privacy

Your Mac Is Phoning Home: What macOS Sends to Apple Without Asking

Security researchers have documented extensive telemetry from macOS to Apple servers, with limited ability for users to opt out.

RNT Editorial··8 min read
Your Mac Is Phoning Home: What macOS Sends to Apple Without Asking

In November 2020, security researcher Jeffrey Paul published an analysis that sent shockwaves through the privacy community. He documented that macOS Big Sur was sending a hash of every application a user opened to Apple's OCSP server in real time — and that these transmissions were unencrypted, sent over HTTP rather than HTTPS.

Apple's OCSP checks are part of Gatekeeper, the macOS security feature that verifies the developer signature of applications before allowing them to run.

Key Takeaways

  • macOS was found sending unencrypted application launch data to Apple's OCSP servers in real time
  • Disabling Analytics & Improvements settings does not eliminate all telemetry transmission to Apple
  • Core system services continue communicating with Apple servers regardless of user privacy preferences
#apple#macos#telemetry#privacy#data-collection

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