com.apple.geod.xpc

Thanks for this suggestion. What repercussions is removing com.apple.geod from launchctl likely to have? Am I correct in thinking com.apple.geod is used for location services, to determine the location of the computer?

UPDATE (after posting my question, and in case someone else comes along and wonders the same):

I've since read the following: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/63540/what-is-gs-loc-apple-com

It looks like this service is entirely related to Location Services. Blocking it with Little Snitch (as I have done) and/or disabling it with the above-mentioned (by glowinthedark404) launchctl command, will render Location Services inoperable. About the only down side I see to that (for my own usage scenario) is loss of the Find My Mac functionality. Otherwise, I've got no particular reason for apps and system services to be utilising my location. People who travel (across timezones) may find that automatic updating of their timezone and clock will fail. Easier enough to do manually, but that could be a hassle for some folk.

I'm rather curious about this too. It seems running the Photos.app sometimes causes the com.apple.geod service to launch and then those outgoing connections seem to happen. None of my pictures have any geo data though (I make pictures with a good old Canon and not with a cell phone).

Anyway… I blocked this junk requests via Little Snitch. It is still annoying though if such stuff runs unwanted. It's a pointless waste of all kind of system resources and an unnecessary privacy leak.

First, check if the geod service is running:

    launchctl list | grep -i geod

You should get something like:

381 0 com.apple.geod

Next, run this command:

    sudo launchctl remove com.apple.geod

Now running the first command again should not return anything.

You might need to restart the system for changes to take effect.