OS X Mountain Lion Apps Now Ask Permission to Access Contacts

[hspace]

This is IMO perfectly valid if it occurs during installation - as a final part of the install process. At that point it makes sense to decide what the app/application has access to. (modifiable in preferences)

BUT... if this will be asked regularly, it will be no better than Windows Vista. (often mocked for this very behavior)

 

[Can't Stop]

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

 

[Morod]

I don't like this.

 

[Krevnik]

"Access". Sure, wtf.

"Transmit", not so much.

While this is a sensible restriction, it is actually very hard to enforce at the operating system level. Once the app has the contact, how do I tell what it does with it? It can encode it in a different format, compress and encrypt the raw data at will. Anything I do as the OS vendor can be overcome in one way or another. Once the app can read the data, it's game over. So my best option is to make it possible to let the user decide if the app should get the data in the first place.

The only way this would work is by firewalling the app entirely so it can't talk to anyone outside. Something like Little Snitch. But the moment you let it open or accept a connection, game over again.

 

[MrAndy1369]

Am I the only one who has noticed the awful design of the dialog?

a) The red stop icon is way overrated for this kind of alert. The yellow triangle would be more fitting. The current icon looks way too "scary" to the normal user, and would trigger concern that something was seriously wrong.

b) Every Word Begins With A Captain. Doesn't look very OSX-like, and not very user-friendly as well. Looks like the dialog and its' way of presenting the information is for advanced users, not "streamlined" for regular users to understand what's happening. It's also not very professional-looking - no question mark at the end of the question. A better way would be to word it like this:

The following application, Sample Application, is requesting access to your contacts list. Do you want to allow Said Application to access your contacts list?

Don't Allow | Allow

c) Yes, I know, it's a developer's preview, blah blah blah, but what if Apple leaves the dialog as it is for final release? I have a bad feeling they will, because they didn't revise it for the Dev Preview, so there's no sense of polish with the dialog at all, and it somehow comes across as "final-looking." Hard to explain, but it just seems like Apple's became more and more sloppy with OSX polish lately.

 

[twilson]

Looks like the Windows permission windows have now invaded OSX.

Except Windows doesn't have this permission

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Is this really front page worthy?

Yes, as this is the first desktop OS to put this permission into it. And it's rather a good thing in my opinion.

And for those comparing it to UAC, this is not that same at all. UAC is about protecting the OS, this is more about protecting user data, which is ABOVE the OS in the grand scheme of things.

 

[scottness]

This is amazing. I never knew Elgato EyeTV had access to my contacts list and can't think of any reason they would need it.

Wow. Wonder what they need it for… That's a little disturbing.

 

[mirco15]

i'm very pessismistc about the future of apple.
i Loved Macintosh.

i'm very very Sad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N3N1MlvVc4

 

[amorya]

This is IMO perfectly valid if it occurs during installation - as a final part of the install process. At that point it makes sense to decide what the app/application has access to. (modifiable in preferences)

BUT... if this will be asked regularly, it will be no better than Windows Vista. (often mocked for this very behavior)

I assume it'll be asked once on first launch of the app (or first time app tries to access contacts), and if you want to change your preference later you'll need to go to System Prefs.

 

[dethmaShine]

This is exactly what happens when you get **** crazy about your privacy settings. Can't wait to see more of these dialogue boxes in the future.

****in ****.

 

[heliocentric]

Excellent addition.

There are too many sticky fingers reaching for my contacts.

I concur...

I don't see peoples problem with it.

 

[Marcus-k]

Part of the reason I like OSX is that it's not constantly asking me for permission to do things, something which windows does constantly.

Atleast on Windows 7 you can easiely turn it off completely.

 

[heliocentric]

Atleast on Windows 7 you can easiely turn it off completely.

But why would you want to turn off a warning telling you that total strangers are getting access to your address book?

 

[jdavtz]

The whole point of this is shown nicely by the EyeTV screenshot. No one thought EyeTV was accessing their contacts, and no one knows why it would need to.

I imagine there'll be some pressure on Elgato for an explanation.

 

[bushido]

meh the main reason why i got my mum a mac is because of those damn approval crap on windows all the time. now she's gonna call me every 5 minutes again to know what to click

 

[Can't Stop]

Atleast on Windows 7 you can easiely turn it off completely.

Great security that can be turned off …

 

[haydn!]

I like this, it's actually pretty simple and straight forward... assuming it's a one-off prompt to set a standard permission unlike Windows asking every time you open an app!

That said, I think it does need a little more context. Am I allowing Adium to access my contacts, or am I allowing them to use my contacts?

 

[Angry-Birds]

I got 3 "run or cancel" notifications while installing Chrome. Also, there is rarely an "open with" option in Windows, and I always need it.

I turned off my firewalls in XP because I can't access the internet because it didn't come with the right networking drivers. In 7, I'd rather just not download suspicious stuff and not have an annoying firewall that blocks all of my legit stuff.

That's an issue with chrome (and hardly one at that) and not W7 or XP.

What does a firewall have to do with networking drivers? What "legit stuff" gets blocked?

 

[Kris400]

Over the top…. and WHAT is with that ugly error box?! Very Windowsesque...

 

[JAT]

This is amazing. I never knew Elgato EyeTV had access to my contacts list and can't think of any reason they would need it.

Strange. Maybe to pull your contact info for auto entry during setup/registration?

meh the main reason why i got my mum a mac is because of those damn approval crap on windows all the time. now she's gonna call me every 5 minutes again to know what to click

She already has to for each new app. This could easily get out of hand, though.

 

[Bubba Satori]

Didn't Apple have an advert targeting such behaviour from Vista....?

"Do you want", "Are you Sure"

With Windows it's bad, with Apple it's a magical user experience.

 

[Tmelon]

Now guys, this isn't copying Windows unless it asks "Are you sure?!" 3 or 4 times.

 

[thertrain]

Contact Access vs. Yahoo!

If you run the the old Yahoo Messenger program on your mac and click NO to not allow access to your contacts, the program crashes. I tried this three times then went into System Preferences and granted the program access to my contacts, and now it will load. Just a heads up.

 

[JesseFogarty]

Anything that increases my very limited remaining privacy is fine with me.

@Shrink I can't agree with you any more - being said, I think I'm digging the mountain lions iCloud safari tab syncing a little more than a tad bit more privacy.

Hopefully we'll see more improvements made to improve users privacy.

 

[nfora]

I was surprised to be prompted by Pages. I'd normally expect any contact-related features to be external... e.g. using Mail.app to share documents.