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Zoom needs to clean up its privacy act

(blogs.harvard.edu)
1597 points seapunk | 1 comments | 27 Mar 20 14:18 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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mrpippy ◴[27 Mar 20 20:39 UTC] No.22706650[source]▶
I just downloaded Zoom for Mac, saw that it was a .pkg file. Great, I can see what files it installs before I install it.

I open the .pkg, click Continue so it can run its script, then a second later Installer quits and the app launches. What?!

Turns out, Zoom installs the entire app in the 'preinstall' script of the installer package! Inside there's a copy of '7z', and the app is extracted with that. The preinstall script is littered with typos and poor grammar.

I'm not one of those people who thinks that Apple is going to force all Mac software to come through the App Store, but when I see stuff this stupid...I start to wonder.

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ThePowerOfFuet ◴[27 Mar 20 22:49 UTC] No.22707597[source]▶
Next time, open the .pkg with Pacifier.
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1. mrpippy ◴[28 Mar 20 00:21 UTC] No.22708099[source]▶
Since this .pkg completely subverts how packages are supposed to work, none of the files show up in Pacifist. Everything is in 'Scripts', which is a .cpio.gz.