So as you may know, i am a guy mostly focused on privacy. Basically, insead of google i use SearXNG. (Privacy focused search engine) However, when i went to change the default search engine in safari, there was no option to add a custom search engine.

This really pissed me off. So how come Apple allows changing default browsers in the EU, but not search engines?

  • TwilightKiddy
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    9
    ·
    3 months ago

    Apple isn’t any good for privacy. Just as Google, it’s a single big company that gets full control over your device. There are many examples of them exploiting it, by hashing your launched apps on Mac to check for malware, for example. Their systems are also known for being a lot more locked down than the rest, meaning getting rid of telemetry is not an easy task. Big companies are not interested in your privacy, they are interested in profit. And the profit they can get by building your profile is a lot more valuable for them than you as a user. That being said, the guy is right, but he is out of line.

      • TwilightKiddy
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        3 months ago

        I mean, they where hashing any lauched programs and sending the hashes unencryped to their servers to compare against their database. So, they literally knew every program you launched, when you did it, but also your ISP knew it and anyone smart enough to MITM your connection. Sounds like a privacy violation to me.

        • Sam Clemente@allthingstech.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          3 months ago

          @TwilightKiddy I can see how you can get there, but the MITM would need to know the hashing algo, you can’t *really* just un-hash something, at least not reliably

          But your original statement was that the hashing was the privacy violation, and that’s the part I took issue with, hashing is a generally accepted security measure, it is not inherently a privacy violation

    • prousername@lemmy.mlOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      3 months ago

      Well idk if this counts, but when i started caring abt my privacy i filled my icloud storage with garbage so that it does not back up any pictures. (also i dont have a mac)

      • TwilightKiddy
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        3 months ago

        It’s not really about something specific. There are just a lot of examples of Apple doing weird shit with your data and only stopping when they got caught. Most people conserned with privacy just don’t trust Apple in general.