[vomitcuddle]

Why is this news?

A lot of desktop applications do this. The Spotify client used to do it to enable play/pause controls from any webpage. Dropbox also definitely used the same method for single sign on, maybe still does, I don't use it anymore.

[eeeeeeeeeeeee]

You’ve used past tense in all your examples. Is it still true? As Apple has moved more towards a system with GateKeeper where apps must operate in a sandbox, this behavior seems less acceptable in 2019. I don’t want apps having complete access to my home directory because they absolutely do not need it to function.

I like that when I remove an app installed via App Store on Mac, I know it’s actually gone. It seems like this was part of the thing that people couldn’t stand about Windows — spyware coming along for the ride that is not removed when you delete the main app.

[javagram]

Use the App Store and the preference setting to only allow App Store apps if you want that behavior.

Macs are general purpose computers and it would be absolutely inappropriate for Apple to try to prevent users from running software on them.

[braythwayt]

Look, all that makes sense if users are giving informed consent to have an app install a web server. Users should be able to run whatever they want, but they should also know what an app is installing.

At least the Bluejeans people have this page. The Zoom people did the same thing (possibly worse), but it was undocumented.

[wrs]

I had a WiFi router that by default was set to filter out DNS responses with RFC1918 addresses. A surprising amount of stuff was broken until I figured that out.

[AlexandrB]

This is news to me, and I consider myself a power user.

I guess I'm losing touch with the user-hostile "innovations" coming out of the valley.

[eddieh]

Oh dear god?! https://medium.com/@bengreenier/hijacking-spotify-web-contro...