Two big issues that face Mac users these days are the obvious; privacy and security. Both have outside sources trying to gather as much information about you as possible, or take away information on your Mac.
Worse, sometimes Mac apps we know, use, and love, also phone home to who knows where to send information you may want to keep private.
You can turn on the Mac’s built-in firewall and cut down some of the external intruders, but what about apps you have installed that send information from your Mac?
For that, you need a simple solution. I’ve used Little Snitch for years to help me track down the phone home apps and provide a little inside out security that the Mac doesn’t give.
Little Snitch acts like a reverse firewall. A firewall plugs communication ports so intruders or apps have difficulty getting to your Mac.
A reverse firewall stops apps from communicating to the outside world from your Mac. Every Mac app, even the Mac’s system itself, that tries to open a network connection to the outside world gets flagged by Little Snitch.
You control each app giving it full outside access or shutting it down entirely.
Little Snitch snitches on apps that want to establish an outgoing network or internet connection. You can choose to allow or deny the connection, or set up a few rules on how to handle future connections.
Once you set up your basic Mac apps, Little Snitch simply resides in the background and won’t make a sound until some wayward app tries to break ranks and phone home.
There’s also a handy, built-in network monitor function which gives you live information about what’s coming and going on your Mac’s network connection. The icon in the Menubar gives you a quick look at traffic.
In an age when apps are taking personal information from your Mac and smart phone and sending it who knows where without your permission, it’s nice to have an app that helps plug some of those leaks.