#1

please be aware of macos’ escalating data collection

35 Likes
Which MacBook should I buy?
Apple/Mac issues: hardware, firmware, interfaces, etc
#2

Yeah I guess there is a bit of rain at the parade. I’m tying to gauge if it’s enough to keep me inside, currently leaning towards not letting it bother me against my better judgement.

#3

This is not only a total bummer, but a major conundrum. Is Win10 any different? (it has a host of other problems also)… My required workflow won’t let me switch entirely to Linux … which means I am (we are) kind of stuck… So as much as I appreciate know all of this, and making the best decisions that I can, there isn’t a workable alternative for people, like me, who reply to specific software for their work…

4 Likes
#4

Same here. I guess for now the best option is to not upgrade and just try to make whatever yuo have last as long as possible and hope that something will happen in the meantime. I’m not super optimistic though.

#5

Yeah, agreed. Unless there’s some sort of sweeping privacy legislation, this is likely only going to become more pervasive/invasive and ubiquitous.

#6

how does this compare to win10 with all the obvious privacy controls set to disable communication to msft?

#7

I would be astonished if any sweeping privacy legislation didn’t contain specific carveouts protecting the sort of data collections that is ‘for the benefit of the country’ (data surveillance of the entire population by intelligence agencies).

I really don’t know how we find our way back from here.

2 Likes
#8

not only is this extremely illuminating/chilling, it explains why I was having mysterious & show-stopping computer crashes yesterday along with some of my co-workers.

despite zapping NVRAM and SMC, I couldn’t even get Pro Tools to open, and had to just call it a day early.

#9

if you’re blaming this on data collection, you could have just disabled internet and been back in business :slight_smile:

#11

I suspect the best remedy to this matter is public relations blowback. In other words, complain. (Not on Lines, of course.)

Thanks for the link!

4 Likes
#12

Depending on where you live there might be a data protection authority that one would hope could be sufficiently annoyed by this to take some kind of action? They should have a way of receiving tips about this sort of thing.

#13

:laughing:
1 Like
#14

It seems like this conversation is best broken into two threads: one on MacBook model choice for studio use, and another on Apple’s data privacy?

1 Like
#15

Well, a lot of what Apple is doing—privacy wise—is unequivocally good. (IMO)

That doesn’t excuse where they’re stumbling.

3 Likes
#16

i too experienced the macOS system freeze up yesterday. it was super weird. i had no idea what was going on - every application would bounce in the dock endlessly. i restarted my computer 4 or 5 times. i was literally throwing my ams up in the air, lol. thought i was going crazy!

privacy aside - the fact that my computer has become this vulnerable is maddening.

and all i had to do was turn off the network connection and it would go away??!

starting to think very strongly about how i can fully silo my creativity hub from the internet.
obviously some connectivity is necessary (moving files around) - but that job can be offloaded to a NAS.

4 Likes
#17

I approach my wifi connection like a room light switch: it’s only on when I actively need to check email or be on the internet. Otherwise, it is turned off, especially when composing/recording/making.

9 Likes
#18

maybe true, but there are also situations where the two overlap, ala yesterday when the trustd snitch app/“security feature” broke everyone’s computer for a bit.

the bug hit me too, it’s kind of a huge assumption that end users will be able to tell what the problem is especially when your first instinct to “just google it” doesn’t work because you can’t launch your browser.

i don’t know whether to feel proud of myself for independently being able to tell which process was causing the system hangs and googling how to kill it from my phone; or to feel concerned that, by knowing enough to do so, if not for posts like the one from @tehn i would have no idea what the security implications for it were. i thought it was just some more catalina bullshit.

i have to say i can’t believe there’s no way to turn it off in 11. i run one OS behind current for stability and so just bumped up to catalina a few weeks ago. honestly was considering going straight to the new one given how awful my experience with catalina has been.

but now reading about the little snitch issue with “trusted processes” i will probably not be doing that!

side note, i am running lulu, an open source version of little snitch. free, that it’s open source seems better security wise, but that it was built by someone who was literally in the NSA kind of gives one pause…

2 Likes
#19

that’s a great approach… but i honestly am feeling more and more like i want my creative computing to never touch the internet. i use a computer for so many things connected to my creativity and career - opening it up to internet in any form feels like i’m setting myself up for trouble.

7 Likes
#20

Curious what your (or others’) thoughts or processes are for software verification with a largely offline workflow. I’ve thought about this route too but haven’t researched how to get DAWs, Max, etc to not try to verify my licence each time…

I also keep going back and forth whether I should have jumped on the last of the Intel machines to delay this change…

#21

Most software I’ve used only had to be activated once per computer and had a mechanism for offline activation. I don’t think that is an issue. It isn’t (or wasn’t?) particularly uncommon for studios to keep their computers off the web, so it’s something most audio software can deal with. Not sure how it works with subscription based models, because I don’t use those out of principle.

2 Likes