From Hacker News comments.This is inaccurate alarmism. It shouldn't be surprising that the search bar makes autocomplete requests to Apple as you type. The address, phone number, and map link that popped up when you typed in the name of a local business, for example, didn't just appear out of thin air.
However, it seemed suspicious to me that Apple would make it impossible, as the author claims, to type in the Safari address bar without sending queries to Apple. So, I fired up Charles proxy to confirm my suspicions.
When using Safari default settings, typing in the address bar resulted in a few requests to Apple and Google autocomplete APIs. Then, I turned off "Include search engine suggestions" and "Include Spotlight Suggestions" in Safari search preferences. (Safari -> Preferences -> Search)
As I initially believed, no requests were sent whatsoever when typing in the address bar after those settings were disabled. Can we put out our pitchforks yet, or am I missing something?
I actually made a post the other day in the Safari subreddit, looking to be converted (I use 64-bit Chrome Canary at pretty much all times). I've heard that Netflix does quite a bit better in Safari (though, since I use Chromecast, that's probably irrelevant). Thing is, this doesn't bother me. I know I should be alienated that Apple can see my searches for hot twink bums, but I just don't care. If I'm looking for something that I don't want anyone to know about, I turn on Vypr and open up Tor and use DuckDuckGo or Starpage or whatever else. I'm not sure what people expect out of browsers made my major corporations (or, anyone, for that matter).
If you don't care why are you posting your opinion? Because if you don't care then I don't value or care about your opinion on the matter. But you have chosen to post repeatedly about it. Choose a side and back it up. But if you don't care shut up already.
That's a bit harsh. I think it is a legitimate opinion not to mind much about the matter. It is true, you have options to increase your privacy. That being said, many people don't know about these options, and I wish that the law was that you needed to make people clearly aware when you were gathering their usage data. I wonder if this only holds true for the US, or is in effect for users in the EU as well.
My opinion is that, this is the world now. There are dozens of reasons why requests would be sent to Apple or Google for autocomplete reasons, as veen quoted from a HN comment. There are also reasons why companies want your personal info for marketing and data collection and other "nefarious" reasons, as some would put them. My opinion - which you don't need to agree with, or care about, but since you commented I guess you do care - is that this is how it is now. If you want to use Google products and Apple products and Microsoft products and <insert_name_here> products, you can expect to share some (if not all) of your personal data with them. I'm not saying it's right or wrong (and in fact, believe it's not a 'right' or 'wrong' thing generally), I'm saying that's how it is. If you don't want to deal with this particular evolution of the social contract, then you can opt out. Go get tor and run it behind a VPN if you want to go that extra mile. Turn off all of the scripting and functionality that makes the web a little easier to use for the sake of added privacy. Go to it, that's your choice. I'm saying I don't care that Apple or Google are looking at what I type. If they care that much that I'm bad at javascript and have to google everything I write, that's fine with me. That's the social contract I engage in by using the service. Is it right? I don't know, but it is how it is. All that said, mk's note about a law to advise people on data collection is just fine and a pretty good idea. --- That's my opinion, and it's all the backing up I have to do, because it's mine, and frankly I don't care if you agree or don't agree. You can always go to my page and filter me out. But you need to calm down. Your worldview that everything has a side is wrong. Not everything does have a right or wrong, and not everything has a side A and side B. I don't have to choose a side, because there isn't a side to choose. I posted because I felt like posting. Don't like it? Move along, nothing to see here. No one's going to stand over your shoulder and make you read my opinions on the internet, I promise.