Comment by Lammy

> The amount of personal info they collect has exploded over the last couple years.

Since maybe 2016-ish? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI–Apple_encryption_dispute

For anyone who wants to do this, you can do it here (at least if you are in the EU): http://privacy.apple.com/

Having downloaded my data from both Apple and Google, "Google levels of data collection" seems inaccurate.

I experienced the issue with Mojave while this was happening. So not just Catalina.

> Why is it scary that your computer checks for malware?

It isn't just checking for malware, its broadcasting your app opening behavior to apple and anyone else who might be listening.

> It’s not like Apple us building a database of apps you’ve launched linked to your address and social security number.

You know this how? Seriously, I don't get why you would believe that.

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or serious. Schrodinger's sarcasm.

Well it would be pretty good information to have to do analysis against.

You could easily see knowing how often an app is used on an OS to be useful business information if apple wanted to create software to get into a trend before it gets to big.

Of course that doesn't require fine grained time data just daily would be more than good enough.

However you could also see the business use of knowing if two pieces of software are often used together or sequentialy which could inform creating an all in one/integrated experience that would do well in a market. So you need that finer application timing.

Of course that doesn't require tying it to a particular user account,not even a device ID, just a sessionID that changes each time the device restarts would probably be granular enough.

However since we've got that other stuff in place per device wouldn't it be great to see if there's a correlation between people using an app on there Mac and using it or another App on there iphone, ipad, or watch. What piece of data can we include to match up a user across all their devices? Maybe some kind of obfuscated or derived userID.

Of course you'd hope that other interests such as a commitment to privacy would rule out the use of such a dataset. If Apple did have such a dataset then you'd hope they'd be doing whatever processes (social, business, and technical) it can to obfuscate and seperate how that dataset is tied to a specific user.

The only real argument against Apple not having it is the balance between the cost of creating/exploiting such a data set, the expected profit, and the legal and reputational costs of such behaviour.

I don't know they're not doing that, is the problem. They probably aren't, but as Bill Kristol offered recently, 99% sure isn't 100% sure, and the fact that I'm not 100% sure is a problem unto itself.

It's only a matter of time and money: https://www.google.com/amp/s/mashable.com/article/apple-sear...

It’s not like Apple us building a database of apps you’ve launched linked to your address and social security number.

Linked to your identity if you have a credit card saved for say iTunes.

Can you please provide resources for Ubuntu?

Sorry, not on Ubuntu. It's easy to check, compile a binary, run it, and use wireshark to watch your uplink.

No it has not.

The information reveals in exquisite detail what times of day I'm working, what times I'm slacking off, which days I work too.

And whether I'm taking a long or short lunch break, or lots of breaks. Whether I stay in bed until late, or work late at night. It's enough to predict whether I'm a "good" worker.

It also reveals whenever I travel, which coffee shops and libraries I frequent and what times of day. It also reveals what time I open any of several video conferencing apps.

And the sort of thing some HR would like to browse when assessing job candidates. They wouldn't need to ask "do you know X", they could just consult the Apple log of how often I run the relevant commands. Things like "we see you ran 'git' an average of 145 times per day last month, tell us more about that".

And whether I'm running tools I "shouldn't".

All that seems quite sensitive and personal to me.

"Hey Siri, select every Tor Browser user in America for additional screening."

In this case, isn't the hash of the binary consistent across all devices, so Apples can in fact derive exactly which binary you're running (assuming they have a large database of application binary and hashes)?

I run Tor browser occasionally. That fact alone is sensitive personal information about me. It makes me stand out. Someday it might be held against me.

I already expect the ISP to detect my Tor traffic.

But I didn't expect Apple, of all companies, to have a detailed audit trail of every time I've ever opened it, to the nearest minute.

What about the hash of a password cracking binary or the hash of some sort of binary used for piracy or stripping DRM off of something? Or just in general the ability to profile users based on the apps they use seems completely trivial. I imagine it would not take a particularly brilliant data scientist to correlate people who use FTP programs or developer programs or whatever else with people who buy high value items from certain e-commerce sites, for example. Seems like a marketer’s dream if they could ever get access to that. And sure Apple wouldn’t do that, today, on purpose, but are you 100% certain that could never happen? And if there was some way to tie that illegal piracy app binary hash to you personally and the government came knocking with a subpoena, seems like something Apple might be forced to comply with. It’s a very slippery slope.

> I don't know about you, but hashes of the binaries I run don't exactly reveal any sensitive personal information about me.

If they know the hash of (let's say) a pr0n app which you run, then I'd say that's pretty damn sensitive information Apple is getting.

It reveals how often I am running new software, it reveals what time of day I run new software, it reveals what networks I connect from

I think that for some users, the applications they run and the frequency they run them at would be enough to identify them across time and accounts. I could change my identifier, even my name, but at the end of the day, I've been using the same apps for at least a decade more or less.