Mac Memos

Surprising how many times web pages you open like to send information back, too. Google does it all the time, to add service. Baddies do it, too.

I just downloaded the trial version of Little Snitch and I will probably buy a copy to keep. It has a nice, easy to use interface that allows you to control which applications are allowed to open an internet connection from your computer TO the outside world. That’s right, TO. Your web browser sends out calls for web pages and brings them IN. But many applications, web pages and email messages are designed to “call home”, sending information from your computer to another internet address.

In many cases, this is a helpful behaviour and you want to let it happen. Software updates, for example, might send version number information back to the application developer so that you can be automatically notified when an update is available.

In other cases, you might not want to let someone else’s software open an internet connection and report back to the source. Maybe you rather that a spammer didn’t know that you had opened their message (telling them that your email address is a “live one”).

The thing is, how do you know when such an outgoing connection is being attempted? Little Snitch.

By setting Little Snitch “rules” you can easily limit the outbound connection possibilities to only trusted sources.

I will continue to try out Little Snitch for a few days and learn more about it. My first impression is positive.