Apple responds to privacy concerns over Dashboard phoning home

Sorry but no. I have to call "bullshit" on Apple this time. Every 8 hours is a bit extreme to phone home and ensure my widgets are all 'happy'. And, as others have pointed out, this should be a configurable option including shutting the thing off. Software Update doesn't phone home 3 times a day and neither should this. Apple's explanation neither fixes the problem or explains it.

If you download the file from a non-Apple site, how does the Dashboard know which to check the version of? If the version doesn't match, what happens then?

What if you want an old version of a widget? Or does it only apply for widgets installed by Safari?

More info needed.

Well...have you seen the code that actually does the whole phone thing ? If not, then you cannot say what is "good" and what is "bad" thing. Does it check to see if we have the proper widgets ? Yes. Does it do anything else beyond that ? Noone knows. And by the fact this was not mentioned and not given the option to disable it, I have every right to be suspicious and sceptical about this "good thing".

just make it part of apple's software update, problem solved...

Never has the phrase "drank the Kool-Aid" seemed to be a better description of a blog entry. War is peace. 4 legs good, 2 legs better.

I think all your readers expect you to apply critical thinking skills to Apple's press releases & other PR statements.

a) So... why is everyone disabling a security feature? Out of principle? What kind of message is this sending to Apple? Even if they should have told us, in the end, this is a good thing. 3 request per day = no big deal to average user. (yeah, yeah: mythical sysadmins. Why does everybody suddenly administer a 10,000 strong mac computuer network now that this has been revealed?)

b) Do all of you have have software update disabled as well?

c) Enough with the Little Snitch already. Little Snitch only helps prevents the security feature (the security being a good thing) but does not change the fact that Apple did not disclose it (the bad thing). Why is everybody disabling the good thing to get revenge for the bad thing?

> Regardless of the reasons, there should still be an option to disable it.

I suppose you mean a checkbox or something, and I agree. But it only takes the same amount of time to cut & paste the appropriate command into the Terminal.

Dasbord?

Or better yet, check when a new dashboard component is being installed.

What I don't understand is why it has to check so often? Can't it just do it once a day? Or even better, have the user specify how often it phones home.