Comment by sneak

Even when it works right, it’s transmitting the apps that you use, as well as your timestamped coarse geolocation (from client IP) to Apple, which logs all of it. It’s good for city-level location.

They know what times you're at home, and what apps you're using there. They know what times you're at work. They know what times you're tethered. They know when you travel, and to which cities. They know when you're on a friend's Wi-Fi, and they know which apps you open from that connection.

Apple is a partner in the US military’s PRISM spying program, so this log is available to US military intelligence at any time without a warrant.

Thanks to API changes in Big Sur, it’s impossible to use Little Snitch to block these system level connections, and they will also bypass any configured VPN. To control this, you’ll need to use external network hardware, like a travel router that you can operate a vpn/firewall on.

Big Sur is the only OS that will run on the new Apple Silicon macs, so it’ll be impossible to use the new machines without leaking your track log and app usage history in a way that is available to the FBI/CIA/et al whenever they want it.

Note also that Apple recently backdoored iMessage’s end-to-end encryption by defaulting the non e2e-encrypted iCloud Backup to on for all users: it backs up (to Apple) your device’s complete plaintext iMessage history, as well as your device’s iMessage keys, using Apple keys, each night when you plug it in. You should immediately stop using iMessage as a result of this, because even if you have disabled iCloud or iCloud Backup, your conversation partners likely have it enabled. iMessage is no longer meaningfully encrypted.

Apple’s marketing about privacy is lip service, not real.