When you launch an app, macOS connects to Apple’s OCSP service to check whether the app’s Developer ID code signing certificate has been revoked by Apple. In November 2020, Apple’s OCSP service experienced a mass outage, preventing Mac users worldwide from launching apps. In response and remedy to this outage, Apple made several explicit promises to Mac users in a support document, which can still be seen in a Wayback Machine archive from September 24, 2023.
↫ Jeff Johnson
One of the explicit promises Apple made was that it would allow macOS users to turn off phoning home to Cupertino every time you launch an application on macOS. It’s four years later now, and this promise has not been kept – Apple still does not allow you to turn off phoning home. In fact, it turns out that last year, Apple scrubbed this promise from all of its documentation, hoping we’re all going to forget about it. In other words, Apple is never going to allow its macOS users to stop the operating system from phoning home to Cupertino every time you launch an application.
Even though the boiling frog story is nonsensical, it’s apt here. More and more Apple is limiting its users’ control over macOS, locking it down to a point where you’re not really the owner of your computer anymore. Stuff like this gives me the creeps.