How to stop SubmitDiagInfo from "Calling Home"?

I have Little Snitch and this is how i documented how SubmitDiagInfo behaved. In the beginning it behaved, then it started becoming subversive. I never consented to automatic data collection. The SubmitDiagInfo dialog provided automatic data collection as a choice but i always avoided. Then the choice went away with subsequent crash reports dialogs, then i was not prompted anymore. This is when SubmitDiagInfo started calling home regularly.

I am a programmer and so i know that this behavior has been coded deliberately, it does not appear to have been done in good faith. It is very easy to have the SubmitDiagInfo dialog boxes behave in a consistent manner.

My interest is to turn off this automatic data collection so SubmitDiagInfo behaved like it did before, only popping up to do one-off crash reports. I want to conserve computer resources as this machine is a specialized machine for music and i do not want uncessary applicatins running in the background. And i definitely do not want a machine that "phones home" all the time. It does not give me peace of mind. I deal with this privacy invasion with my Windows machines and i sick of it.

When i brought up Console preferences, the checkbox for "Automatically send anonymous diagnostics and usage data to Apple" is unchecked and disabled. This confirms that SubmitDiagInfo is "phoning home" without consent. This is illegal and unlawful because of how consent was initally being requested via dialog boxes. I refused to enter into such contract. Apple better **** well fix this and stop spying on its users.

The application firewall i am using pops up an information windows that tell me what application is accessing the internet, the URL, ectera. Download an application firewall and see it for yourself. If you are security conscious you will find a number of security issues on your machine that you were not aware before, did not authorize, etctera.

Since this post i have documented a number of Apple applications/services that try to "Phone Home". You have to be naive to believe that your Mac only contacts Apple when you tell it to do so. It is similar to what i have documented on Windows machines. Over the past 5 years i have noticed that this "Phone Home" phenomenon increases with every next version of the OS or update. I am new to Macs, but on Windows machines, even the NTKernal will now occasionally try to contact Microsoft servers. An OS kernal has no business doing this kind of stuff. I have even observed where arbitrary ports are being used, not the typical port 80, port 443, etcetera. I thought i had spyware on my machine. Nope. On Windows NT/2000/XP, it appears Windows even has a hidden service that periodically does a type of Win32 memory injection to hi-jack other applications and use them as proxy to "phone home", always to Microsoft servers. Sounds crazy, but i have witnessed it many times over the years. Even some open source software such as Firefox is guilty of doing this kind of thing. Firefox does the "phone home" during a webpage request. What it does is initiate webpage request, interrupt and "call home" to one of several Mozilla servers, then re-initiate page request and continue. Very sneaky.

I have even observed where servers out on the internet such as Google will try to connect to my computer using a variety of ports other than standard internet ports. Sorry, you should not need anything but port 80 to use Google and surf the internet. Use a good application firewall and you can observe this yourself.

I think everybody who takes privacy seriously should start looking into this. Where is the security community on this? It appears to be compromised, talks about everything else but this elephant in the room that i have witnessed the past 5 years. The prevailing propaganda is that this is all benign. I program software for a living and know you do not need to code software that makes regular connections with servers on the internet without user knowledge and explicit consent. This is unethical and possibly a common law crime.

Anyways, it appears that this "Phone Home" phenomenon is "by design". Fortunately there are products out there that allow you to deal with it. Unfortunately it is only a quick fix, it does not resolve the underlying security issue.

I mentioned in a prior post that the "Automatically send anonymous diagnostics and usage data to Apple" in the Console application is unchecked and disabled. SubmitDiagInfo disregards and attempts to "Phone Home" regularly. SubmitDiagInfo no longer provides the reporting options you describe but will attempt to make contact with servers on the internet. I never consented to automatic reporting collection. My current solution is to use a software firewall and lock down outgoing internet access.

As far as all this "Phone Home" stuff, please get an adequate software firewall and witness what i have described. You need a firewall that monitors applications trying to make outbound connections. You would be naive to simply believe at face value that "No Apple app "calls home" or submits diagnostic messages to it unless the user has authorized same". The facts speak otherwise. Unless you have software that can show you what is going on, you do not know what is going on. Being a programmer i think this is a security issue that the public needs to be aware of. Both Apple and Microsoft systems are esentially compromised affair. Just because no person or no government has exploited what patently appears to be backdoor communication and/or access does not make it disppear. Sad to say, the security community has slept on their watch on this. It is inexplicable that only a few people have begin to look into this.