✨ Enhancement | MacOS/iOS/Apple Privacy Suggestions #1587

New Issue

jonah · 2019-12-13T17:40:06Z

heywoodlh commented

2019-12-13 17:40:06 +00:00

(Migrated from github.com)

Description

Why is there absolutely no content on MacOS and iOS privacy on privacytools.io?

In contrast, there is a whole section on why a user shouldn't use Windows 10. I think a lot of the same weaknesses in Windows 10 exist on MacOS and there should be a comparable warning/recommendations to making MacOS more privacy-oriented. There are also some strengths that exist on MacOS that are lacking in other platforms, at least out of the box.

I get the focus on Android and Linux since you can actually obtain privacy on those platforms (or at least more privacy than proprietary/totally closed-source platforms). But why absolutely no recommendations on iOS/MacOS privacy tweaks?

Tools exist for making MacOS more privacy oriented that I think many Apple users could benefit from (not all of these are exclusive to privacy, many are for security as well). Off the top of my head:

Sorry if this has already been answered -- I didn't see any answers in the corresponding issues or on the website. I was just curious and would love to begin a discussion on this because there are many way more privacy-intelligent folks engaged in the privacytools.io community and there is probably a reason for the lack of content on Apple products.

## Description Why is there absolutely no content on MacOS and iOS privacy on privacytools.io? In contrast, there is a whole section on why a user shouldn't use Windows 10. I think a lot of the same weaknesses in Windows 10 exist on MacOS and there should be a comparable warning/recommendations to making MacOS more privacy-oriented. There are also some strengths that exist on MacOS that are lacking in other platforms, at least out of the box. I get the focus on Android and Linux since you can actually obtain privacy on those platforms (or at least more privacy than proprietary/totally closed-source platforms). But why absolutely no recommendations on iOS/MacOS privacy tweaks? Tools exist for making MacOS more privacy oriented that I think many Apple users could benefit from (not all of these are exclusive to privacy, many are for security as well). Off the top of my head: - [Tons of tools available at Patrick Wardle's Objective See](https://objective-see.com/products.html) - [Little Snitch](https://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html) Sorry if this has already been answered -- I didn't see any answers in the corresponding issues or on the website. I was just curious and would love to begin a discussion on this because there are many way more privacy-intelligent folks engaged in the privacytools.io community and there is probably a reason for the lack of content on Apple products.

jonah commented

2019-12-13 23:43:34 +00:00

We have iOS recommended browsers, and many of the software platforms we recommend have iOS counterparts (as evidenced by us linking to the Apple App Store in the icons wherever relevant).

We mention Windows specifically in the OS section because:

It runs on basically all computer hardware
- macOS only runs on Apple devices, so therefore most people won't be considering it as an OS option for their computer unless they own an Apple device.
It is significantly larger than macOS/Linux in terms of market share, and therefore needs more attention towards convincing people to switch away
We believe it is significantly worse than macOS out of the box from a privacy perspective

As far as Apple products go that's something we would cover in our upcoming hardware section but probably doesn't make sense in any existing section of the site. (#904)

We have iOS recommended browsers, and many of the software platforms we recommend have iOS counterparts (as evidenced by us linking to the Apple App Store in the icons wherever relevant). We mention Windows specifically in the OS section because: 1. It runs on basically all computer hardware - macOS only runs on Apple devices, so therefore most people won't be considering it as an OS option for their computer unless they own an Apple device. 2. It is significantly larger than macOS/Linux in terms of [market share](https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide), and therefore needs more attention towards convincing people to switch away 3. We believe it is significantly worse than macOS out of the box from a privacy perspective As far as Apple *products* go that's something we would cover in our upcoming hardware section but probably doesn't make sense in any existing section of the site. (#904)

heywoodlh commented

2019-12-17 21:13:27 +00:00

(Migrated from github.com)

@JonahAragon

Thanks for the response, I think the focus on Windows makes sense in contrast to MacOS. And there is definitely a limit to the amount of privacy tweaks you can make to iOS so I can see not focusing on that either.

If Mac suggestions do eventually make it to the site, I think that would be awesome! But I understand the reasoning behind not focusing on it.

@JonahAragon Thanks for the response, I think the focus on Windows makes sense in contrast to MacOS. And there is definitely a limit to the amount of privacy tweaks you can make to iOS so I can see not focusing on that either. If Mac suggestions do eventually make it to the site, I think that would be awesome! But I understand the reasoning behind not focusing on it.

holow29 commented

2020-07-17 06:00:28 +00:00

(Migrated from github.com)

Here are some resources that people might find useful for MacOS (& also limitations/privacy concerns with iOS):
https://github.com/drduh/macOS-Security-and-Privacy-Guide
https://gist.github.com/iosecure/357e724811fe04167332ef54e736670d

Here are some resources that people might find useful for MacOS (& also limitations/privacy concerns with iOS): https://github.com/drduh/macOS-Security-and-Privacy-Guide https://gist.github.com/iosecure/357e724811fe04167332ef54e736670d

ph00lt0 commented

2020-07-17 19:28:58 +00:00

(Migrated from github.com)

https://vuldb.com/?id.157485

jonah commented

2020-07-18 15:56:50 +00:00

macOS improvements are something we want to cover, but not on the main site at the moment. We will discuss Wiki entries for Apple product improvement.

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