Mac-mini Ventura 13.2.1. Full Disk Access

The apps in there with the switch turned off can be there from you explicitly not giving it permission or the App may not have asked for permission yet. By design apps are suppose to wait until you need access for something before it asks for permission, instead of bombarding you with everything all at once when app first launches.

When a Developer uploads an App to the store, they have to let Apple know through a Info.plist setting that they intend on asking you for Full Disk Access and they submit the text on the reason for the access in the permission alert you get. Apps that do this will show up in FDA with the switch off.

Nothing to worry about if switched off or even switched on if you know the app and expect to be able to access all files.

Apps that don't have full disk access may not be able to access files and/or supporting files located elsewhere on the hard drive. Most of the time when an app needs full disk access it will alert you that it can't do its job until you authorize it.

XProtect is part of the systems protection system and is located in the core services section of the system:

Yes to all three of your questions.

TRA43 wrote:

1. Thank you for the reply. I more or less understand the implication of FDA. What I don't understand is how applications got there to begin with since I did not add them.

So Repeat Question:

Are apps automatically added to FDA when they have asked for permission to access other apps?

2. Can I remove the apps currently in the FDA list without any issue? (Permissions are all off).

3. If yes then it should follow that I can add the files in future if need be. Correct?

I believe so. Since this is what full disk access is:

The unknown apps may be the developer's name rather than the app name. Apple has changed some things in Ventura that, if developer's don't update their app, will display the developer's name in some settings instead of the app's name.