The problem with Bartender is that you are giving Accessibility and Screen Recording permissions to an unknown entity.
With Accessibility APIs you can control the Mac (including other apps). With Screen Recording APIs you can see everything that's happening.
Both of those things require trust, and the new owners being silent about the matter does not gain that.
I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole until that communication happens.
Also remember that Bartender is not running in a sandbox, so it has a lot more access to the system than something from the Mac App Store.
Like being able to establish network connections without entitlements. Or accessing data outside of the app's container.
And since it's likely the app launches automatically and runs continuously, it's trivial to exfiltrate anything that's collected.
At this point, it feels like someone bought a really nice back door.
@chockenberry Is there a good replacement app that you're aware of?
@jkrahn No idea. I don't use the menubar much.
@beardedtechguy @chockenberry @jkrahn I was looking at using this one, but I was playing around, and I don’t see a way to set it up to ‘always show’ a subset of menu bar icons. Am I missing something by any chance?
@beardedtechguy @chockenberry @jkrahn I have found this one:
https://apps.apple.com/nz/app/hidden-bar/id1452453066?mt=12
Pretty basic, and you can't set up conditionals, but it works (despite being a tad old) and it has the safety of being in the App Store. Liked the look of Ice, but I couldn't find a way to have 'always show' set up
@beardedtechguy @chockenberry @jkrahn Thank you for the alternative to Bartender. Just converted.
@chockenberry all good, thanks for the reply!
@jkrahn https://matthewpalmer.net/vanilla/ does something similar—less full-featured, but quite solid. @chockenberry
@jkrahn @chockenberry I switched to “Ice” -(tip-cmd-drag to move menubar items) https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice?tab=readme-ov-file
@jkrahn @chockenberry I’m testing out Ice, which I found from this comment. It’s working for me so far: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/psa-bartender-mac-app-under-new-ownership-but-lack-of-transparency-raises-concerns.2428159/post-33181653
@chockenberry Honestly I wouldn’t touch it with a 10 foot pole even when/if that communication happens.
IMO they already burned that trust.
@ghalldev @chockenberry yeah the bar has run dry for me, I’m out.
@chockenberry are you aware of an alternative to bartender that just helps manage the menu bar? (Would love something else I use and trust like Alfred to add the feature.)
@JarrettUX @chockenberry I haven’t used it myself, but folks have been recommending Ice: https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice
@JarrettUX @chockenberry BetterTouchTool may be an option. This morning I removed Bartender and enabled the capability described in this post. So far, it has been an adequate replacement. https://community.folivora.ai/t/bartender-controversy-tutorial-on-how-to-manage-menubar-status-items-via-btt/37429
@chockenberry Not that it’s up to you to inform me or others of this, but is just uninstalling it enough to remove its access to my machine or does it leave things behind I have to hunt down as well?
@Roof I would not assume a simple uninstall would work. Hunt it down.
(I don't use the app, so I can't help there.)
@chockenberry @Roof I have used it, and I uninstalled and let Hazel do the rest. Now I’m wondering what else I should do.
@luckie_reubs @chockenberry @Roof App Cleaner is what I used to get rid of it (and all it's cruft) https://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/
@TheJesusFish @Roof So I used the old school (and somehow still functioning??) App Zapper. I mean, look at this beauty!!
@luckie_reubs lol, I used to use AppZapper (I think I have a license from some ancient version somewhere).
I switched to app cleaner when I got the m1 MacBook because I was trying to be arm native - the true pipe dream.
@TheJesusFish Yep. Pretty sure it came with a MacHeist bundle when I got my plastic MacBook back in the mid 2000s!
@luckie_reubs ha, that is likely when I got it too.
I miss those mid-aught mac software bundles.
@Roof @chockenberry The various app cleaners others are suggesting should do it. Personally I used my ForkLift app to delete the Bartender app, which also popped up other related items to delete, then Lingon X to look for any remaining launchctl/atlogin items, and then looked in system settings under Security/Privacy - > Accessibility and Screen Recording to delete any Bartender items left behind.
@Roof @chockenberry this is an awesome app that hunts down every related file to an app and you can trash it all at once. I use this all the time. As long as the new devs aren’t doing something to prevent this from working, you should see a bunch of files to delete.
@Roof @chockenberry One thing that I would suggest before uninstalling it, would be to go into the privacy and security settings and remove screen, recording and accessibility access for Bartender and THEN remove it.
@chockenberry Just read about this yesterday and have used Bartender religiously… Any suggestions for a good replacement? Someone mentioned Hidden Bar, but it hasn’t been updated in years.
@apite See replies for suggestions. I don't use the app.
@chockenberry Thanks - finally found the Reddit thread. :)
@chockenberry have looked at that app, and almost bought several times. Thanks for the tip
@chockenberry at least Ben has a statement now (https://surteesstudios.com/a-new-chapter/) and it appears to have been sold to a NY company https://www.applause.dev/
@chockenberry oh? Bartender has been sold?
@gsora Unfortunately yes. And the main problem is: it has been sold in a shady manner.
@thek3nger huh. Do you have more details?
@thek3nger sigh, time to uninstall
@chockenberry *sigh* tech is broken
@chockenberry @lolopb Cleaning a mac of all the SW cruft previously installed / of rights given over time is becoming impossible (Windows-like, one could say)
Finding what rights have been given to BarTender in Settings is in itself a challenge
Time for a new “clean” install (not so clean, unfortunately)
@karlieeuh @chockenberry @lolopb if you have homebrew you can run `brew rm --zap --force bartender` even if you didn't install it with homebrew to remove it an all of its permissions caches and plists from your system.
@chockenberry To be honest, it's time for Apple to "sherlock Bartender”, especially now with notches, it is ridiculous that some status bar icons can just dissappear with no apparent way to bring them back 
@chockenberry I've been reading about popular utilities that built great reputations over the years being bought by people with ill-intent. They use the good reputation to sneak in malware. Perhaps this might happen less if these software developers earned more from their products.
So the problem might be that some software is too inexpensive.
@chockenberry thanks for spelling out the implications so clearly. I’m out!
@chockenberry It’s crazy Apple hasn’t sherlocked this obvious functionality yet
@chockenberry this is why I hate Apple’s permission system. It's all very well that I can have fine grained control, but I want a switch that basically says “I trust this developer”. I want to be able to say “I trust BBEdit”. Because the fact is, trust in the developer is absolutely required. There are endless ways to escalate permission (either technical or social) - once untrustworthy code is running on your Mac, it is pretty much all over.
@peternlewis @chockenberry First thing I did after reading about the whole story was to block #Bartender communication through #LittleSnitch. I'm willing to give them a chance to explain and regain some level of trust, but needless to say I’m concerned too…
@peternlewis As a power user, I’d love the same thing.
But a less sophisticated customer could be scammed by an unscrupulous developer to acquire that high level of “trust”.
It’s also problematic when that trust changes hands. What to do if Rich sells Bare Bones?
@chockenberry just switched to Hidden Bar. Intuitive design, collects no data, free on App Store.