I see that Apple’s software quality has taken yet another hit.
This time there apparently is a bug in OS X Yosemite’s Spotlight feature. German tech news site Heise is reporting that when you use Spotlight to search Apple Mail, Spotlight will show previews of emails and when it does this, it automatically loads external images linked in HTML email. The problem with that is that loading external images also exposes your IP address, current OS version and some details about the browser used as well as the version of Quick Look to spammers among others. That can identify your location as well as other details that can be used to spam you or launch a targeted attack against you. That’s why I have the loading of external images turned off by default in Apple Mail. But Spotlight ignores this setting for whatever reason and displays the external images anyway.
#fail
The only workaround is to uncheck the “Mail & Messages” box for Spotlight in System Preferences. When this option is disabled no mails are returned in Spotlight’s search results, and thus, no preview is shown. That’s great unless you actually rely on Spotlight like I do. Bottom Line: Apple really needs to fix this and fix it now as this is just a glaring privacy issue that should have never, ever made it outside the doors of 1 Infinite Loop.
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This entry was posted on January 9, 2015 at 12:58 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple, Privacy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Bug In OS X Spotlight Exposes Data To Spammers…… Yikes!
I see that Apple’s software quality has taken yet another hit.
This time there apparently is a bug in OS X Yosemite’s Spotlight feature. German tech news site Heise is reporting that when you use Spotlight to search Apple Mail, Spotlight will show previews of emails and when it does this, it automatically loads external images linked in HTML email. The problem with that is that loading external images also exposes your IP address, current OS version and some details about the browser used as well as the version of Quick Look to spammers among others. That can identify your location as well as other details that can be used to spam you or launch a targeted attack against you. That’s why I have the loading of external images turned off by default in Apple Mail. But Spotlight ignores this setting for whatever reason and displays the external images anyway.
#fail
The only workaround is to uncheck the “Mail & Messages” box for Spotlight in System Preferences. When this option is disabled no mails are returned in Spotlight’s search results, and thus, no preview is shown. That’s great unless you actually rely on Spotlight like I do. Bottom Line: Apple really needs to fix this and fix it now as this is just a glaring privacy issue that should have never, ever made it outside the doors of 1 Infinite Loop.
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This entry was posted on January 9, 2015 at 12:58 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple, Privacy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.