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gladoscc

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 13, 2011
297
46
How do I disable mac app store checking for updates? It scans for all your applications including those I bought directly through the developer and I don't want apple having access to those information.
 

Mal

macrumors 603
Jan 6, 2002
6,252
18
Orlando
How do I disable mac app store checking for updates? It scans for all your applications including those I bought directly through the developer and I don't want apple having access to those information.

No, it doesn't. It looks for updates to the applications that you purchased from the Mac App Store. That's it. If you're that paranoid, unplug your computer and leave it off.

jW
 

OldSchoolMacGuy

Suspended
Jul 10, 2008
4,197
9,050
No, it doesn't. It looks for updates to the applications that you purchased from the Mac App Store. That's it. If you're that paranoid, unplug your computer and leave it off.

jW

Not entirely true. It does recognize pre-installed Apple applications such as iWork and iLife and show them as installed even if they were not purchased through the App Store.

The thought of having your applications scanned is a bit concerning depending on what data is collected. Many work in industries where this type of activity would cause privacy concerns (such as law enforcement) or have personal privacy concerns. It's a hot topic on the Apple government mailing list right now. To simply right someone's concerns off as paranoia is pretty arrogant.
 

Mal

macrumors 603
Jan 6, 2002
6,252
18
Orlando
Not entirely true. It does recognize pre-installed Apple applications such as iWork and iLife and show them as installed even if they were not purchased through the App Store.

The thought of having your applications scanned is a bit concerning depending on what data is collected. Many work in industries where this type of activity would cause privacy concerns (such as law enforcement) or have personal privacy concerns. It's a hot topic on the Apple government mailing list right now. To simply right someone's concerns off as paranoia is pretty arrogant.

Completely irrelevant. It does not, as I stated, check for updates to your applications if you did not purchase them from the Mac App Store.

jW
 

OldSchoolMacGuy

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Jul 10, 2008
4,197
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Mal

macrumors 603
Jan 6, 2002
6,252
18
Orlando
Irrelevant? I believe your comments are the ones that are irrelevant. As I had said, it does in fact check your non-App Store installed applications.

http://www.macworld.com/article/156980/2011/01/installed_apps_appstore.html

Grabbing the info sent does yield some interesting content too.

No, my comments directly answered the original poster's question. Your post introduced unnecessary information. There is, after all no information being transmitted to Apple's servers, as the check is made in real-time (don't believe me, try moving or deleting one of the applications showing as installed and check again, it simply looks each time you load the page for that application in the store).

Get off my case.

jW
 

OldSchoolMacGuy

Suspended
Jul 10, 2008
4,197
9,050
No, my comments directly answered the original poster's question. Your post introduced unnecessary information. There is, after all no information being transmitted to Apple's servers, as the check is made in real-time (don't believe me, try moving or deleting one of the applications showing as installed and check again, it simply looks each time you load the page for that application in the store).

Get off my case.

jW

HAHA! Keep telling yourself that you're right and maybe you'll start believing it's true.

To say there is no information being sent to Apple is simply incorrect. Additionally, no your first comment did not fully answer the original poster's question and was partially incorrect.

Time to get down off your high horse and eat some humble pie.
 

bigbowlofjelly

macrumors member
Jul 12, 2011
53
0
Don't understand, if you copy is legal then you can update using software update or within the application, this would remove it showing up as update in mac app store.
The only people I see who would moan about this are the ones who have downloaded cracked mac app store apps, as they won't be able to update them unless they purchased them.
My version of iWork or iLife don't show up in the app store as installed or requiring update, I have to update using software update
 

OldSchoolMacGuy

Suspended
Jul 10, 2008
4,197
9,050
Don't understand, if you copy is legal then you can update using software update or within the application, this would remove it showing up as update in mac app store.
The only people I see who would moan about this are the ones who have downloaded cracked mac app store apps, as they won't be able to update them unless they purchased them.
My version of iWork or iLife don't show up in the app store as installed or requiring update, I have to update using software update

Some people would just rather their information not be shared with others even if they aren't breaking any laws or have any illegal software. It's like those that goto http://oo.apple.com on their iPhones to opt out of having their data sent to Apple for more specific iAds. Same with those that don't use Gmail because Google indexes your all of your emails to target advertisements at you.
 

