9 ms·

If you bring up the Spotlight search window it will even tell you: "In addition to searching your Mac, Spotlight now shows suggestions from the Internet, iTune

by gicmo 12y ago

If you bring up the Spotlight search window it will even tell you: "In addition to searching your Mac, Spotlight now shows suggestions from the Internet, iTunes, App Store, locations nearby, and more. To make suggestions more relevant to you, Spotlight includes your approximate location with search requests to Apple. You can change this in Preferences. Learn more…" Clicking on "Learn more" also tells you how to disable it. The python script is neat but a bit exaggerated IMHO.

revelation 12y ago
I actually clicked the learn more, and it took me to a help site that somehow didn't exist. Failed to load. Then I manually went into Spotlight settings, and was presented with a bunch of checkboxes that offer zero indication as to privacy implications. How am I to magically tell that the "Movies" option won't send my query to some Apple IMDB proxy? Sorry, but this script is spot on. This should not be enabled by default, and the privacy implications need to be spelt out in every single detail. It should be a legal requirement, really.
- eridius 12y ago
  > [...] that offer zero indication as to privacy implications There's a very prominent button labelled > About Spotlight Suggestions & Privacy on the Spotlight preferences window. If you're worried about the privacy of your searches, you can click that, and you get a detailed description of exactly what's going on, and how to disable it (to wit, uncheck "Spotlight Suggestions" and "Bing Web Searches").
  - eropple 12y ago
    This is literally the first I've heard of this, and I upgraded yesterday. I didn't see whatever warning supposedly appears on the first use of Spotlight because--as I always do--I hit it and started typing. The idea that having a button in the bowels of a preference menu is sufficient is...I don't want to say "nuts", but I'm thinking it pretty hard. I'm not happy. Not unhappy enough to subject myself to a Linux desktop, but Apple is making it closer and closer with every release.
    - eridius 12y ago
      You immediately ran a spotlight query, despite Spotlight itself looking radically different, being in a different place on the screen (floating in the middle, instead of anchored to the upper-right), and didn't even notice the message it tried to tell you? That's pretty impressive. > in the bowels of a preference menu This is not the first time you've resorted to hyperbole in order to try and paint Apple in a bad light. It's not hidden anywhere. The moment you go to the Spotlight preferences, you see it. What's more, the first time you see a search result that came from the internet, a) it should be obvious that means that your query must have gone to the internet, and b) the very first place you'd go in order to disable this behavior, the Spotlight Preferences Pane, is the same place that has this prominent button that gives you a detailed explanation. > Not unhappy enough to subject myself to a Linux desktop, but Apple is making it closer and closer with every release. It sounds to me like you're trying to invent reasons to hate Apple. This is a widely-advertised major feature of the OS (it was even in the WWDC keynote IIRC), with a very prominent warning explaining how Spotlight is different in this version of the OS and making it very easy to find out how to disable this behavior, with a very prominent button in preferences called "Privacy" that, again, explains what's going on and how to disable it. And yet you're trying to insinuate that Apple is trying to stealthily sneak in the behavior that sends your queries to them, without letting the user know, as if that was something they'd even want to do.
      - nijiko 12y ago
        power users just hit it and go.
        eridius 12y ago
        Power users use Alfred or LaunchBar (or Quicksilver, IIRC that project was resurrected).
        mikeash 12y ago
        No power user ever uses spotlight to launch apps? Those are some awe-inspiring mental gymnastics you're doing to take Apple's side here.
- gicmo 12y ago
  I see your point and I actually agree that it probably would be better if this was either opt in, or at least have the two settings on the initial spotlight window so that you can immediately disable them without going to the settings. Also giving 'privacy' info for each spotlight 'category' is indeed a good idea. May point about the script was more that it also just disables the two things listed in the initial privacy info given by Apple, i.e. "MENU_WEBSEARCH" and "MENU_SPOTLIGHT_SUGGESTIONS" and having informative text with screenshots to which checkboxes to unselect on the website would have sufficed. At least you wouldn't be executing code from some random place on the internet.

by gicmo 12y ago

revelation 12y ago

I actually clicked the learn more, and it took me to a help site that somehow didn't exist. Failed to load. Then I manually went into Spotlight settings, and was presented with a bunch of checkboxes that offer zero indication as to privacy implications. How am I to magically tell that the "Movies" option won't send my query to some Apple IMDB proxy? Sorry, but this script is spot on. This should not be enabled by default, and the privacy implications need to be spelt out in every single detail. It should be a legal requirement, really.

eridius 12y ago
> [...] that offer zero indication as to privacy implications There's a very prominent button labelled > About Spotlight Suggestions & Privacy on the Spotlight preferences window. If you're worried about the privacy of your searches, you can click that, and you get a detailed description of exactly what's going on, and how to disable it (to wit, uncheck "Spotlight Suggestions" and "Bing Web Searches").
- eropple 12y ago
  This is literally the first I've heard of this, and I upgraded yesterday. I didn't see whatever warning supposedly appears on the first use of Spotlight because--as I always do--I hit it and started typing. The idea that having a button in the bowels of a preference menu is sufficient is...I don't want to say "nuts", but I'm thinking it pretty hard. I'm not happy. Not unhappy enough to subject myself to a Linux desktop, but Apple is making it closer and closer with every release.
  - eridius 12y ago
    You immediately ran a spotlight query, despite Spotlight itself looking radically different, being in a different place on the screen (floating in the middle, instead of anchored to the upper-right), and didn't even notice the message it tried to tell you? That's pretty impressive. > in the bowels of a preference menu This is not the first time you've resorted to hyperbole in order to try and paint Apple in a bad light. It's not hidden anywhere. The moment you go to the Spotlight preferences, you see it. What's more, the first time you see a search result that came from the internet, a) it should be obvious that means that your query must have gone to the internet, and b) the very first place you'd go in order to disable this behavior, the Spotlight Preferences Pane, is the same place that has this prominent button that gives you a detailed explanation. > Not unhappy enough to subject myself to a Linux desktop, but Apple is making it closer and closer with every release. It sounds to me like you're trying to invent reasons to hate Apple. This is a widely-advertised major feature of the OS (it was even in the WWDC keynote IIRC), with a very prominent warning explaining how Spotlight is different in this version of the OS and making it very easy to find out how to disable this behavior, with a very prominent button in preferences called "Privacy" that, again, explains what's going on and how to disable it. And yet you're trying to insinuate that Apple is trying to stealthily sneak in the behavior that sends your queries to them, without letting the user know, as if that was something they'd even want to do.
    - nijiko 12y ago
      power users just hit it and go.
      - eridius 12y ago
        Power users use Alfred or LaunchBar (or Quicksilver, IIRC that project was resurrected).
        mikeash 12y ago
        No power user ever uses spotlight to launch apps? Those are some awe-inspiring mental gymnastics you're doing to take Apple's side here.
gicmo 12y ago
I see your point and I actually agree that it probably would be better if this was either opt in, or at least have the two settings on the initial spotlight window so that you can immediately disable them without going to the settings. Also giving 'privacy' info for each spotlight 'category' is indeed a good idea. May point about the script was more that it also just disables the two things listed in the initial privacy info given by Apple, i.e. "MENU_WEBSEARCH" and "MENU_SPOTLIGHT_SUGGESTIONS" and having informative text with screenshots to which checkboxes to unselect on the website would have sufficed. At least you wouldn't be executing code from some random place on the internet.