It's a very good policy, I wish they'd follow it for their own systems.
To download free apps off the Mac app store I need to set up an account and provide Apple with an email address, physical address, and phone number. Apps like the Wireguard GUI don't have access to necessary system APIs outside of the app store, so the developers have no way to allow users to sidestep giving Apple that information.
I'm forced to use the command line interface from Brew and mess around with network interfaces on my work laptop just because I refuse to give Apple my phone number and home address, even though Wireguard is free and no billing/payment information would be required for me to download it, and even though having an Apple account is completely unrelated to their sandboxing goals or the information that the app needs to run.
Bonus points for telling me I'm providing my phone number "for security purposes" but providing no option during signup to use a secure 2FA app instead of SMS.
Command line automation isn't the issue I'm having, the issue I'm having is being able to download without making an Apple account.
Sideloading would be helpful if Mac app store apps were made available as sideloaded apps anywhere. But I'm going to hazard a guess that Wireguard would not be permitted to provide those downloads -- I haven't been able to find a download link anywhere. And I'm seeing conflicting information online about whether or not sideloading even works for some apps unless the Apple IDs are shared between computers.
I suppose that I could try to compile the Wireguard app from source, but for all I know, running XCode will require an account as well.
All of these solutions are less work than manually managing the network interfaces myself. It's just kind of crappy that a privacy-oriented company is forcing me to do so. I shouldn't have to outsmart my Mac to get work done.
The interplay between iOS/macOS as “secure” operating systems and Wireguard implementations of “secure” networking on the aforementioned platforms really puts proof to the lie, as to what makes for better security outcomes and implementation stories and for whom.
Yeah if they practiced what they preached you could go to the apple store, pay cash for your laptop. Then once home if you wanted some paid apps you could open up appstore over your super high tech vpn (or even tor browser) path with digital currency and download your app without apple ever knowing who you are. That is the ideal, even better would be to let me order the old fashioned way with a money order with a fake name and address on it and buy the app that way with a randomly generated UUID than I put in with the money order.
I would love a way to anonymously purchase apps, but I'm not even asking for that much accomodation.
I would tolerate giving Apple billing information to purchase an app. I don't understand why I need billing information to download a free app that doesn't cost any money. There's no transaction for Apple to verify.
And I don't understand why I need to give Apple a phone number of any of this.
I'm not even asking for an ideal world, just a very slightly less crappy one; Apple objectively does not need my phone number to let me hit a download link. That serves no purpose, it's a completely unrelated step to the task I'm trying to perform.
Maybe, but this computer cost money, so even if that is their requirement Apple is still violating the spirit of their own rules.
I have to pay money for a piece of hardware and give a bunch of personal information to Apple, just to download a free app on the hardware that I paid for?
I do tend to agree with this idea. People constantly make such arguments talking about Android being free hence "you're the product". But people actually paid hundreds of dollars to get that Android phone, so it's not unreasonable at all to be irritated that your OS is trying to monetize you.
To download free apps off the Mac app store I need to set up an account and provide Apple with an email address, physical address, and phone number. Apps like the Wireguard GUI don't have access to necessary system APIs outside of the app store, so the developers have no way to allow users to sidestep giving Apple that information.
I'm forced to use the command line interface from Brew and mess around with network interfaces on my work laptop just because I refuse to give Apple my phone number and home address, even though Wireguard is free and no billing/payment information would be required for me to download it, and even though having an Apple account is completely unrelated to their sandboxing goals or the information that the app needs to run.
Bonus points for telling me I'm providing my phone number "for security purposes" but providing no option during signup to use a secure 2FA app instead of SMS.