Mac users got a gustation of what its like to run Microsoft Windows as itcame to lightthis week that the recently released update , Mac OS X 10.4.7 , “ phones home ” to Apple servers periodically . refer to as the Dashboard Advisory by Apple , the new feature article ensures client ’s widgets are up to appointment — Apple say there is no transmitting of personal information .
“ Apple takes protect user privacy very seriously , ” an Apple representative toldMacworld . “ The Dashboard Advisory lineament is a security tool that see to it the right version of a widget has been downloaded from a third party site and no personal selective information is transmitted back to Apple . ”
While the automate chip - in to Apple ’s servers seems comparatively innocuous , some users are still upset that Apple would implement such a feature without an prosperous way to turn it off .
This is n’t the first metre that Apple finds itself in hot water over a new computer software characteristic that “ phones home . ” In January , Apple released iTunes 6.0.2 with the MiniStore lineament , which allowed Apple to press music suggestion to iTunes based on the currently select track in the app .
While the MiniStore is a coolheaded lineament there was no elbow room to turn it off , leaving users concerned about what information was being sent back to Apple ’s servers . Despite self-confidence from the company that no personal data point was being convey , they yield and construct in a mechanism to turn it on and off .
However harmless the Dashboard Advisory feature may be , Apple could n’t have picked a high-risk week to have a privacy fear from its users . Just two sidereal day ago Microsoft was hit with two lawsuit over its Windows Genuine Advantage ( WGA ) , an antipiracy program that contain to verify the copy of Windows you ’re running has a valid license .
WGA was introduced in July 2005 . It collects hardware and package data and delivers it to Microsoft servers ; the info is then used to warn of potential plagiarism .
While the Apple and Microsoft state of affairs are distinctly not the same , it does make you wonder why Apple would not be more open about this fresh feature after having just go through the same berth seven calendar month ago with iTunes .
If you want to end the Dashboard Advisory feature manually , you could do so by typing the following command in Terminal . ( If you do n’t know what “ sudo ” please be careful or have someone more experienced do this for you ) .
sudo mv /System / Library / LaunchDaemons / com.apple.dashboard.advisory.fetch.plist /System / Library/
