Your Computer Isn't Yours

[LiberalArkie]

It’s here. It happened. Did you notice?

I’m speaking, of course, of the world that Richard Stallman predicted in 1997. The one Cory Doctorow also warned us about.

On modern versions of macOS, you simply can’t power on your computer, launch a text editor or eBook reader, and write or read, without a log of your activity being transmitted and stored.

It turns out that in the current version of the macOS, the OS sends to Apple a hash (unique identifier) of each and every program you run, when you run it. Lots of people didn’t realize this, because it’s silent and invisible and it fails instantly and gracefully when you’re offline, but today the server got really slow and it didn’t hit the fail-fast code path, and everyone’s apps failed to open if they were connected to the internet.

Snip

https://sneak.berlin/20201112/your-computer-isnt-yours/

[LongtimeAZDem]

1. Linux, baby!

[Amishman]

2. or just really good firewall settings

shit like this does really annoy me.

(and why am I not surprised its Apple doing this???)

[beachbumbob]

3. I never own apple products except for a lousy iPad, my main computer

is mint Linux and little concern

[LiberalArkie]

5. I ran unix before dos came out and Suse Linux for many years. Why I went to Mac was that it

was unix. I stayed because I could put in something on my phone and it was on my desktop. Contacts, Notes etc. Is there a way to share all the stuff from phone - notebook - desktop on Linux?

[d_r]

10. Sure

today people are more likely to use things like outlook or gmail that just does the same calendar on their phone and their desktop and the web.

[mr_lebowski]

4. Not really that big a deal if it's anonymous and simply telling apple that a given program

was run on their OS.

[LiberalArkie]

6. From a certain computer with a certain IP and located at so and so location.

[FreeState]

11. Except Apple doesnt track IP address and location is tracked with temporary IDS

Except Apple doesnt track IP address and location is tracked with temporary IDS that are erased in 15 minute intervals.

https://www.apple.com/privacy/docs/Differential_Privacy_Overview.pdf

[LiberalArkie]

18. They do on this system. It is not an Apple owned data farm.

It was not in the original Patriot act but was added in the 2nd and 3rd revisions of the Patriot act that Obama signed in.

Ya know one of the first things he was going to shut down when he was sworn in.

[csziggy]

7. I doubt that the homebuilt computer I use does that

And my older version of Windows probably doesn't. I can't say that for some of the software I use, though, since so much has gone subscription.

When I built my new computer next year, everything major will probably be subscription - Windows, Photoshop, Microsoft Office, and more. WordPerfect, my main word processor, I will buy as an OEM version and I don't think they have gone to a subscription model - yet.

[Earthshine2]

12. Every version of Windows from 7 forward does this by default.

It used to be that MS only did telemetry on Win 10. They backported it to Win 7 and 8 using the Windows updates.

The hosts file specifies which servers are receiving your internal Windows info.

C:/Windows/System32/drivers/etc/hosts

You can put 0.0.0.0 in place of the IP address for the entry of any server you want to cut off.

[csziggy]

13. I stopped doing updates almost a year ago

I wonder how far back the Windows 7 update was that added the telemetry?

Thanks for the suggestion, but I've basically given up on internet privacy. If whoever wants to follow me to DU, It's Not Always Right, Ancestry, and I Can Haz Cheezburger, I wish them well. I do go to a few other places, but they are nearly as boring.

[Earthshine2]

15. MS added the telemetry to Win 7 and 8 about three years ago.

You probably go more places than you think. We all do!

Frankly, if one is careful about clicks, one doesn't even need to run anti-virus software.

Updates for Win 7/8 are probably not needed. Keep your other software, like web browsers, up to date.

Be safe out there!

[csziggy]

17. I stopped doing updates since I plan to upgrade my system

Originally I was going to do it early this year, but with construction and other stuff decided to delay until things settle down.

Now I need to do a few months of research to select components and get all my data organized for transfer to the new system. There is one advantage to software subscriptions - all I have to do is log in and I can download the most recent version to install on the new system. For other software, like my browser, I log in and it loads all my bookmarks and passwords. Sure it can be invasive, but changing is so much easier than it used to be.

I've lost data and programs several times in my computer lifetime. I started on an Apple ][ in 1982, changed to a PC in '87, moved to Windows 3.1 in '93, Windows 98 in '99, etc. I just don't want to have to jump through hoops any more.

[lagomorph777]

14. There are good open-source replacements for all those things.

[csziggy]

16. I tried open source and Linux a while back

For compatibility sake I had to give it up. Now I have too much time invested in knowing how to do what I want with the software I am used to to change. And I'm getting to the age where learning new stuff is more trouble than it's worth. I've got too many projects to finish in the next 20-30 years to change now.

[ItsjustMe]

8. Need to repair a Apple product?

Good luck with that, Google "Right To Repair Act+Apple"

https://www.ifixit.com/News/8780/apple-right-to-repair

[John Ludi]

9. Ubuntu Linux

Using Ubuntu Studio as my main box for everything except a few Windows Audio and Video programs I'm attached to (but I don't go online with it, so no spying or forced updates or malware). It's soooo much smoother to use than anything else I've worked with in the 30+ years I've worked with computers...and it's free and open source!

[Silent3]

19. If this is done under the "Analytics" category, you can opt out.

If this phone-home stuff goes on whether or not you opt out, that's more of a worry. Has that been tested? I searched for "Little Snitch" and "Apple Analytics" and didn't see anything one way or another about whether a third-party tool like Little Snitch was even needed to block these basic analytics, or if it works just fine by declining to participate via the Apple-provided interface.

[LiberalArkie]

20. It is run in the background. I just checked my old Mac mini running high Sierra and it is in it.

As the article stated a little bit ago Apple had a problem with the servers that handle it. I experienced it when I could not run any apps. I click on something and it would just stall out. I unplug my lan and the program starts fine. I could plug the lan back in and it would still run. It just seemed to stop the program from starting when the server problem happened.
]

I do not see it as a problem, unless the person was in government or a reporter or BLM etc. Someone who the Gov has a problem with.. But they are probably already running Linux with no Google software on their laptops.

[Silent3]

21. I didn't see any problem on my MacBook Pro yesterday, which I was using a good portion of the day.

But I've opted out of all analytics, so my question was if that's enough to stop this monitoring in and of itself. I'm still running Catalina.

[LiberalArkie]

22. They had a server problem last week I believe.. But the server problem led some to

investigate what was going on and find out about trustd program and others phoning home

[ItsjustMe]

23. Thread on Reddit

https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/jt2zrh/psa_if_your_mac_suddenly_just_got_very_slow_and/

Link to tweet

?s=20

[LiberalArkie]

25. This is what I did

Open /etc/hosts (sudo nano /etc/hosts)
Add in 0.0.0.0 ocsp.apple.com
Run sudo dscacheutil -flushcache

[JCMach1]

24. F#$k Apple

🍎