‘Yosemite sends data to Apple when using search engine DuckDuckGo’ – update
Apple’s latest version of its OS X operating system, Yosemite, is said to send unsolicited data to the software manufacturer. These include search terms from the privacy-conscious search engine DuckDuckGo. Apple denies it is a privacy breach.
At least that’s what security researcher Landon Fuller claims. Fuller recently built the Net Monitor tool that allows him to analyze all network traffic on his Yosemite installation. With the tool, he is still trying to uncover little by little what information Apple would gather about its users.
The first results would show that Apple is still sent information, even if the user has not given permission for the sharing of data. This concerns, for example, a unique number that is assigned to each individual Yosemite installation. Yosemite forwards that number to Apple every time someone opens About This Mac, Spotlight, or Help. Apple would use this for analytics purposes.
Furthermore, it became particularly clear during Fuller’s research that Apple would not limit the collection of information only to its own software. According to Fuller, users of the privacy-conscious search engine DuckDuckGo also run the risk of sharing unsolicited information. Anyone who has set the search engine in the Safari browser and also disabled suggestions in Spotlight would still send their search terms to Apple. This is controversial, because many use DuckDuckGo to prevent search terms from falling into the hands of third parties. Users can prevent the forwarding: for this they also have to uncheck the Spotlight suggestions in Safari in the search tab of settings.
According to Fuller, the findings are only the tip of the iceberg, because his research is not a complete picture of reality. On the one hand, this is because iCloud was not set up during the investigation, and on the other, because only plaintext information could be analysed. This means that it is not known what Apple collects via secure connections. Until now, Fuller’s investigation took several hours, saying he had as little interaction as possible with the system and the programs. With a Python script, he wants to help Yosemite users to better protect themselves against privacy-sensitive settings. Apple has not yet responded to the allegations.
Apple released its new version of its OS X operating system to users last week. The software is free to download and includes graphical adjustments and improvements in the field of cooperation with iOS 8. The final release of OS X Yosemite can be downloaded free of charge as an update via the Mac App Store.
Update, Tuesday, 07.00: In a response to Ars Technica, Apple says the company does not store user IP addresses, does not receive exact locations and cannot save search history. Apple products would create temporary session IDs, which expire after 15 minutes. Furthermore, with the Bing search engine, Yosemite’s default Internet search engine, Microsoft would receive only general search terms and city-level location data.
The article also clarifies that forwarding can be turned off in Safari.