You agree to the terms when you accept them, doesn't matter if you read them or not. I understand UELA's are long, sometimes confusing, and downright boring. But they do keep it pretty well separated and organized so you can glance at the sections. I urge this to people when I used to sell phones, always always always read the guide lines of your user agreement. Usually they're in bold, and will always having more information following it. You got no one to blame but yourself if you don't read it. We're talking about a possible privacy issue here. Not about getting 'hurt' due to the fact that someone may be involved in illegal/criminal activities. I couldn't care less about people getting punished due to their own stupid mistakes, but it is nobodies business what you search for and thus this feature should have been opt-in and not opt-out. That at least is what companies do when they are truly involved and are really trying to protect your privacy. p.s. I have installed Yosemite on a black SSD and got no such message! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XLR Posted October 25, 2014 Share Posted October 25, 2014 The general fact that Yosemite sends location and browsing history data to Apple is a little concerning for those who have Internet history to hide. At the end of the day, it's still a violation (per se) to privacy. Using the internet has been a violation of privacy since the beginning of the internet. Even if you surf from behind 7 proxies, your ISP still knows all your fapping websites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maniac10 Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 p.s. I have installed Yosemite on a black SSD and got no such message! Do you see wikipedia or nearby businesses results? I think it works within the US only for now, hence no message for you (you’re in Spain right?). And this topic has already been debunked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pike R. Alpha Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 Do you see wikipedia or nearby businesses results? I think it works within the US only for now, hence no message for you (you’re in Spain right?). And this topic has already been debunked. Correct. I am located in Spain and I don't see search suggestions, but that is probably because I use a Dutch VPN service. I do that to hide stuff that I don't want my employer to see, because they can – they are paying for my Internet access. About this being debunked. Any company can tell you that they do not retain your IP address, but they could as well use a secret key that connects to you. Do some thinking guys. You make a search result and the next day a suggestion pops up that relates to your one day old search request... so how would that possibly work without any connection to you? Also. Why would you add a preference, for something that is not, or cannot become a problem? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maniac10 Posted October 27, 2014 Share Posted October 27, 2014 A bit more information about how this new Spotlight functionality works -> http://tidbits.com/article/15182 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colonel Kernal Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 What exactly does this conspiracy theory have to do with "New releases and updates?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle F. Posted October 29, 2014 Author Share Posted October 29, 2014 What exactly does this conspiracy theory have to do with "New releases and updates?" It's somewhat an update/news update about Apple. I felt it would fit here more than anywhere else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colonel Kernal Posted October 31, 2014 Share Posted October 31, 2014 Really? You don't think this would fit better in the "OS X" forum that has an actual Yosemite subforum or in the "Apple Opinions and Discussion" forum? If you read the pinned topic at the top of this forum, it says "This forum is to report new releases and updates about the OSx86 scene." OSx86 is about installing OS X on Hackintoshes. It's not about OS X itself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle F. Posted November 2, 2014 Author Share Posted November 2, 2014 Really? You don't think this would fit better in the "OS X" forum that has an actual Yosemite subforum or in the "Apple Opinions and Discussion" forum? If you read the pinned topic at the top of this forum, it says "This forum is to report new releases and updates about the OSx86 scene." OSx86 is about installing OS X on Hackintoshes. It's not about OS X itself. Who crowned you backseat moderator of InsanelyMac? Wait, wait...Oh right, nobody did. This is (in some forms) of an "update/announcement" about Yosemite. But sure, I guess you're right. I "could" have posted it in the Yosemite subforum or the Apple Opinions and Discussions forum...but I didn't "search" through the board to see if it existed. Besides, IF this topic is in the wrong forum, I'm sure an actual moderator will sort it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colonel Kernal Posted November 4, 2014 Share Posted November 4, 2014 I should have expected this. Everybody in this topic has already told you that you're being paranoid and spreading FUD. Now you can't even get it into your thick skull that this forum isn't for new releases or updates of OS X in general. It's for topics that specifically affect installation of OS X on non-Apple hardware. Using your reasoning, any and all topics could be squeezed into this forum because they have something to do with Apple, which means they have some passing relevance to Hackintoshes. Why would anyone need to search when all the forums are listed right on the Insanelymac forums home page? I don't care. Keep showing everyone that basic thought processes are beyond your capabilities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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