New Mac OS X Feature Raises Privacy Concern

July 7, 2006 By Geoff Duncan

With Mac OS X 10.4.7, Apple introduced a new feature to verify the authenticity of Dashboard Widgets: now, its behavior is raising privacy concerns.

In its most recent operating system update, Mac OS X 10.4.7, Apple introduced a new feature to its Dashboard application to enable users to verify whether individual mini-programs called Widgets are the same versions as those featured by (and presumably vetted by) Apple itself.

The problem? According to reports, Dashboard Advisory apparently installs a new process which checks in with Apple via the Internet every eight hours. Although the transactions themselves appear to be innocuous and apparently contain no personally identifiable information, the method raises privacy concerns among Mac OS X users: Apple did not inform users of the new “phone-home” function, there’s no simple way for users to turn it off, and

Showing 5 comments

Karl Viklund at 1:06am 10th July 2006 Jeffsters, caman.

This is a news story, that's why it was reported. Do you think they repported this just because it was Apple? This update have actually rised Privacy Concerns and since there seems like there is no way to turn it off and that Apple did not tell it costumers about it I think it bad just because of that. Even if Apple just wanted to be nice in thos case, contacting Apple a few times every day (from what I have read) is just stupid and not necessary at all. I usually turn of Update check in all my programs I ahve installed since I want to control. I want to check for updates manually. But that's just me. You should at least be able to turn a "future" like this off. From what I have read, your not able to turn it off which is bad.
gopher at 7:25am 8th July 2006 If it was phoning home, I'd have noticed it. It may only be certain widgets that phone home. Since I don't use the widgets, that may explain why I haven't seen any delays. So this isn't like an option you can't turn off. I haven't updated my widgets since the day I first got Tiger, and have never been asked to update my widgets.
melvin photoholz at 6:06pm 7th July 2006 I don't know what the hell is being sent back and forth. But I do know that since I bought the program "Lil Snitch" I don't worry about it. For a few bucks it tells me whenever any program wants to phone home...and it appears there are a lot of them. Don't just be pissed at Apple.
Tim Stevens at 1:01pm 7th July 2006 Umm, I dont like the fact of:
a) No where during the update did it tell me it was going to phone home every 8 hours
b) I dont know what the hell its sending. Are you? Do you believe what people are guessing its doing or have you sniffed the packets yourself?
c) why the heck would it have to do it every 8 hours? Even windows update does it once a day at most, and you get to set when you want it to do it.
d) comparing it to windows update is not a fair comparison, as windows update is optional, the user is notified about turning it on/configuring and it actually does something meaningful

I love my mac mini, but this type of stuff pisses me off.
Jeffsters at 12:45pm 7th July 2006 Bravo! About 4 days late with this one and it's already been beaten like a dead horse. It's checking Apple installed versions of web centric widgets that are updated on a continuous basis. It's sending the Widget version numbers...THAT'S IT! No different than Software Update. Sure you can say Apple should put a way to turn off the checking...but like the majority of us that have software update check at least once a day, the question is why would you? Wouldn't you be more afraid of missing a security fix from Apple? I especially love how the Windows press has jumped all over this in a comparison to Windows Genuine Advantage that even has the power to stop Windows from running at Microsoft's command. Unreal. This article even goes further in it's comparison to the iTunes mini store that is essentially much like a cookie in a web browser and like a cookie can be turned off.

Guys there is a HUGE difference between a system meant to simply keep you updated or target ads and marketing to one that is there to truly watch over you and cut you off from your computer entirely.

Why don't you go after a REAL personal privacy story like the new ATT Privacy NOT Policy!