14

In MacOS, each folder has a hidden .DS_Store file. If I compress a folder on MacOS, the zip file will contain those .DS_Store files. What information is contained in those files, and does it expose any information about me, my device, my other files, etc?

Improve this question
1
  • 4
    Have you looked this up? I mean, Wikipedia has good info. I googled "Are there privacy risks in sharing the MacOS .DS_Store files?" and got more good info.
    – schroeder
    Commented Feb 25, 2022 at 13:34

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
11

Unless you have specifically included private information in those files, then no, it usually not considered a privacy risk to share them.

.DS_Store files contain metadata attributes that Finder want to store, but cannot store directly for each file or directory (for example if the file system does not support such attributes). This is typically things such as the (x,y)-coordinates of the file icon (i.e. if you move them around in the Finder window), colored tags if you apply those, custom icons you might have chosen for files, etc.

Note for others: The .DS_Store file can contain names of files and subfolders in this particular folder, which you might consider private. For this particular question, those files and subfolders are included in the compressed archive to be shared, so they aren't private.

Improve this answer
3
  • 6
    .DS_Store files do contain the names of the subfolders. This may be private information.
    – lhf
    Commented Feb 25, 2022 at 14:04
  • 2
    Not really - he is specifically stating that he is sharing the folder including contents (Such as subfolders) - so if he's already sharing it, it's not private.
    – jksoegaard
    Commented Feb 25, 2022 at 14:21
  • 5
    You're quite right. I meant that sharing just the .DS_Store file could be a privacy risk.
    – lhf
    Commented Feb 25, 2022 at 14:22

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .