Re:macOS has checked app signatures online for over 2 years
by user-the-name on Wednesday November 25, 2020 @10:27AM
(#25210178)
But why? Why go to these ridiculous lengths to try to extract information from an unreliable source?
Apple already has the device identifier and Apple ID. These are reliable. They do not need combining different data sources and algorithm and machine learning. They are the accurate data already. If they wanted it, they could just send it.
They don't. Why not? If they wanted this information, why on god's green earth would they not just send it?
Re:macOS has checked app signatures online for over 2 years
by sudosysgen on Wednesday November 25, 2020 @11:01AM
(#25210604)
It's quite obvious. That way you can't get nailed for breaching privacy.
It's exactly the same concept as the NSA saying that they are only collecting metadata and not doing any spying.
Re:macOS has checked app signatures online for over 2 years
by user-the-name on Wednesday November 25, 2020 @02:34PM
(#25213292)
It would do absolutely nothing whatsoever for the legality of any collection they might want to do.
Re:macOS has checked app signatures online for over 2 years
by sudosysgen on Wednesday November 25, 2020 @04:03PM
(#25214263)
Of course, it would. IPs are required data to be gathered. They can be almost all the time correlated with real identities using other requests, but under many data regulation laws they wouldn't be allowed to send personal identifying information that isn't necessary.
Re:macOS has checked app signatures online for over 2 years
by user-the-name on Thursday November 26, 2020 @04:08AM
(#25218255)
GDPR would not agree with you there, I gather.
Re:macOS has checked app signatures online for over 2 years
by sudosysgen on Thursday November 26, 2020 @10:04PM
(#25225249)
How does the GDPR agree with the collection of personally identifying data that is not necessary to operation?
Anyone trying to identify you just needs to narrow that down from 10,000 to one. This can be done many different ways by combining data sources. You could automate it with algorithms and maybe some machine learning, but it'd also be pretty trivial for a dedicated human to do it.
Browser fingerprint, mac address, software versions, browsing behavior (https doesn't hide URLs), access times, and application hashes will all help narrow down that search.
Maybe your university requires you to install some special software (like one of those locked down browsers for exams), and the attacker knows an approximate range of time when you installed it based on your exam schedule. They could narrow their search by intercepting OCSP requests and filtering for application hashes that match the specific version of the software you most likely downloaded, based on the time you most likely downloaded it.