Privacy question

[Ocheyan]

Hi
I read that with Leopard a 3rd party can take over your hard drive remotely if you give permission. Would you still be able to see the screen and what they were doing in that case? I am concerned that they could back up my hard drive and the contents of my computer without me knowing. Could such a thing happen?

Appreciate your reply, sorry if it's a silly question.

Thanks,

 

[barhar]

'I read that with Leopard a 3rd party can take over your hard drive remotely if you give permission.' - a person cannot 'take over' your Mac and its devices, if permission, by you, is allowed (via System level settings). Please see the definition of oxymoron.

The amount of access you allow is determined by your 'System Preferences' 'Sharing' utility settings; whether you have installed 'Leopard' (MacOS X 10.5.x), 'Tiger' (MacOS X 10.4.x), 'Panther' (MacOS X 10.3.x), 'Jaguar' (MacOS X 10.2.x), etc., etc.

'Would you still be able to see the screen and what they were doing in that case?' - if they were performing any changes via VNC (and you configured your VNC 'server' application appropriately) (See 'HOWTO use your Mac from anywhere', as one example) you would see in, nearly real time, the actions of the 3rd party.

'I am concerned that they could back up my hard drive and the contents of my computer without me knowing.' - Once again, you allowed their access - thus, yes - they could (depending on your settings) back up your hard disk drive(s) without your knowledge.

'Could such a thing happen?' - ..., yes; since you allowed such via your System level settings.

 

[lbj]

Ocheyan,
The point being, if you give others permission to access your system, then yes, they can access your system. And they can do whatever you have given them permission to do.

Do you really mean to ask if someone can access your computer if you have NOT given permission?

 

[Ocheyan]

Hi
No I mean if I give permission for someone to access my computer for the purposes of helping me figure something out, could that privilege be abused without my knowledge. I think Leopard is really dangerous if it leads people to freely give away their HD to a third party who may secretly subvert the privilege.
I don't really understand System Prefs: sharing utilities. Could I select a setting that only allowed the other person to see the screen in front of me only and nothing more using Leopard OS?
Thanks,

 

[Giaguara]

Hi Ocheyan, you do get a question when you have the others to connect or try to help you e.g. with Remote Desktop (unless you or an admin would have set the privileges to hide it).

If in doubt which services in sharing to keep enabled, keep them off.
Remote login - keep it off unless YOU need to access your computer remotely.
Remote Desktop etc - keep them off, except when you need them on for any particular purpose. And when finished what you were doing, you can turn it off again.
Anything that is not needed or that you are not sure what it is is a safe bet to keep off at all times.
With these settings, you'll be safe.

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Hi
No I mean if I give permission for someone to access my computer for the purposes of helping me figure something out, could that privilege be abused without my knowledge.

Of course. If you give someone the keys to your car and tell them to drive no faster than 5mph, and they choose to go faster than that, then, yes, that privilege can be abused!

I think Leopard is really dangerous if it leads people to freely give away their HD to a third party who may secretly subvert the privilege.

Leopard only allows people to do what you give them access to do. If you don't trust them, don't give them access -- simple as that. Would you give your car keys away to just anyone, or only people you trust not to abuse the privilege?

I don't really understand System Prefs: sharing utilities. Could I select a setting that only allowed the other person to see the screen in front of me only and nothing more using Leopard OS?
Thanks,

Yes. In the "Sharing" pane of the System Preferences, you can configure "Screen Sharing" to only allow access to specific users, and if you notice that specific user doing something you don't like, you can disconnect them.