Users have to confirm screen recording permission every week in macOS Sequoia

AppleInsider

Even if a user has turned on permissions in Settings for an app to screen record their Mac, the forthcoming macOS Sequoia is going to make them confirm that choice weekly.

Any app that has screen capture or screen recording features will cause this prompt to appear

As well as removing the Control-click option to skip Gatekeeper security, macOS Sequoia is also going to show a prompt every week about screen recording. This obviously affects apps that record screens, from ScreenFlow to CleanShot X, but its impact goes further.

There are accessibility apps that use screen recording, for instance. Keyboard Maestro can use it to look for specific buttons being shown on a screen, and even the Bartender app uses it as part of controlling menubar apps.

Then, too, all video conferencing apps use screen recording when users turn on screen sharing during calls.

In each case, before the recording can be started, a prompt appears saying that a specified app "can access this computer's screen and audio." Curiously, it does not as yet offer the option to say that you don't want this.

Rather, you get two buttons, with the first being labelled Open System Settings, where you could turn off the screen recording permission. The second button, which is going to be clicked the most often, is just Continue to Allow.

The prompt has become a familiar part of the beta release of macOS Sequoia, but not as a weekly thing. Rather, AppleInsider has been seeing it after every restart, which made it appear to be a bug that would surely be addressed before the end of the beta tests.

There does appear to be a bug in that sometimes there is a significant delay before the Continue to Allow button responds to clicks. It's also inconsistent in how sometimes clicking that does allow the screen recording, but the screen recording shows that prompt.

That's less of a concern with video screen recordings as the prompt goes away, but AppleInsider has taken plenty of screenshots that had to be redone because the prompt blocked what an article was trying to show.

These aspects may change during the beta, but as spotted by 9to5Mac, this is not a bug because some developers are saying that Apple has confirmed that it is a new security feature. It's specifically tied to Apple's ScreenCaptureKit, which is a framework introduced to help screen recording apps in macOS Monterey in 2021.




Read on AppleInsider

JonDiesel

As someone who regularly uses Chrome Remote Desktop to remote in to my various machines (including my work Mac mini), this has become really irritating.  Nothing is worse than needing to get into my machine to fix something really quickly only to be stopped by this new security "feature" that can only be rectified next time I am physically in front of it.

Xytras78

Every week?  I'm seeing it every 24h!  It's beyond annoying.  Especially for DisplayLink hubs with external monitors attached.  You have to disconnect your hub to see the prompt, acknowledge it, then plug your hub back in to be able to use your displays!

jhalmos

Unbelievable that we're going to have even MORE security annoyances. I want a "Do you work at home and no one else ever uses your computer?" setting that turns off many of these constant annoyances. It feels like this is a "child gets a sliver on a public Jungle Gym and now all of them must be taken down" kind of thing, because who asked for this?!

harrykatsaros

I moved from Vista to macOS all those years ago specifically to get away from this BS. Apple needs to cut it out. 

22july2013

Simple solution: never install Sequoia.

dewme

Maybe Apple needs to have a “Do Not Nag” switch like they have for Do Not Track. 

I think Apple is doing this to avoid having people who feel violated by screen recording going after Apple for facilitating features that may be a privacy concern. By nagging users who turn on recording features on a weekly basis, Apple may believe they can play the “we are doing our best” card with respect to privacy concerns. 

I personally feel that this halfhearted approach is rather pointless and would not hold up to scrutiny. Once Apple put those features in their products they’ve already committed to sanctioning those features regardless of how queasy they feel about them for any possible use cases. 

If a user decides they want a feature turned on it’s perfectly acceptable to simply show a visual indicator that confirms the feature is enabled and leave it to the user to decide when or if to turn it off. It’s kind of like the caps lock feature in Apple’s keyboards. A little green light turns on when enabled but I don’t want to be asked periodically whether I want to keep it enabled. 

I know privacy and security are more important than caps lock, but just how much of a nanny do we want Apple to be? When AI gets into the mix, this sort of thing could get out of control. 

rezwits

The latest update has added "a week" to the dialog.  Which actually I don't feel that bad about, why?

Kinda don't like an app always recording my screen, or able to.  It really is a security loop hole...

22july2013

rezwits said:

The latest update has added "a week" to the dialog.  Which actually I don't feel that bad about, why?

Kinda don't like an app always recording my screen, or able to.  It really is a security loop hole...

All software is a security loop hole. How do you, yourself, determine software is "safe" to use? Do you use any software? What do you use?

I use some software that I consider safe but it does read the screen.

lukmul

I'm facing the same issues with TextSniper app. Interestingly, I remember a similar popup in the Sonoma betas that Apple later removed . Maybe they'll do the same this time.