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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

#12
post #9

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…

It's explained in the sidebar

Re: Disable sharing of Spotlight searches with Apple

#14
For those interested, here's the specific language Apple offers to explain what Spotlight is doing. I didn't see it elsewhere so I figured I'd post it. From the Spotlight preferences pane:

"When you use Spotlight, your search queries, the Spotlight Suggestions you select, and related usage data will be sent to Apple. Search results found on your Mac will not be sent. If you have Location Services on your Mac turned on, when you make a search query to Spotlight the location of your Mac at that time will be sent to Apple. Searches for common words and phrases will be forwarded from Apple to Microsoft's Bing search engine. These searches are not stored by Microsoft. Location, search queries, and usage information sent to Apple will be used by Apple only to make Spotlight Suggestions more relevant and to improve other Apple products and services."

"If you do not want your Spotlight search queries and Spotlight Suggestions usage data sent to Apple, you can turn off Spotlight Suggestions. Simply deselect the checkboxes for both Spotlight Suggestions and Bing Web Searches in the Search Results tab in the Spotlight preference pane found within System Preferences on your Mac. If you turn off Spotlight Suggestions and Bing Web Searches, Spotlight will search the contents of only your Mac."

"You can turn off Location Services for Spotlight Suggestions in the Privacy pane of System Preferences on your Mac by clicking on “Details” next to System Services and then deselecting “Spotlight Suggestions”. If you turn off Location Services on your Mac, your precise location will not be sent to Apple. To deliver relevant search suggestions, Apple may use the IP address of your Internet connection to approximate your location by matching it to a geographic region."

"Information collected by Apple will be treated in accordance with Apple’s Privacy Policy, which can be found at www.apple.com/privacy."

Re: Disable sharing of Spotlight searches with Apple

#16
I'm actually a little more curious about the specifics. What data is transmitted? Because spotlight can search the web, so that's going to transmit data to 3rd parties. Is the data associated with the user or is it anonymously transmitted? Also, I can't remember because it's been so long since I installed the beta, but is there an option during setup that asks for permission to collect usage data as in iOS (which would be checked in a default installation? If so, does that preference include this data?

Re: Disable sharing of Spotlight searches with Apple

#17
If you bring up the Spotlight search window it will even tell you:

"In addition to searching your Mac, Spotlight now shows suggestions from the Internet, iTunes, App Store, locations nearby, and more. To make suggestions more relevant to you, Spotlight includes your approximate location with search requests to Apple. You can change this in Preferences. Learn more…"

Clicking on "Learn more" also tells you how to disable it. The python script is neat but a bit exaggerated IMHO.

Re: Disable sharing of Spotlight searches with Apple

#18
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.

Especially when you can do the same thing by going into system preferences. What a click bait title that leads people to run a script.

Re: Disable sharing of Spotlight searches with Apple

#20
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.

Running miscellaneous second party code is also becoming increasingly problematic from a privacy standpoint...e.g. Windows 8 and Android [with Google services installed] also want to phone home.
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