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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

#61

Post by morganvachon »

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.

That's just it: It does. Line for line, character for character (even space for space, which is important in Python). I wouldn't say what I did above without having diffed the file against the code displayed first.

I just don't get the mentality here sometimes; someone creates a helpful script, puts the source code on their site for you to read and study, and the first instinct is to assume they have malicious intent before even taking a few minutes to read over it first. Hell, I'm no programmer but I know enough about the basics to follow exactly what the code does. It took me all of five minutes to decide that it flips two switches and nothing more. That the programming gods here can't or won't do that is telling.

I get being paranoid about random scripts, but this one is on display for all to see before running. There is literally nothing hidden, yet you all act as if the author is trying to secretly take over your machines. It would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic.

Re: Disable sharing of Spotlight searches with Apple

#62

Post by morganvachon »

equoid wrote: post #4
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.

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.

If the potential user doesn't understand what the script does, they have no business running it in the first place, so it's a moot point.

Re: Disable sharing of Spotlight searches with Apple

#63

Post by dstein64 »

mwfunk wrote: post #56
dstein64 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think the author(s) of this site are any of those things, but I also know that Yosemite as a whole is not designed to take away 100% of your privacy, which is what the title implies. This is also what turns me off about a lot of FSF propaganda, and most politicians regardless of their beliefs. Are your referring to the title of the HN submission, "Mac OS X Yosemite – No Privacy, by Design"? That text does n…

Yep. I could be wrong here, but I thought that HN had a policy where the titles used are taken verbatim from the page being linked to, unless they're so completely terrible that an alternative title is needed. If the HN title doesn't come from the site, then my apologies to the authors for harping about this.

> I thought that HN had a policy where the titles used are taken verbatim from the page being linked to, unless they're so completely terrible that an alternative title is needed.

It seems that's the intent expressed in the HN Guidelines (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html):

"Please don't do things to make titles stand out, like using uppercase or exclamation points, or adding a parenthetical remark saying how great an article is. It's implicit in submitting something that you think it's important. ... Otherwise please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait."

Re: Disable sharing of Spotlight searches with Apple

#65

Post by eridius »

eropple wrote: post #54
eridius wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> [...] that offer zero indication as to privacy implications There's a very prominent button labelled > About Spotlight Suggestions & Privacy on the Spotlight preferences window. If you're worried about the privacy of your searches, you can click that, and you get a detailed description of exactly what's going on, and how to disable it (to wit, uncheck "Spotlight Suggestions" and "Bing Web Searches").

This is literally the first I've heard of this, and I upgraded yesterday. I didn't see whatever warning supposedly appears on the first use of Spotlight because--as I always do--I hit it and started typing . The idea that having a button in the bowels of a preference menu is sufficient is...I don't want to say "nuts", but I'm thinking it pretty hard. I'm not happy. Not unhappy enough to subject myself to a Linux desk…

You immediately ran a spotlight query, despite Spotlight itself looking radically different, being in a different place on the screen (floating in the middle, instead of anchored to the upper-right), and didn't even notice the message it tried to tell you? That's pretty impressive.

> in the bowels of a preference menu

This is not the first time you've resorted to hyperbole in order to try and paint Apple in a bad light. It's not hidden anywhere. The moment you go to the Spotlight preferences, you see it.

What's more, the first time you see a search result that came from the internet, a) it should be obvious that means that your query must have gone to the internet, and b) the very first place you'd go in order to disable this behavior, the Spotlight Preferences Pane, is the same place that has this prominent button that gives you a detailed explanation.

> Not unhappy enough to subject myself to a Linux desktop, but Apple is making it closer and closer with every release.

It sounds to me like you're trying to invent reasons to hate Apple. This is a widely-advertised major feature of the OS (it was even in the WWDC keynote IIRC), with a very prominent warning explaining how Spotlight is different in this version of the OS and making it very easy to find out how to disable this behavior, with a very prominent button in preferences called "Privacy" that, again, explains what's going on and how to disable it. And yet you're trying to insinuate that Apple is trying to stealthily sneak in the behavior that sends your queries to them, without letting the user know, as if that was something they'd even want to do.

Re: Disable sharing of Spotlight searches with Apple

#66

Post by morganvachon »

jboy55 wrote: post #36
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.

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.

Copy the text displayed in the code block on the page, diff it against the fix-macos.py file in the curl link. It is character for character the same code. Why am I the only one not too lazy to do this?

Re: Disable sharing of Spotlight searches with Apple

#67

Post by general_failure »

eropple wrote: post #54
eridius wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> [...] that offer zero indication as to privacy implications There's a very prominent button labelled > About Spotlight Suggestions & Privacy on the Spotlight preferences window. If you're worried about the privacy of your searches, you can click that, and you get a detailed description of exactly what's going on, and how to disable it (to wit, uncheck "Spotlight Suggestions" and "Bing Web Searches").

This is literally the first I've heard of this, and I upgraded yesterday. I didn't see whatever warning supposedly appears on the first use of Spotlight because--as I always do--I hit it and started typing . The idea that having a button in the bowels of a preference menu is sufficient is...I don't want to say "nuts", but I'm thinking it pretty hard. I'm not happy. Not unhappy enough to subject myself to a Linux desk…

Trust me if you are not on Linux already, you never will. There is no shame in selling you soul to apple. Just be honest about it.

Re: Disable sharing of Spotlight searches with Apple

#68

Post by click170 »

iamdave wrote: post #50
click170 wrote: post #34

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.

Recommended tools? I've gotten by for a while on Little Snitch. Good enough for a single user on a home network?

I use a Sophos Home Edition UTM.

It's mostly Open Source with some proprietary bits sprinkled on top. It also comes with AV software, though I won't speak to the efficacy of said AV software.

I would like to build an equivalent fully-FOSS system, but haven't had time to do that yet. It would of course need to be Ansibled (or equivalent).

Re: Disable sharing of Spotlight searches with Apple

#69

Post by pXMzR2A »

mwfunk wrote: post #56
dstein64 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think the author(s) of this site are any of those things, but I also know that Yosemite as a whole is not designed to take away 100% of your privacy, which is what the title implies. This is also what turns me off about a lot of FSF propaganda, and most politicians regardless of their beliefs. Are your referring to the title of the HN submission, "Mac OS X Yosemite – No Privacy, by Design"? That text does n…

Yep. I could be wrong here, but I thought that HN had a policy where the titles used are taken verbatim from the page being linked to, unless they're so completely terrible that an alternative title is needed. If the HN title doesn't come from the site, then my apologies to the authors for harping about this.

>>> hyperbolic titles like the one used here hurt their credibility unnecessarily.

>> That text does not appear on the website

> I could be wrong here

RTFA.

Re: Disable sharing of Spotlight searches with Apple

#70

Post by jonknee »

hk__2 wrote: post #40
geographomics wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What do you mean? The content is the majority of the web page... You can copy it from there, or if you're paranoid you can run:

  curl https://fix-macosx.com/fix-macosx.py
Before the suggested:

  curl -o https://fix-macosx.com/fix-macosx.py && /usr/bin/python fix-macosx.py
That said, at this stage just set the correct preferences. I had already done that before seeing this script, it's pretty simple.
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