The Mac knowledge graph has mapped contacts, routines, and inferred family ties on every Mac since macOS 13 in 2022, and there is still no user-facing off switch. Dario Pasquini of Eighth Rank published the map on October 28; it was shared on Hacker News on November 7, and AppleInsider’s November 8 breakdown followed. The store is plaintext SQLite behind Full Disk Access, so keeping it on the Mac does not stop an app, or malware that already has that permission, from reading conclusions about you and people who were not asked.
Updated November 8, 2026
Key Takeaways
- Every Mac since macOS 13 in 2022 builds this on-device graph.
- Fifty-one plaintext SQLite databases sit behind Full Disk Access.
- Deleting a contact does not immediately erase prior conclusions.
- Apple documents no user-facing switch for the graph itself.
What does the Mac knowledge graph actually hold?
Two daemons, knowledgeconstructiond and intelligenceplatformd, keep their work in ~/Library/IntelligencePlatform: 51 plaintext SQLite databases, with graph.db as the main store. On macOS 26.6.2, Pasquini counted 181 entity classes and 278 predicates. Every row is a subject, a predicate, and an object—a plain value such as a name or a date—and each row separately gets a confidence between 0 and 1. PrivacyAffairs quotes the June 2022 man page: knowledgeconstructiond is “a daemon that analyzes content on the device to build a general purpose knowledge graph”.
Most rows are copies from Contacts, Photos faces, Calendar, Family Sharing ages, the Health Medical ID, Mail and Messages via Siri Suggestions, and App Intents. The communication log records who, when, which app, and direction, with no message content, but it “also pulls from your other devices”. Inference is separate: an XGBoost kinship model plus rules uses 144 behavioral features, twelve Photos analyzers score partner, parent, child, coworker, and friend, and Apple Intelligence, if on, can name a face from messages. Pasquini calls the labels “inference work rather than ground truth”.
| Layer | What researchers describe | Limit they flag |
|---|---|---|
| Copied | Contacts, faces, Calendar, Family Sharing ages, Medical ID, Siri Suggestions, App Intents | No message content in the log |
| Inferred | Kinship labels, 144-feature scores, photo ties, place purpose, employer from invites and domains | Inference, not ground truth |
| After delete | expired_stable_graph keeps confidence and sources | About 48 hours; older rows seen |
Who can read it if there is no off switch?
Delete a contact and the live graph stops re-deriving that person, but the conclusion can remain. “Retraction in this store is an append, not a delete,” Pasquini writes. He estimates expired_stable_graph drops rows after about 48 hours, yet he could still read very old records, and a scorecard still rated two people dropped the day before.
Deleting those rows by hand is the only fix he offers. AppleInsider reported that one researched Mac could show a child, an age, a daycare, phone numbers, and where the family would be, when, for how long, and with whom.
Ordinary apps cannot open the folder. Anything with Full Disk Access can, backup apps need it to work, and malware that gets it can read the store. Apple said in October it will make that grant harder, citing AI agents that reach files, mail, and messages. “A breach hands you records; this store hands you conclusions,” Pasquini writes.
What does local storage mean for Mac owners?
Apple’s Siri privacy page says Siri Suggestions “uses local, on-device processing to learn how you use your devices and apps”. With iCloud on, that personalization syncs with end-to-end encryption. Neither page mentions relationship scoring. Pasquini says a 2023 Saga paper does not cover kinship inference in macOS, and he writes that models retrieve from the store, with “allegedly” in brackets.
AppleInsider argues the local trove is more private than cloud AI because the data stays on the device. Eighth Rank notes the people around you were not asked. Our reading: the on-device edge fails if Full Disk Access is abused. FileVault adds your login password on Apple silicon and T2 Macs and protects a lost machine, not software already running.
Apple’s man page is the official account, thin beside why Play Store privacy changes will not match Apple.
There is no switch for the graph. A few settings still narrow the risk:
- Remove unused or unrecognized apps from Full Disk Access.
- Keep FileVault on for a lost or stolen Mac.
- Limit apps under Siri Suggestions and Privacy. Apple says excluding an app stops Siri from using what that app donates. It does not say the graph ignores that app.
- iKnow, Pasquini’s local viewer, needs Full Disk Access while it runs. Remove it after, and leave AI-agent mode off. The iKnow project page says the tool is LLM-generated and may not be 100% accurate.
Frequently asked questions
When did Macs start building a knowledge graph?
Every Mac since macOS 13, in 2022, keeps one, according to PrivacyAffairs and Eighth Rank. The man page for knowledgeconstructiond is dated June 2022.
Can I turn the Mac knowledge graph off?
No switch is documented, and Pasquini does not name one. Full Disk Access and Siri Suggestions settings limit readers and, possibly, inputs.
Does deleting a contact erase inferred family ties?
The live graph stops deriving that person. Retracted rows keep their confidence in expired_stable_graph, and Pasquini could still read old records there.
Who can read the Mac knowledge graph?
Ordinary apps cannot. Any app with Full Disk Access can, and so can malware that obtains it. FileVault does not stop software already running.
