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PSA: Bartender Mac App Under New Ownership, But Lack of Transparency Raises Concerns

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Popular Mac app Bartender appears to have been quietly sold approximately two months ago, with neither the prior owner nor the current owner providing customers or potential customers with information on the sale.

bartender-app.jpg

The transaction came to light after some Reddit users saw a warning from MacUpdater letting them know that the company behind Bartender had been silently replaced. MacUpdater warned users that updates to the app from version 5.0.52 could be potentially unsafe due to the lack of transparency surrounding the situation.

Bartender's new owners replied to the Reddit thread and confirmed that Bartender had been acquired, but did not explain why customers had not been notified nor why there had been a certificate change without said explanation.
Hey everyone, new owners of Bartender here! Our team acquired Bartender from Ben S, the original developer, two months ago. As we prepare to roll out updates for Bartender, we needed to re-sign the app with Apple using our company's information, replacing Ben's. This led to a one-time certificate change.

Truth be told, we should have notated it on the release notes but, since we could not update them retroactively, we included this fact on our blog & shared it with users as they emailed us. We've collaborated closely with Ben to understand his vision for Bartender. Our goal is to implement many of the improvements he had planned and address any reported bugs from the past few months to enhance Bartender's performance.
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Reddit users asked Bartender's owners for more information on their identity, but there was no response. The Bartender website was updated with information about the certificate change after users began seeing popups asking for new permissions, and while the blog post calls the new certificate request "expected and valid," no background information is provided on the purchase. In the Reddit thread, the owners claim to have posted information about the sale on the website, but that has turned out to be untrue.

At this point, it does not appear that Bartender's new owners plan to inform customers about the change in ownership, but users should be aware that the app has been sold and is no longer being updated by the original developer. The new owner's intentions are not clear, but as Reddit users have pointed out, the situation raises some red flags.

Update: Ben Surtees, the original developer of Bartender, today said that he sold the app to Applause three months ago. There is no other information on the company, and Applause still has not officially commented on the sale.

Article Link: PSA: Bartender Mac App Under New Ownership, But Lack of Transparency Raises Concerns
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2024/06/04/bartender-mac-app-new-owner/
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F23 said:
the screen recording permission is sus. have disabled the app for now
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Bartender has required screen recording permissions since macOS Catalina (see the post about it here), and that was well before the new ownership. But still, this is worth being cautious about until the new owners make themselves known. A letter from Ben Surtees, the old owner, would also go a long way.
 
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Jensen G said:
Bartender has required screen recording permissions since macOS Catalina (see the post about it here), and that was well before the new ownership. But still, this is worth being cautious about until the new owners make themselves known. A letter from Ben Surtees, the old owner, would also go a long way.
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every new reply from the new owners is just making it worse
 
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Easy solution,
Don’t download random apps you found on sketchy sites on the internet that you cannot verify the authenticity of, and don’t give any apps permission to screen record or access your drive or your personal information, unless you know it legitimately needs that access to do a function YOU want it do.

Problem solved.
 
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MadDawg2020 said:
Easy solution,
Don’t download random apps you found on sketchy sites on the internet that you cannot verify the authenticity of, and don’t give any apps permission to screen record or access your drive or your personal information, unless you know it legitimately needs that access to do a function YOU want it do.

Problem solved.
Click to expand...
I'm assuming you feel a sense of superiority writing that? Bartender is a well-known and trusted app for over a decade now. The issue here is that the ownership changed hands and no one was made aware of it.
 
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MadDawg2020 said:
Easy solution,
Don’t download random apps you found on sketchy sites on the internet that you cannot verify the authenticity of, and don’t give any apps permission to screen record or access your drive or your personal information, unless you know it legitimately needs that access to do a function YOU want it do.

Problem solved.
Click to expand...

I think you're missing the point. The original product that we purchased did check all your boxes in terms of requirements. The screen recording was a necessary part of the tool. It is only with the change in ownership and lack of transparency (from the company, not the menu bar :)) that the permissions we previously granted are now feared as potential exploits from the new owner.
 
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MadDawg2020 said:
Easy solution,
Don’t download random apps you found on sketchy sites on the internet that you cannot verify the authenticity of, and don’t give any apps permission to screen record or access your drive or your personal information, unless you know it legitimately needs that access to do a function YOU want it do.

Problem solved.
Click to expand...

MadDawg- I agree with your comment, but just to be clear, this is a different situation. This is an app from a reputable developer that was purchased without notifying the customer by an unknown entity. So while those of us who used the app and trusted the source to allow screen recording, we now have to question whether we want to continue to do so.

In my case, I've immediately deleted Bartender until I am told who the owners are, what their privacy policy is, and where they are located so I know what their local rules and regulations are.
 
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MadDawg2020 said:
Easy solution,
Don’t download random apps you found on sketchy sites on the internet that you cannot verify the authenticity of, and don’t give any apps permission to screen record or access your drive or your personal information, unless you know it legitimately needs that access to do a function YOU want it do.

Problem solved.
Click to expand...
Way to completely missing the point. Bartender was far from a “random app” found on a “sketchy site”. The reason it needed screen recording permissions on recent macOS releases has been well explained too. Might wanna keep these lectures to yourself until you grasp what’s actually going on.
 
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MadDawg2020 said:
Easy solution,
Don’t download random apps you found on sketchy sites on the internet that you cannot verify the authenticity of, and don’t give any apps permission to screen record or access your drive or your personal information, unless you know it legitimately needs that access to do a function YOU want it do.

Problem solved.
Click to expand...
That’s not this situation, so not “problem solved.”
 
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MadDawg2020 said:
Easy solution,
Don’t download random apps you found on sketchy sites on the internet that you cannot verify the authenticity of, and don’t give any apps permission to screen record or access your drive or your personal information, unless you know it legitimately needs that access to do a function YOU want it do.

Problem solved.
Click to expand...
Same advice coming soon for iOS when downloading from sketchy sites is allowed. Stupid is as stupid does.
 
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mansplains said:
I used bartender years back, and switched to an alternative called Hidden Bar. It's on the AppStore and GitHub. Completely free, no data collection.
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HiddenBar is great. I've also come across Ice (GitHub link for those interested) being recommended recently, but I haven't tried it myself yet. It seems to offer a bit more visual customisation than HiddenBar, which isn't really something I need. Has anyone here tried both?
 
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I know some apps need screen recording permission to perform functions on the computer. What about using an app like Radio Silence or Little Snitch to block access to the internet for these apps?

Not trying to excuse the behaviour, just wondering if there's a quick and easy way to allay data harvesting concerns.
 
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