Xcode phones home a lot, and that should worry you

I’ve saved the worst for last. For some reason, Xcode phones home to appstoreconnect.apple.com every time I open an Xcode project. This also appears to be unnecessary, and I experience no problems after denying the connections in Little Snitch, so I do! I assume that the connections send identifying information about the Xcode project to Apple, otherwise why even make the connections when opening a project? And all of these connections from Xcode, to every domain, require login to your Apple Developer account, so Apple is definitely receiving identifying information about you in any case.

In effect, Xcode is a developer analytics collection mechanism, whether you like it or not, which I don’t.
↫ Jeff Johnson

If, at this point in time, you’re still surprised Apple doesn’t practice what it preaches, the fault lies pretty much entirely with you.

Anyway, it seems Xcode phones home to Apple quite a bit, which I doubt is all that unique in the world of commercial development environments. I honestly don’t think Apple itself doing anything particularly nefarious with this data, but the fact it’s collecting it in the first place should still make you think twice about using Xcode, especially if you’re developing anything even remotely sensitive. What should really worry you is the fact Tim Cook and Apple are close allies of Trump and his regime.

Xcode is required for iOS/iPadOS/etc. development, because the App Store requires applications be built and submitted with it. As such, every iOS developer is sending substantial amounts of data to Apple during development, which should be especially concerning for people outside of the US and people who aren’t straight white males; using Xcode requires an Apple Account, so Apple knows quite a bit about who is using it. With the breakdown of the rule of law in the US, all of this data is basically freely accessible to US authorities, and we’ve seen by now that people like self-styled genius Elon Musk don’t worry too much about pesky things like the rule of law.

If Musk wants this data, Apple will hand it over.

If you’re an Apple developer, you should stop and think every time you open Xcode. You’re sending your data straight to a hostile entity. If you’re claiming to use Apple products because of Apple’s privacy “promises”, Xcode’s data collection should be a huge worry for you.