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              Apple Hides Traffic of Some Its Own Apps in Big Sur

   Adam Engst

   David Dudok de Wit, co-founder of Alix, makers of the [1]TripMode
   utility for controlling your Mac's data usage on slow or expensive
   networks, has written a post on Medium outlining [2]an Apple change in
   macOS 11 Big Sur and its consequences. (There's also [3]a huge Hacker
   News discussion.) In Big Sur, Apple will start enforcing an exclusion
   list of more than 50 Apple apps and processes that allows those apps to
   bypass oversight and control from application-level firewalls. The list
   first appeared in 10.15 Catalina but wasn't enforceable for apps with
   network kernel extensions, as used by apps like TripMode, [4]Little
   Snitch, and others. Big Sur changes that, essentially requiring such
   apps to use different APIs that honor Apple's exclusion list. You can
   see the list here in Catalina or Big Sur:

   /System/Library/Frameworks/NetworkExtension.framework/Versions/A/Resour
   ces/Info.plist

   I don't believe this move shows any grand conspiracy to undermine
   TripMode or Little Snitch. I suspect it's just another change that
   Apple has made'perhaps in the name of overall security, perhaps merely
   with no thought to what developers and users want'that has an
   unintended and undesirable consequence. It's reminiscent of when Apple
   quietly prevented apps like [5]BusyContacts and [6]HoudahSpot from
   indexing Mail's email archive in Catalina, regardless of how you set
   your permissions. Nevertheless, it's disappointing, and if you're
   bothered by the move, let Apple know via its [7]Feedback Assistant.

   [8]Read original article

References

   1. https://tripmode.ch/
   2. https://medium.com/tripmode/apple-started-hiding-the-traffic-of-its-own-mac-apps-9dc83c5a9c5b
   3. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24838816
   4. https://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch
   5. https://support.busymac.com/help/112805-activity-list-is-not-showing-emails-in-busycontacts-on-macos-catalina
   6. https://support.busymac.com/help/112805-activity-list-is-not-showing-emails-in-busycontacts-on-macos-catalina
   7. https://feedbackassistant.apple.com/
   8. https://medium.com/tripmode/apple-started-hiding-the-traffic-of-its-own-mac-apps-9dc83c5a9c5b

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