macOS scanning and following downloaded QR codes has been retracted

The retraction is that it's not the operating system doing it. But honestly, Firefox doing the same thing isn't great either. Am I alone in finding it surprising that the recent list actively polls the things on it?

Re: macOS scanning and following downloaded QR codes has been retracted

#5

Post by ale42 » Wed, Oct 05, 2022, 8:33 PM UTC

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #4

The retraction is that it's not the operating system doing it. But honestly, Firefox doing the same thing isn't great either. Am I alone in finding it surprising that the recent list actively polls the things on it?

As far as I understand it, Firefox is not reading QR codes out of images and automatically opening links, but rather reloading already opened URLs that were coming from QR codes. Maybe not ideal, but far better than having the OS scan for QR codes in background and loading them without warning.

Re: macOS scanning and following downloaded QR codes has been retracted

#6

Post by zimpenfish » Wed, Oct 05, 2022, 8:36 PM UTC

One of the quicker cycles of "extraordinary claim" to "retracted" I've seen recently.

Re: macOS scanning and following downloaded QR codes has been retracted

#7

Post by vucetica » Wed, Oct 05, 2022, 8:50 PM UTC

chrononaut wrote: post #2

Prior discussions (when macOS was presumed at fault): - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33095608 (83 comments) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33096540 (102 comments)

This community is funny at times.

A lot of people had their opinions on those two threads, didn't they?

Kudos to the ones who questioned the origin of the phenomenon instead of declaring immediately that the world is falling.

Re: macOS scanning and following downloaded QR codes has been retracted

#8

Post by smoldesu » Wed, Oct 05, 2022, 9:01 PM UTC

vucetica wrote: post #7

chrononaut wrote: post #2

Prior discussions (when macOS was presumed at fault): - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33095608 (83 comments) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33096540 (102 comments)

This community is funny at times. A lot of people had their opinions on those two threads, didn't they? Kudos to the ones who questioned the origin of the phenomenon instead of declaring immediately that the world is falling.

It's equally funny to see the collective sigh-of-relief expressed through this post's upvotes. OCSP is real and can hurt you, warrantless iCloud access still goes un-mitigated, but thank God! The QR code IP leak turned out to be a fake. Who knew MacOS was a nice and private operating system all along?

Re: macOS scanning and following downloaded QR codes has been retracted

#9

Post by aleksiy123 » Wed, Oct 05, 2022, 9:01 PM UTC

vucetica wrote: post #7

chrononaut wrote: post #2

Prior discussions (when macOS was presumed at fault): - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33095608 (83 comments) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33096540 (102 comments)

This community is funny at times. A lot of people had their opinions on those two threads, didn't they? Kudos to the ones who questioned the origin of the phenomenon instead of declaring immediately that the world is falling.

It's not even at times. It's all the time. Theres many threads where the actual information is sparse but people sound extremely confident about their conclusions. Makes me realise that much of the time people are just making stuff up, there's just nobody to call them out.

Re: macOS scanning and following downloaded QR codes has been retracted

#10

Post by Operyl » Wed, Oct 05, 2022, 9:06 PM UTC

johnklos wrote: post #3

It's nice to see people clarify when they make mistakes. I'm still REALLY curious about the Facebook useragent. Where was that from, specifically? Firefox?

A lot of applications seem to use this user agent because a lot of sites were providing embed data only to this user agent. Bizarre, but a needed evil I guess.