Comment by pkamb
10 years ago
> more likely that Apple will further lock down the accessibility APIs, possibly even making them unavailable without an Apple-issued, potentially App Store-only entitlement.
Please feel free to duplicate my radar! Accessibility and Productivity/Utility app developers would love a Sandbox entitlement.
rdar://13570189 - Sandbox entitlement for Accessibility API to allow apps for the disabled
The Accessibility toolkit has always been off limits to Sandboxed apps, and no entitlement exists. This seems unlikely to change. It's unfortunate, as this keeps many good and useful apps out of the Mac App Store.
Is it worth adding that to OpenRadar?
https://openradar.appspot.com/search?query=13570189
I don't really see the point of taking a sandbox and then explicitly granting an app inside the privilege to step out of it.
I don't really see the point of banning Accessibility apps that can't be sandboxed but then allowing those same apps to be distributed outside the Mac App Store. Unless you're banning them from macOS entirely, why not allow these potentially "dangerous" apps to operate underneath the additional Reviews and Guidelines of the App Store?
Because an app being on the App Store creates an expectation that cannot be met without the sandbox.
Without the source code and large amounts of resources it is not possible to determine whether an app is malicious or not. The only way would be for Apple to trust that developers actually do what they say they do. The unfortunate reality is that they cannot be trusted. I don't blame Apple for not taking that responsibility. Unfortunately that means the responsibility ends up with the user who cannot make the determination either. Such is life.
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