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

Bustycat said:
But not actively developed for two years. Other alternatives like Ice are receiving more development.
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The permissions page says "Ice does not record your screen", but it still requires the permission. Why do you trust this statement and not the same statement in the new-version Bartender? That is an honest, genuine question.

Is this an Apple issue that it requires Screen Recording permission to "Apply custom styling to the menu bar."?

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AZhappyjack said:
Not really. We don't know why Ben sold it. Maybe he is done with development. It was his property to do with as he chose. He chose to sell and walk away. I get the disappointment, but he had no obligation to disclose anything. It's incumbent on the new owner to gain your trust if he (they) hope to be successful with Bartender moving forward.
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Customers have no obligation to support those shady developers and companies either.
aevan said:
It works well and I see no reason to uninstall it just because of the change of ownership. I’ll see how it goes.
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Many Chinese apps work pretty well too.
 
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AZhappyjack said:
The permissions page says "Ice does not record your screen", but it still requires the permission. Why do you trust this statement and not the same statement in the new-version Bartender? That is an honest, genuine question.

Is this an Apple issue that it requires Screen Recording permission to "Apply custom styling to the menu bar."?

View attachment 2385466
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I didn't talk about that at all, and Bartender required the permission long ago according to users here.
 
Bustycat said:
I didn't talk about that at all, and Bartender required the permission long ago according to users here.
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It's more of a philosophical question, actually.

It doesn't matter when Bartender started requiring that permission. My point was simply that for some reason, styling the menu bar requires "Screen Recording" permission, irrespective of whether or not your screen is actually recorded. So, this appears to be an Apple issue. And if so, can someone explain the logic behind that choice? And further, once any app has the permission to do anything on your computer, there is nothing you can do to prevent them from doing it.
 
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AZhappyjack said:
The permissions page says "Ice does not record your screen", but it still requires the permission. Why do you trust this statement and not the same statement in the new-version Bartender? That is an honest, genuine question.
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Because the new owners of Bartender have done precisely nothing to earn trust, and have, in fact, already sneakily shipped a version that includes analytics and telemetry without telling anyone or the ability to opt out.
 
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dsusanj said:
Because the new owners of Bartender have done precisely nothing to earn trust, and have, in fact, already sneakily shipped a version that includes analytics and telemetry without telling anyone or the ability to opt out.
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Well, you certainly had the option to opt out when you were staring at the permissions page in Settings. You had to have made the decisions to trust Surtees Studios at the point that they added that permission to the app, right?

Look, I am not defending anyone. All I have been saying is that Ben sold the app. He had no obligation to disclose that to anyone. Period. Maybe the new people are shady and and "up to" something. Probably not. But we don't know for sure. And yeah, I was disappointed to learn that the app was sold to a new developer. Many apps take the "phone home with analytics" approach ... how else will they get the feedback? You are free to choose not to continue using the app. I have moved to Hidden Bar for the time being... but you do what you need to do for your own peace of mind.
 
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AZhappyjack said:
Is this an Apple issue that it requires Screen Recording permission to "Apply custom styling to the menu bar."?
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IIRC, screen recording permissions are required for the proper appearance of the menu bar in screenshots. You are granting permission for the app to be recorded, not for it to do the recording.
 
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Applause is the company that bought Bartender. They specialise in buying existing apps from developers that are looking to cash out (exit) for whatever reason.

Applause previously purchased Voice Dream Reader, a text to speech app that is used by the blind community. They announced their intentions to introduce a subscription model for VDR, greatly increasing the cost to users. After considerable push back they partially reversed their decision, gating new features behind a subscription paywall.

Is it just me or does this sound a lot like taking a page out of the Martin Shkreli book of business? Buy somebody else's IP and ramp up the prices to a vulnerable community that need your product.
 
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AZhappyjack said:
Is this an Apple issue that it requires Screen Recording permission to "Apply custom styling to the menu bar."?
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Yes, these sort of apps need to grab onscreen graphics to composite the custom styling, hence the screen recording permission. This is easier to verify in Ice because it’s open source.
 
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Gotta be honest, this all seems like much ado about nothing. Products change company ownership all the time, usually without the end user knowing. Legally, whatever terms&conditions you signed off on when buying your license should still be in effect for both you and the software's owner, including the new owner.

Bartender's creator and former owner posted about it today: https://www.macbartender.com/b5blog/A-New-Chapter-for-Bartender/

I'm just going to keep using it, I see no significant risk here.
 
I’ll let it run for now. I also run Little Snitch so we will see if something is going on shady like.
 
Trashed it as well, as a matter of principle.

Initially, Ice seemed like the perfect replacement, but it's buggy as hell for me. :/
 
Setapp have been pinged for comment. Especially given it's currently the 2nd most popular app on their platform (and for good reason: people love it and use it!).

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