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Safari sends user info to Apple.
There was some discussion this morning in the office about funny behaviour in Safari, and a report from a website administrator who has apparently tracked packets and discovered that Safari is likely sending information on the software you have on your computer, as well as other information, to Apple.
Apple was starting to get kudos here and there for opposing intrusions into computers and supporting open standards, but if what I've heard is true, then they are not as innocent and angelic as they try so hard to make people believe. Well.... I knew that anyway with many of their dealer policies, pricing policies, and other assorted rubbish.
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...for beta software to have some sort of reporting capability. It's just good practice. Even production software have this, usually with an opt-out. Wouldn't this be easy to verify, for those of you with OSX? Just install a sniffer.
Didn't mean to appear accusatory -- I doubt it is a new issue, unless Apple also managed to sneak a special "don't send us messages until everyone has installed you for some time" command into Safari as well :)
I'll be happy to look at these "strange packets" if yonder website administrator cares to share his packet captures.
If this were the case, it would be headline news on Slashdot...and would have come up much earlier.
There is a "bug report" button, which you can press when you see web pages that don't render right or crash or whatever. You can choose to press it whenever you want, and you can even opt to include a screenshot.
And there are the Rendezvous requests it makes on your local network, looking for other machines' bookmarks and websites.
Give me proof, not speculation. I see no strange outward bound packets, and I, as well, am a "website administrator".
I can't explain why Slashdot hasn't made this as big as a CNN special Live Report, but there is one reason that explains all - it's a new issue.
As for proof versus speculation, I don't have the time, I'm just passing on to see if any of you website administrators can corroborate this speculation. It's jus blogging, it's not the end of the world.