Macs since 2022 ship daemons building user graph
The gist
Security researchers at 8rank say every Mac since macOS 13 ships daemons that build a graph of who you know.
The analysis, not verified by Apple, centers on an undocumented family-ties classifier.
How it unfolded
- 2022Apple introduced a persistent graph-building subsystem in macOS 13, running on both Intel and Apple silicon hardware.
- 2023Apple's own researchers published a paper on the techniques behind the graph construction.
- Aug 2026The 8rank researchers encountered the system while doing security research on the Apple Intelligence bundle in macOS 26.
Key terms
- daemons
- A program that runs as a background process rather than under direct control of an interactive user.
- SQLite
- A free, open-source relational database engine written in C that is embedded as a library inside applications rather than run as a standalone program.
Source: Wikipedia