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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

#31

Post by gicmo »

revelation wrote: post #23
gicmo wrote: post #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 disab…

I actually clicked the learn more, and it took me to a help site that somehow didn't exist. Failed to load. Then I manually went into Spotlight settings, and was presented with a bunch of checkboxes that offer zero indication as to privacy implications. How am I to magically tell that the "Movies" option won't send my query to some Apple IMDB proxy? Sorry, but this script is spot on. This should not be enabled by def…

I see your point and I actually agree that it probably would be better if this was either opt in, or at least have the two settings on the initial spotlight window so that you can immediately disable them without going to the settings. Also giving 'privacy' info for each spotlight 'category' is indeed a good idea.

May point about the script was more that it also just disables the two things listed in the initial privacy info given by Apple, i.e. "MENU_WEBSEARCH" and "MENU_SPOTLIGHT_SUGGESTIONS" and having informative text with screenshots to which checkboxes to unselect on the website would have sufficed. At least you wouldn't be executing code from some random place on the internet.

Re: Disable sharing of Spotlight searches with Apple

#32

Post by micampe »

kingnight wrote: post #26
etjossem wrote: post #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 o…

Could this be considered overthinking it? A domain, a python script, to effectively achieve tapping a couple toggles in sys prefs? And this is quite difficult for the average non terminal using person. > This site _criticizes_ Apple for certain privacy-invading features of Mac OS X and teaches users how to fix them. So, obviously, the site is not approved by Apple. Snark!

Yes. One single annotated screenshot would have been simpler, more explicit in what it does, it wouldn't have trained users to execute random code from the internet, and at the same time taught them how to revert the changes.

Re: Disable sharing of Spotlight searches with Apple

#33

Post by pilsetnieks »

jarcoal wrote: post #5
morganvachon wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Plus you should read what's downloaded to your machine before executing it, since there's also no guarantee that what's been served to your browser will be served to your curl.

Re: Disable sharing of Spotlight searches with Apple

#34

Post by click170 »

I strongly encourage anyone concerned about their privacy to start using a firewall that filters (or at least monitors) outbound traffic by default. And not just the packets, but the web requests.

You would very likely be alarmed by what your phone is doing and who it's talking to without you knowing. iPhone or Android.

Re: Disable sharing of Spotlight searches with Apple

#35

Post by pilsetnieks »

mukmuk wrote: post #28

I disabled both Spotlight Suggestions and Bing yet Spotlight -- via SpotlightNetHelper -- still attempts to connect to api.smoot.apple.com:443 and wu.apple.com:80. Can anyone explain this?

Location services?

Edit: I think that you have to disable Location service for Spotlight separately in Privacy settings.

Re: Disable sharing of Spotlight searches with Apple

#36

Post by jboy55 »

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.

Actually what is displayed is not necessarily the same as what would be executed if you ran that script. You are viewing one piece of code , you will be executing a different file. In fact, you can view the github code, and see the code displayed is embedded into index.html (with syntax highlighting).

If anyone is at all concerned with their privacy, they should never blindly run a script like that.

Re: Disable sharing of Spotlight searches with Apple

#38

Post by mukmuk »

pilsetnieks wrote: post #35
mukmuk wrote: post #28

I disabled both Spotlight Suggestions and Bing yet Spotlight -- via SpotlightNetHelper -- still attempts to connect to api.smoot.apple.com:443 and wu.apple.com:80. Can anyone explain this?

Location services? Edit: I think that you have to disable Location service for Spotlight separately in Privacy settings.

Good thought, but I disabled that too. Edit: Twitter discussion regarding one of these issues. Note that Spotlight is doing this despite all relevant settings disabled (spotlight suggestions, bing, privacy, and logging).

https://twitter.com/marczak/status/481818945318428673

Re: Disable sharing of Spotlight searches with Apple

#40

Post by hk__2 »

geographomics wrote: post #24
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.

There's always the danger of this attack, as well: http://thejh.net/misc/website-terminal-copy-paste

Here it’s even worse because you don’t see the content of the script you’re executing.
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