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Glossary

TCC (Transparency, Consent, Control)

The daemon and database that records user grants for sensitive data — camera, microphone, contacts, full disk access, screen recording, and dozens more.

TCC — Transparency, Consent, Control — is the macOS subsystem that handles the "Apps would like to access your Camera" style prompts and remembers your answers.

It consists of:

  • tccd — a userspace daemon that owns the database and surfaces the user-consent dialogs.
  • TCC.db — a per-user SQLite database at ~/Library/Application Support/com.apple.TCC/TCC.db recording every grant or deny decision, keyed by bundle ID.

When an app calls a TCC-protected API (camera, microphone, contacts, calendars, full disk access, accessibility, screen recording, etc.), the framework asks tccd whether the calling bundle ID has a grant. If not, tccd shows the prompt and stores the user's answer.

Apps can't read or write TCC.db themselves — only tccd can. Re-signing a binary under a different identity makes TCC treat it as a new app and re-prompt the user.

See also: code signing, entitlement, SIP.