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Comment by MBCook | Hacker News Reader

Right. Because preventing the computer from talking to Apple where it finds out if there are updates or new malware definitions in addition to the documented thing it’s doing is a much better option than turning off the option in settings.

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Yes, firewalls often prevent this from happening, waiting to read about some new setting on HN does not. Firewalls also aren’t going to block legitimate traffic unless they’re badly configured.

You have to think about the problem in context: if abuse were happening, which to be clear is not true, you couldn’t trust a computer made by the company running the program you disagree with. They control the software stack and network endpoints, so they could exempt their own services from the local firewall and avoid a network firewall by using something like their network update service to receive queries.

Right. They make the hardware (including CPU), the OS (and firmware), and there is a decent chance they make the app you’re using like Preview.

Apple is the keys to the kingdom. They have full access to your decrypted data because they encrypt/decrypt it for you.

If you don’t trust them to not go behind your back this is the least of your concerns.

I’d also add that this is an area where we’re predisposed to think of technical solutions but it seems more appropriate for a regulatory one: trusting Apple is not a bad idea for a lot of people (just a single party for many things) but a robust public audit would make that easier. Unfortunately if your threat model includes the U.S. government you’re basically hoping that the EU is willing to apply pressure.

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