Litter Boxing
Sandboxing is intended to protect Mac users from malware and poorly designed apps. I think it will accomplish some of these goals, but with a high price.
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I would like a control in the preferences app to allow App Store apps to override core OS functionality and escape some of the sandboxing rules. Let’s call it “geek-mode” for now. Geek-mode should take effort to find. Geek-mode should require a password. If geek-mode is off, the App Store should not show apps that require it.
In my view, there should be entitlements available for everything that apps want to do. This would allow every app to be sandboxed, but apps would be prevented from doing things they aren’t supposed to be doing. Then, because every app comes with its list of entitlements, it would be possible for the system or the store to make the user opt-in to access apps that are potentially dangerous or confusing.
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> In my view, there should be entitlements available for everything that apps want to do.
Exactly. And let the user make the choice. Apple has in fact a chance to educate the user, here. Their warning messages have carefully stayed away from the systematic "Allow or Deny", and instead focused on what matters to the user: let the app access your location, photos, address book. Why not the same with letting the app "access your hard drive", or "take control of other apps". Yes, I am mixing privacy and security here, but I think a few well-worded messages of this kind could go a long way in protecting Macs **and** educating users, giving them back a sense of control of their computers.
