Thread

Turn off and restrict access to Apple Intelligence features on Mac

353 points · 223 comments · alwillis

parable · 1790015646 · focus · HN ↗
Is it possible to block Apple Intelligence from sending data over the Internet via Little Snitch? I would assume it is, but I'm not sure if anything significant has changed in macOS 27 that makes this impossible now. I don't really mind the local features - I'd rather they stay disabled, but it's not the end of the world - but I really don't want any data leaving my Mac.
1. ActorNightly · 1790015772 · focus · HN ↗
  Apple OS will bypass any user space firewall.
  You can verify this yourself. Get an old laptop to act as a wifi hotspot and forward traffic over usb ethernet adapter to your actual router. Then run tcpdump on the computer. You will see the multitude of phone-home traffic.
  1. wartywhoa23 · 1790018887 · focus · HN ↗
    Well, I block all connections to iCloud for every app (user and system) completely with Little Snitch, and the fact that it does indeed break some little features I can absolutely live without, indicates that it has at least some effect.
    But still, I fully share the sentiment that creators of an OS are perfectly capable of bypassing whatever there is running on top of it.

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.