I want to protect myself against data harvesting by big tech, and wondering if there has been any research into how much data macos actually collects
I believe recently it was uncovered that even if you opt out from location tracking macos still pinged apple’s servers about ur location?
And so that got me wondering if there has been any research to verify apple’s claims… Maybe they send my misspellings back to “”“improve your experience”“”…
p.s. for the record i’m using macbook air m4, on lockdown mode, firewall, with as much privacy toggles adjusted as possible.
I think it’s important to distinguish between what’s normalto collect and what isunacceptable to do with that data. It’s pretty easy to accept that Amazon HAS to keep a record of everything we’ve ever purchased, and it’s easy to accept that Verizon towers HAVE to keep logs of every device that connects. However, we should absolutely get ENRAGED when we learn that AMZ/VZW are freaking selling our purchase and location history.
IMHO, Apple has an interesting position. They are definitely more “privacy-aware”, but by nature of us using their devices/services, we generate a ton of data…there’s just too many things it connects to. However, I do actually believe that they currently don’t sell/share/use that data in ways that we’d describe as “personal violations”. There are just so many examples: Safari’s anti- fingerprinting history, Private Relay and Hide My Email, even letting you individually reset your Identifier on the Apple News app.
With that said, I’m definitely in the camp of “data saved this week is data sold next month”, so we are putting a LOT of trust that Apple will continue with their current Privacy culture. More to your question though, if you have ADP enabled, I highly doubt that Apple is currently breaking user trust.
You can incorporate AdGuard Home on your network to see how chatty your devices are on your network. Then adjust your lists accordingly, I have a M4 Mac Mini and use a adblocking/privacy list for Apple, you’ll want to gauge your experience on exactly what you want to block and what you don’t want to block depending on what needs whitelisting and what doesn’t you’ll notice if you block certain domains then some services might not work that you’re used to using which could be domains that are on one of your block lists.
But I think you’re pretty safe to say that Apple is a company that respects the privacy of its users and tries to give them the tools needed to mitigate exposure of more of their personal information.
I know there was some research done about 10 years ago, comparing Android and iOS. But i don’t think i’ve seen something like that since. Not sure i’ve seen any recently for macOS.
I will say that the amount of DNS-queries to Apple is somewhat concerning. Nothing synced to iCloud, Handoff, AirPlay, AirDrop, all those are off. Most of Apple’s default apps have been removed. And still on weekends where i don’t touch my phone, 1000 queries (related to Apple) within 24-hours. Less queries from my Mac, but still around 500.
As mentioned by @hbxc0re AdGuard Home for monitoring DNS on the network. And something like “Little Snitch” on device, for more granular control.