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Disable sharing of Spotlight searches with Apple

fix-macosx.com

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Re: Disable sharing of Spotlight searches with Apple

#3

Post by morganvachon »

mtrpcic wrote: post #2

While fixing spotlight is a good idea (especially if you're opening it a lot in public), please don't blindly execute code without reading it first. While this code isn't malicious, running misc. third party code without reading it first is a bad idea for everyone.

The fact that the entire source code is displayed on the page for all to read seems to have escaped you. You make a valid point in general, but the site in question practically screams the same message. I don't get why you have a problem with this particular project.

Re: Disable sharing of Spotlight searches with Apple

#4

Post by equoid »

morganvachon wrote: post #3
mtrpcic wrote: post #2

While fixing spotlight is a good idea (especially if you're opening it a lot in public), please don't blindly execute code without reading it first. While this code isn't malicious, running misc. third party code without reading it first is a bad idea for everyone.

The fact that the entire source code is displayed on the page for all to read seems to have escaped you. You make a valid point in general, but the site in question practically screams the same message. I don't get why you have a problem with this particular project.

The fact that most people could look at that code and have no real clue what it actually does seems to have escaped you. This is in any event not the entire source code, as most of the work is done by function calls which most people would not know how to validate.

Re: Disable sharing of Spotlight searches with Apple

#5

Post by jarcoal »

morganvachon wrote: post #3
mtrpcic wrote: post #2

While fixing spotlight is a good idea (especially if you're opening it a lot in public), please don't blindly execute code without reading it first. While this code isn't malicious, running misc. third party code without reading it first is a bad idea for everyone.

The fact that the entire source code is displayed on the page for all to read seems to have escaped you. You make a valid point in general, but the site in question practically screams the same message. I don't get why you have a problem with this particular project.

I think he means you should at least read the code on the other end of that URL to make sure it matches what's on the site.

Re: Disable sharing of Spotlight searches with Apple

#6

Post by reedloden »

morganvachon wrote: post #3
mtrpcic wrote: post #2

While fixing spotlight is a good idea (especially if you're opening it a lot in public), please don't blindly execute code without reading it first. While this code isn't malicious, running misc. third party code without reading it first is a bad idea for everyone.

The fact that the entire source code is displayed on the page for all to read seems to have escaped you. You make a valid point in general, but the site in question practically screams the same message. I don't get why you have a problem with this particular project.

Please read http://www.djm.org.uk/protect-yourself-from-non-obvious-dang... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8385213).

Re: Disable sharing of Spotlight searches with Apple

#9

Post by sksk »

It took me a while to figure out what is being disabled in the code and why I need to care. I care about privacy but I would like to understand what I am giving up. If I understand it correctly, the code disables 'Spotlight Suggestions' and 'Bing Websearches'. You can do it in the GUI easily. Just go to System Preferences -> Spotlight -> Search Results tab (uncheck the above 2).

Bing Websearch is clear enough but it took me a while to figure out what Spotlight Suggestion is. It looks like it gives you movie recommendations.

If there is more to the code, I would like to know what else I should disable. Also, ideally would like to know what I am giving up by disabling them.

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