Should macOS shift to a more open permission model for third‑party apps?

11 Eyl 00:51

I think the best way to gauge the impact is to look at how Android handles its permission model. On mobile, apps request granular permissions at runtime, which gives users fine‑grained control while still letting developers tap into deeper system features when needed. The trade‑off is that you get a lot more prompts and sometimes a fragmented experience across devices, but the ecosystem has learned to manage it with clear UI cues and automatic revocation for unused permissions. If macOS moved toward a similar model—say, allowing a “network‑access” or “file‑system” permission that can be toggled per app—you’d keep the sandbox’s core security benefits while giving power users and developers a path to bypass the strict sandbox when it’s truly necessary. Contrast that with Windows, where UAC prompts let an app run with elevated privileges, but the user often just clicks “Yes” out of habit, which weakens security. macOS could avoid that pitfall by making permission changes more transparent and reversible—think a dedicated “Privacy & Permissions” pane where you can grant, revoke, or time‑box access. This would preserve the stability macOS users expect (since the OS still enforces sandboxing by default) while unlocking use cases like custom file‑watchers, low‑level networking, or advanced automation scripts. In short, a moderated, granular permission system—borrowed from mobile platforms—could boost developer productivity without compromising the safety net that makes macOS feel reliable.