Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite Sends User Location and Safari Search Data to Apple

Apple's latest desktop operating system, known as Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite, sends location and search data of users without their knowledge to Apple's remote servers by default whenever a user queries the desktop search tool Spotlight, which questions users' privacy once again.

The technology firm faced criticism on Monday when users came to know about the company's About Spotlight & Privacy which clearly states that anyone who uses the Spotlight feature in either Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite or its newly launched mobile operating system iOS 8 will have their location and search information passed back to Apple's servers to process.

APPLE COLLECTS USERS' DATA AND FORWARDS IT TO MICROSOFT AS WELL

On one hand, where Apple decided to enable hard drive encryption by default, despite the FBI requests not to do so. But on the other, the company is itself putting its users' privacy on risk. The same data Apple collects from the users' searched term on Spotlight will also be forwarded to Microsoft's Bing search engine as Apple freely admits in its terms of service.

"When you use Spotlight, your search queries, the Spotlight Suggestions you select, and related usage data will be sent to Apple," Apple's "About Spotlight & Privacy" document states. "If you have Location Services on your device turned on, when you make a search query to Spotlight the location of your device at that time will be sent to Apple."

Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite, which was officially released on Thursday, allows Mac users to upload and organize any file types on their own, meaning users can store any type of file they wish in iCloud drive, as long as it's less than 15 gigabytes in size. With Yosemite, Apple is beginning to unify its desktop and mobile computing platforms.

HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF

However, the tech giant noted within Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite's Spotlight preferences that the users' search terms were collected only to improve Spotlight Searches. But, if users don't want their data collected, they can turn off Spotlight Suggestions and Bing Web searches in System Preferences, noted the company.

A developer has also uploaded a Python script to prevent Apple from collecting data, so you can switch off the Spotlight search by going through step-by-step instructions for doing it, according to Fix-MacOSX.com:

Disable "Spotlight Suggestions" and "Bing Web Searches" in System Preferences > Spotlight > Search Results.

Safari also has a "Spotlight Suggestions" setting that is separate from Spotlight's "Spotlight Suggestions." This uses the same mechanism as Spotlight, and if left enabled, Safari will send a copy of all search queries to Apple.

You'd be forgiven for thinking that you'd already disabled "Spotlight Suggestions," but you'll also need to uncheck "Include Spotlight Suggestions" in Safari > Preferences > Search.

APPLE RESPONSE

Apple has issued the following statement saying that the company had build up the Spotlight search feature in order to protect users' privacy and that Spotlight Suggestions minimizes the information that's sent to Apple.

"We are absolutely committed to protecting our users' privacy and have built privacy right into our products. For Spotlight Suggestions we minimize the amount of information sent to Apple," Apple said in statement to iMore. "Apple doesn't retain IP addresses from users' devices. Spotlight blurs the location on the device so it never sends an exact location to Apple. Spotlight doesn't use a persistent identifier, so a user's search history can't be created by Apple or anyone else. Apple devices only use a temporary anonymous session ID for a 15-minute period before the ID is discarded."

"We also worked closely with Microsoft to protect our users' privacy. Apple forwards only commonly searched terms and only city-level location information to Bing. Microsoft does not store search queries or receive users' IP addresses. You can also easily opt out of Spotlight Suggestions, Bing or Location Services for Spotlight."

This is the same approach which is also carried out by Google and other tech companies. So, users just need to understand that nothing in this world is free, neither Google, Facebook nor this new Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite, because you are paying with your information.

By "Kunal Vohra", Director@H2K

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How a Cell Phone User Can be Secretly Tracked Across the Globe

Since we are living in an era of Mass surveillance conducted by Government as well as private sector industries, and with the boom in surveillance technology, we should be much worried about our privacy.

According to the companies that create surveillance solutions for law enforcement and intelligence agencies, the surveillance tools are only for governments. But, reality is much more disappointing. These surveillance industries are so poorly regulated and exceedingly secretive that their tools can easily make their way into the hands of repressive organizations.

Private surveillance vendors sell surveillance tools to governments around the world, that allows cellular networks to collect records about users in an effort to offer substantial cellular service to the agencies. Wherever the user is, it pinpoint the target's location to keep every track of users who own a cellphone — here or abroad.

We ourselves give them an open invitation as we all have sensors in our pockets that track our every move wherever we go.

WHAT WENT WRONG

The tracking technology takes advantage of the SS7, a global network, which is unfortunately vulnerable.

SS7 or Signaling System Number 7 is a protocol suite used by most telecommunications operators throughout the world to communicate with one another when directing calls, texts and Internet data. It allows cell phone carriers to collect location information from cell phone towers and share it with each other. A United States carrier will find its customer, no matter if he or she travels to any other country.

The Washington Post published an awesome article on surveillance technology that can track cell phone users anywhere in the world. Surveillance vendors also now have access to SS7, so that their customers can home in on somebody’ locations as precisely as within a couple of city blocks (or in rural areas, a couple of miles).

These systems are so effective that it can even detect how fast a person on a city street is walking, or the speed a person’s car is traveling!

"The system was built decades ago, when only a few large carriers controlled the bulk of global phone traffic. Now thousands of companies use SS7 to provide services to billions of phones and other mobile devices, security experts say," explains the post.

"All of these companies have access to the network and can send queries to other companies on the SS7 system, making the entire network more vulnerable to exploitation. Any one of these companies could share its access with others, including makers of surveillance systems."

SS7 TRACKING SYSTEM PAIRED UP WITH ‘CATCHERS’

It is believe that dozens of countries have bought or leased this surveillance technology in the last few years. Having a close look at such tools, it has been discovered that some of the companies that sell SS7 tracking system are advising their customers to pair them with “IMSI catchers” or StingRays.

StingRays are common surveillance devices that allow law enforcement to mimic a cell phone tower, and track users position who connect to it, and sometimes even intercept calls and Internet traffic, send fake texts, install spyware on a phone, and determine precise locations.

“What's interesting about this story is not that the cell phone system can track your location worldwide,” said Bruce Schneier, a senior security researcher. “That makes sense; the system has to know where you are. What's interesting about this story is that anyone can do it.”

Privacy advocates are not only worried by governments getting their hands on these systems, but also about hackers and criminal gangs using it.

By "Kunal Vohra", Director@H2K

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