Privacy and security are not the same thing, although they are related. The privacy is that your data remains yours and is not shared or transmitted without your knowledge. Security is about keeping your computer or device from being hacked and infected.
Apple has created a system called Gatekeeper, which is designed to ensure that only secure software runs on your Mac.
Unfortunately, the makers of Gatekeeper used standard internet protocols at the time application of this security feature, i.e. they chose to send data without encryption.
Not only is data sent unencrypted, but Gatekeeper intentionally bypasses VPNs, which means you can't hide your activity even if you try too hard.
It's hard to say how many users it affects, but it's likely over 100 million. The CEO of Apple Tim Cook announced that there were more than 100 million active Macs worldwide at the end of 2018. Apple shipped nearly 18 million Macs in 2019, and likely more than that in 2020, as laptop sales surged due to the rise of working from home. All Mac owners running Mac OS X Catalina (released in 2019) or later use Gatekeeper, whether they know it or not.
Το περιεχόμενο της διαρροής απορρήτου δεν είναι ιδιαίτερα τρομερό: δεν είναι το όνομά σας, οι κωδικοί πρόσβασης, οι πιστωτικές cards, biometrics or something similar. It's a constant window into your daily behavior that most Mac users don't know exists.
In the US, it is illegal for Apple to keep your data private from it government if the government requests it. The US government doesn't ask for them very often: Apple's transparency report shows that from July to December 2019, the US asked Apple for data on its customers 5.271 times. The 2020 requests have not been shared yet.
In addition, Apple has promised to launch a new encryption protocol for authentication checks and a new arrangement for customers so that they can be exempt from Gatekeeper security protections.
