Greetings,
I discovered an aspect of color management on the mac that I have never noticed before. This is not strictly an Aperture issue, but I am concerned that it may be influencing my images. Earnest internet searching yields nothing on this issue. Hopefully, one of the smart readers in this forum knows the answer.
With any image (RAW or JPG), selecting “Get Info” (Cmd+I) from the Finder pulls up the basic information panel for the file. The panel shows among other things both the color space and the color profile for the image. 
The color space appears to be the one assigned by the camera upon capture. The color profile, however, seems to be assigned by the computer (during import?). In all of my images since 2008 (regardless of camera and color space), the color profile is assigned to Adobe RGB (1998). Moreover, in the EXIF info shown in Aperture, the “profile” is given as Adobe RGB (1998), even though the camera is set to sRGB. (The Get Info panel shows RGB as color space.) The inspector in Preview shows RGB as “color model”, but again Adobe RGB for the ”color profile”.
I have nothing particular against Adobe RGB, but it is not the same as the color space, nor is it the same as the proofing profile selected in Aperture. Thus I am concerned that this discrepancy might influence what I see on the screen and what I get with printing or export.
Despite much searching, I have not found any method for changing this value for existing pictures, nor for newly imported ones. I find nothing in Aperture, in ColorSync, in Image Capture nor in the Finder on this issue.
I would be grateful for any insight on this, in particular with changing the setting on existing files and with changing it for newly imported ones.
Regards
James
P.S. I am familiar with color profiles for printers and displays, with calibrating and selecting them, and with soft proofing in Aperture. That is why I am a bit perplexed by this one.
P.S.S. Around 2008, I experimented with different color profiles in my camera and on the mac, using the then current versions of the OS (10.6.x) and Aperture. I have a suspicion that I may have assigned (with Aperture?) an import setting that has somehow been orphaned in the upgrading process.