points by dTal 5 years ago

Making this about speed is burying the lede. From a privacy and user-freedom perspective, it's horrifying.

Don't think so? Apple now theoretically has a centralized database of every Mac user who's ever used youtube-dl. Or Tor. Or TrueCrypt.

gitgud 5 years ago

Richard Stallman's ideals have become a bit less crazy for me now...

Either you have the ability to control the software, or it controls you

  • verytrivial 5 years ago

    I think coming to this realisation about Stallman's ideas (not the man, mind) is something that most rational computer users are bound to do. It happens at different times for different people, but I think people very rarely go back after that "Hang on a second ....??" moment.

    • m463 5 years ago

      I remember once he said "proprietary software subjugates people" and I just sort of blinked a bit. It seemed sort of over the top. And over time I started to understand that the way things end up working out, it is very true.

acecilia 5 years ago

Is it even legal that Apple is retrieving this information?

threeseed 5 years ago

Apple already has every iPhone user's photos, messages, browsing history, keychains etc.

Not sure how a list of installed apps is going to be worse than that.

  • saagarjha 5 years ago

    Not if you choose to not sync them.

    • radicaldreamer 5 years ago

      Yup, you can choose to not use iCloud backup and back up offline in an encrypted way (even over wifi) if you’d like.