Download Taccy (Mac) – Download & Review Free

There are limits to what apps can access when they’re running on a Mac, and it’s not always entirely clear what they can do. If you know what you’re doing, the details can be very revealing, as long as you have a way to get them.

Tassie Can do this – it examines application and installer packages to see exactly what they are allowed to do and whether they are safe to run. It can also generate helpful logs for advanced users.

Drag the application to Taccy to view the content

When you start the application, it only appears in your Dock.To view the interface, you must drag and drop an application or installer onto its Dock icon, or from document menu. Analysis is fast and you will see the results in the main window.

You’ll notice there’s a bunch of checkboxes here, but nothing can be toggled on or off, which was my initial impression as well. same, save Buttons are not available for these checkboxes, but for the log below (if you wish to export it to a text file).

Details for the privacy conscious

In addition to the bundle identifier and version, you can also see if the app is signed by Apple, whether it’s from the App Store, hardened or notarized, or just signed with a developer ID. Below is the SDK version it was built with.

What follows is what most users will care about. The app will show you which data classes the app has access to, and whether it uses public access flags or Apple’s private flags. The latter can only be found in apps made by Apple.

It would be nice if more information about each parameter was provided when hovering over the checkboxes, as the current tooltip may be unintentional and not provide any useful information.

Generate troubleshooting logs

if you go to window menu you can bring up the log window where you can see all TCC, LaunchServices, securityd and other entries. This feature requires you to be an administrator and is only useful for experts. Keep in mind that generating logs can take a long time if you backtrack too far.

Whether you’re a developer, researcher, or just interested in how your apps handle data, Taccy is a really cool utility worth trying. It’s simple to use, yet very powerful in the right hands.