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Keystroke Receiving - Why are apps asking for this?

Why am I getting messages like this after updating to MacOS Catalina?


** I have had several apps asking for full access like this.


>> Backup and Sync would like to receive keystrokes from any application.


Posted on Oct 9, 2019 9:13 AM

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Posted on Nov 13, 2019 10:05 PM

Logitech explains here (picture below from Logitech website) very well. It's just Apple's new policy chasing away third party developers from using "Accessibility - Input Monitoring Access" which is required for 'some' third party softwares. If we click 'Deny' our softwares won't work as expected (Logitech options for example).


Its better to allow softwares downloaded from official sites, but we should consider 'Deny' for cracked softwares downloaded from random websites. If I knew this from the beginning I wouldn't be this worried. That's all I had been looking for.


BTW, I only learned to speak/write English at 18 in third world country where English is not used daily, so I cannot write it as I want to. I cannot make it sound better or worse. I only know it in one way, my way. My bad English language does not reflect my heart. I apologise all if my text made you feel uncomfortable.

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Nov 13, 2019 10:05 PM in response to Barney-15E

Logitech explains here (picture below from Logitech website) very well. It's just Apple's new policy chasing away third party developers from using "Accessibility - Input Monitoring Access" which is required for 'some' third party softwares. If we click 'Deny' our softwares won't work as expected (Logitech options for example).


Its better to allow softwares downloaded from official sites, but we should consider 'Deny' for cracked softwares downloaded from random websites. If I knew this from the beginning I wouldn't be this worried. That's all I had been looking for.


BTW, I only learned to speak/write English at 18 in third world country where English is not used daily, so I cannot write it as I want to. I cannot make it sound better or worse. I only know it in one way, my way. My bad English language does not reflect my heart. I apologise all if my text made you feel uncomfortable.

Oct 14, 2019 5:57 AM in response to LianT

Why hasn't anyone from Apple answer this question? I've been googling all day long. I know Apple's employee monitor this site and answer questions. We as customers deserve to know what the **** this thing is. Is this the same as keystrokes logging or what is the difference? There should be explanations from Apple.

The Apple employees are people who are here to keep unanswered threads from dying off. They don't have any more connection to Apple than the rest of us users.


Why would Apple know why Outllook and Goolag want to use keystrokes from another App?

Under Catalina's security model, Apps are supposed to operate isolated from everything else, including your data. If they want to use your data or a service from another App, they must ask you for permission to do so.

Oct 13, 2019 2:11 PM in response to davecoleuk

Why hasn't anyone from Apple answer this question? I've been googling all day long. I know Apple's employee monitor this site and answer questions. We as customers deserve to know what the **** this thing is. Is this the same as keystrokes logging or what is the difference? There should be explanations from Apple.

Oct 16, 2019 10:46 AM in response to Barney-15E

I googled this issue and landed on this page, I find it quite alarming to see this popup which bakes the question:


"Have Microsoft been monitoring my keystrokes, passwords, and any other keyboard related activity whilst outlook was open in the background since I installed Office 2016 more than 2 years ago?!"... I am extremely annoyed for seeing this...


I think the most sensible way is to ask this question to the people who developed these apps as Apple are now being nice by warning you that this is actually happening on the new OS...


... I think Microsoft has a lot to answer ...

Nov 13, 2019 7:51 PM in response to Barney-15E

"Why would Apple know why Outllook and Goolag want to use keystrokes from another App?"


OK, fair enough. How about when an Apple app, specifically "Motion" asks the very same thing? Is that something you can share with us or possibly find out for us? Or is that too much to ask?


And "The Apple employees are people who are here to keep unanswered threads from dying off. They don't have any more connection to Apple than the rest of us users."


Seriously? :)


Nov 25, 2019 8:58 AM in response to LianT

Thanks for the answer. I'm a native English speaker from the United States and I think your English, while obviously not that of a native speaker, is quite clear and not at all jarring to read. I've encountered people with worse writing skills in the professional world, here. There are only a few small 'gotchas' that you missed— for example, the plural of software is... software! I don't even know if there's a particular rule that you could use to determine that when writing, or if you'd just have to memorize it. For example, the plural of hardware is hardware, but the plural of houseware in most situations is houswares! Every English speaker who reads 'softwares', however, will know exactly what you mean.

Nov 25, 2019 4:17 PM in response to dyoung999

OK, fair enough. How about when an Apple app, specifically "Motion" asks the very same thing? Is that something you can share with us or possibly find out for us? Or is that too much to ask?

Because Apple doesn't even exempt its own apps. The security model now requires apps to ask you for permission on a lot of things instead of them just being able to spy on you without your knowledge.


You seem to imply that I have some special access with Apple. I'm merely noting that Apple has changed the way it allows apps to access your data. That change requires that the apps ask your permission before it can access that information.

Keystroke Receiving - Why are apps asking for this?

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