alt Hacker NewsI think macOS 27 has already shipped a version of this. I remember seeing a prompt for Firefox requesting access to Google Chrome data (presumably to import bookmarks/history?) recently.
If that's the direction things are moving in, I welcome the change. Fine-grained folder access controls (rather than only full iOS-like sandboxing or full disk access) make me much less hesitant to try new apps or have agents access more parts of my system.
But they really need to solve the issue of low-level utilities triggering dozens of permission prompts when walking $HOME. Having to approve or decline Documents, Downloads, Google Drive etc. directory access, all separately, is extremely annoying.
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Sandboxing is great in theory, but, aside from maybe Qubes, they are rarely a security boundary in practice.
This also affected me (with Firefox specifically). Looking into it, I ran across this blog post. It looks like macOS 27 has specific app data that it’s now preventing unexpected reads from. https://wojciechregula.blog/post/golden-gate-appdata-protect...
I agree that this seems like a good thing. I really don’t need Firefox (or any app!) trying to check another app’s data without explicit permission.