Mal

macrumors 603
Jan 6, 2002
6,252
18
Orlando
HAHA! Keep telling yourself that you're right and maybe you'll start believing it's true.

To say there is no information being sent to Apple is simply incorrect. Additionally, no your first comment did not fully answer the original poster's question and was partially incorrect.

Time to get down off your high horse and eat some humble pie.

Care to prove that statement? Until you can, I'll safely continue to ignore your rantings. There's been not a single indication that Apple is tracking what applications you have installed that are not from the App Store. The only people who have ever claimed that are paranoid security freaks who haven't bothered to fact-check a single claim that they've made.

Yes, I'm including you.

jW
 

OldSchoolMacGuy

Suspended
Jul 10, 2008
4,197
9,050
Care to prove that statement? Until you can, I'll safely continue to ignore your rantings. There's been not a single indication that Apple is tracking what applications you have installed that are not from the App Store. The only people who have ever claimed that are paranoid security freaks who haven't bothered to fact-check a single claim that they've made.

Yes, I'm including you.

jW

I won't even bother as it won't change your mind. I'll give you a hint if you want to do it yourself. Setup a packet capture, launch App Store then checkout what you get.
 

bigbowlofjelly

macrumors member
Jul 12, 2011
53
0
Some people would just rather their information not be shared with others even if they aren't breaking any laws or have any illegal software. It's like those that goto http://oo.apple.com on their iPhones to opt out of having their data sent to Apple for more specific iAds. Same with those that don't use Gmail because Google indexes your all of your emails to target advertisements at you.

but he is concerned about applications he has not got from the mac app store, which i have yet to see show up in mac app store. He does not want it scanning that information as he is worried apple will realise he has cracked apps
 

OldSchoolMacGuy

Suspended
Jul 10, 2008
4,197
9,050
but he is concerned about applications he has not got from the mac app store, which i have yet to see show up in mac app store.

If you had previously purchased iLife before the App Store was released, it will still show in the App Store that iLife is installed. It does check non-App Store downloads as shown in the Macworld link I posted earlier.
 

bigbowlofjelly

macrumors member
Jul 12, 2011
53
0
If you had previously purchased iLife before the App Store was released, it will still show in the App Store that iLife is installed. It does check non-App Store downloads as shown in the Macworld link I posted earlier.
does it ?
Untitled.jpg
 

Mal

macrumors 603
Jan 6, 2002
6,252
18
Orlando
[url=http://smiliesftw.com/x/bowroflarms.gif]Image[/URL] I won't even bother as it won't change your mind. I'll give you a hint if you want to do it yourself. Setup a packet capture, launch App Store then checkout what you get.

You know, I've been laughed at a lot for things like this. I've also been right most of the time. I'm not too worried. Besides, you're the one making the claim, you offer the proof yourself. I'm not going to waste the time.

If you had previously purchased iLife before the App Store was released, it will still show in the App Store that iLife is installed. It does check non-App Store downloads as shown in the Macworld link I posted earlier.

Did you actually read that article you so proudly posted? It doesn't say what you think it says. In fact, it specifically says that when the store launches (as in, each time it launches) it scans that list of Bundle ID's to determine which applications should show as installed. I think it's rather self-evident that it's simply the application doing so, and since as stated, there's no indication that it's storing or transmitting that information to Apple, the article you're trumpeting seems to actually *gasp* support my posts. Plus the fact that it was written all the way back in January, in fact, only a day after the Mac App Store launched. He didn't know any more about how that worked than the rest of us at the time, which is apparent immediately.

jW
 
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bigbowlofjelly

macrumors member
Jul 12, 2011
53
0
You know, I've been laughed at a lot for things like this. I've also been right most of the time. I'm not too worried. Besides, you're the one making the claim, you offer the proof yourself. I'm not going to waste the time.



