In Console.app, how can I reveal to what <private> tags are actually referring?

Question

In the last several versions of MacOS, Console.app has become increasingly more censored, to the point of near uselessness.

Filenames and URLs have been replaced by <private>tags, making it impossible to track down and remedy errors.

While the following example isn't an error, nor is it the file permissions error I was having for literally years with cfprefsd, unable to track it down, it is an example as to how vague and unhelpful most messages logged with Console.app have become:

 com.apple.WebKit.Networking [19870 <private> <private>] start

How can I reveal to what the <private> tags refer in Console.app log messages?

Answer 1

Console.app can be made to display actual file paths and URLs instead of private by issuing the following command in Terminal.app:

    sudo log config --mode "private_data:on"

This causes messages logged to Console.app to display more specific and helpful information, like URLs and filenames, instead of just the cryptic <private> tags, but not retroactively. The error or condition will have to occur again for the previously censored data to be displayed.

So an essentially useless message like:

  com.apple.WebKit.Networking [19870 <private> <private>] start

would then be expanded to something like:

 com.apple.Webkit.Networking [19920 www.facebook.com:443 stream, pid: 5311, url: https://www.facebook.com/api/graphqlbatch/, tls] start

Since to leave private_data:on long-term may compromise privacy and security, the logging facility can be returned to its normal obscure level with this command:

sudo log config --mode "private_data:off"

once finished tracking down the desired event.