this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2026
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Another example is that macOS periodically sends records of which apps you’re opening to Apple, due to OCSP cert revocation checks: https://www.howtogeek.com/701176/does-apple-track-every-mac-app-you-run-ocsp-explained/
I realize this is ostensibly to enable a security feature, but if your threat model includes American software companies & oligarchs tracking what you do on your computer, it’s still something to be aware of.
Mine surely does. Especially US-american.
This was only for icloud photos, and the reason they were considering that was to keep your photos encrypted in the cloud. this way the photos are analyzed locally on your device and kept private, unless they are found to be problematic obviously.
It surely just isn't this one deamon. Despite "mediaanalysisd" sounds highly threatening to me. Especially if you aren't allowed to disable it. How i would hate that on MY computer. Surely better than windows, where 5198231 services do that of which you can only disable 99%.
If you use ANY service in the apple cloud though, your data is, by definition, unsafe. If you don't, you're probably not the run-of-the-mill-apple-user that knows which service does what.
mediaanalysisd isn’t mysterious. It’s a ML process that evaluates your photos and videos and generates description metadata to make them text-searchable. It’s what allows you to search your photos for “flowers” and see all the photos with flowers in them.
Sorry! I entirely missed that!
But yes, it’s an inefficient and buggy process. I think it’s also what makes text selectable in images, which is why it is always running. Since we’re living through a RAM apocalypse you would think that Apple would find ways of making always-on processes more efficient.