Did you actually read that article you so proudly posted? It doesn't say what you think it says. In fact, it specifically says that when the store launches (as in, each time it launches) it scans that list of Bundle ID's to determine which applications should show as installed. I think it's rather self-evident that it's simply the application doing so, and since as stated, there's no indication that it's storing or transmitting that information to Apple, the article you're trumpeting seems to actually *gasp* support my posts. Plus the fact that it was written all the way back in January, in fact, only a day after the Mac App Store launched. He didn't know any more about how that worked than the rest of us at the time, which is apparent immediately.

jW

As with a lot of websites now they scan forums and post articles based on crap people post thinking its true
 

OldSchoolMacGuy

Suspended
Jul 10, 2008
4,197
9,050

You are correct, it does not offer to update apps not downloaded from the App Store. But if you goto an app not purchased in the App Store that has the same bundle ID as one in the Mac App Store it will show it as installed in the App Store.

As the Macworld article says:
When the Mac App Store launches, it apparently scans your computer for a list of those bundle IDs, which it likely pulls from a centralized OS X system called Launch Services. (You can pull up the list yourself with a little Terminal hokery-pokery—scroll down to the comments for the most recent version of the command).

If the store detects an application installed on your system where both the bundle ID and the app’s version match the information associated with the app for sale on the store, that app gets marked as Installed. Those are the apps that where the developer chose to use the same bundle ID for the version in the Mac App Store as the one that it sold elsewhere. (Note that those apps do not show up in the list of Purchases that you can access in the Mac App Store.)

The Mac App Store operates similar to the iOS App Store. If you have a jailbroken iPhone with a cracked copy of a program you downloaded from somewhere other than the App Store installed on your phone and an update comes out, the App Store will show an update available for it even though you never bought the app through the App Store (trying to install the update will alert you to the fact that you need to purchase the app to install it). Same is the case if you have a cracked Mac App Store app on your computer. It will show in the updates even though you didn't actually purchase it from the App Store and will offer to update for you.

To see what information is sent to Apple you can goto the Terminal and run the following:
Code:
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -dump

It will show a list of all the applications registered with LaunchServices and the bundle IDs are what are checked with Apple.
 

bigbowlofjelly

macrumors member
Jul 12, 2011
53
0
If you had previously purchased iLife before the App Store was released, it will still show in the App Store that iLife is installed. It does check non-App Store downloads as shown in the Macworld link I posted earlier.
Then
You are correct, it does not offer to update apps not downloaded from the App Store. But if you goto an app not purchased in the App Store that has the same bundle ID as one in the Mac App Store it will show it as installed in the App Store.

As the Macworld article says:


The Mac App Store operates similar to the iOS App Store. If you have a jailbroken iPhone with a cracked copy of a program you downloaded from somewhere other than the App Store installed on your phone and an update comes out, the App Store will show an update available for it even though you never bought the app through the App Store (trying to install the update will alert you to the fact that you need to purchase the app to install it). Same is the case if you have a cracked Mac App Store app on your computer. It will show in the updates even though you didn't actually purchase it from the App Store and will offer to update for you.

To see what information is sent to Apple you can goto the Terminal and run the following:
Code:
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -dump

It will show a list of all the applications registered with LaunchServices and the bundle IDs are what are checked with Apple.

So maybe OP more concerned about cracked apps ?
 

OldSchoolMacGuy

Suspended
Jul 10, 2008
4,197
9,050
So maybe OP more concerned about cracked apps ?

He could be concerned about cracked applications. When it comes down to it, Apple's privacy policy doesn't allow them to share the information with developers if they do find that someone has an application only available through the App Store installed on their computer even though they haven't purchased it through their App Store account. Plenty of reasons that it could be there too unrelated to piracy. They could have installed it while logged into someone else's Apple account, etc.

While he may not be concerned about pirated software being found, some people would rather limit their information being sent to others. Why is Little Snitch such a hot selling program? It blocks outgoing connections. Why should people care if Photoshop wants to contact Adobe every time they launch it? Some people couldn't care less while others would like to limit how and where their information is shared.
 
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