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Is this a scam? How does disabling Gatekeeper, File Quarantine or automatic updates make a MacOS system safer? It looks like the opposite !

LinuxBender 4y ago
I have not tested this app. Does it give the person running it a clear explanation of all the potentially positive and negative ramifications of the changes? If not then I think that should be a high severity enhancement. Maybe that could even be a discussion thread in and of itself here on HN giving feedback to the developer what could go wrong with each change. e.g. functionality breakage, security impact, auditing impact and so on.
Karawebnetwork 4y ago
Privacy, not security. This removes features that call home. Those features are not disabled in their "standard" preset which they present as "recommended for everyone". To disable gatekeeper, you need to use the "strict preset" which they describe as "not designed for daily users, it will break important functionalities".
amarshall 4y ago
FWIW, the settings you refer to are under a section entitled “Privacy over security”. Though I’m not sure there’s a strong privacy argument for disabling automatic updates or the offline-only things like (I think) Quarantine. Gatekeeper, though, as I recall, does send information about all binaries being opened.
webmobdev 4y ago
It's to do with Privacy: Gatekeeper performs online checks to verify if an app contains known malware and whether the developer's signing certificate is revoked. Gatekeeper, file quarantine etc. are security features also designed for data collection to learn about the files and applications you have in your computer (built in anti-malware on macOS and Windows provide them a perfect excuse to harvest all your file name and file hashes to know more about you). When automatic update is enabled macOS phones Apple periodically, leaking info like your geolocation and network etc.

LinuxBender 4y ago

I have not tested this app. Does it give the person running it a clear explanation of all the potentially positive and negative ramifications of the changes? If not then I think that should be a high severity enhancement. Maybe that could even be a discussion thread in and of itself here on HN giving feedback to the developer what could go wrong with each change. e.g. functionality breakage, security impact, auditing impact and so on.

Karawebnetwork 4y ago

Privacy, not security. This removes features that call home. Those features are not disabled in their "standard" preset which they present as "recommended for everyone". To disable gatekeeper, you need to use the "strict preset" which they describe as "not designed for daily users, it will break important functionalities".

amarshall 4y ago

FWIW, the settings you refer to are under a section entitled “Privacy over security”. Though I’m not sure there’s a strong privacy argument for disabling automatic updates or the offline-only things like (I think) Quarantine. Gatekeeper, though, as I recall, does send information about all binaries being opened.

webmobdev 4y ago

It's to do with Privacy: Gatekeeper performs online checks to verify if an app contains known malware and whether the developer's signing certificate is revoked. Gatekeeper, file quarantine etc. are security features also designed for data collection to learn about the files and applications you have in your computer (built in anti-malware on macOS and Windows provide them a perfect excuse to harvest all your file name and file hashes to know more about you). When automatic update is enabled macOS phones Apple periodically, leaking info like your geolocation and network etc.