Blocking a connection to when you visit mysite.tld might end up blocking all the ads, which is great. Potential Problems: The challenge is that so much of the internet is delivered by third parties/cloud providers. You might trust program C to check for updates, but don't want it to pull down ads or make connections you really can't determine any good reason for the app to make (from a customer point of view.)Įxample: For general applications like FireFox or Safari, you may say that 'I do not want Firefox to ever connect to anything *.' Advanced users begin to learn that some domains are always associated with some of the more obnoxious parts of the internet, and that some of the more invasive ones are spread over many different addresses and domains. You might trust Program A, but not Program B. How you'd use it: it depends on how you feel about programs making connections without telling you.

and even experts might not agree which strategy is best for a given person.

Unfortunately, each of those is their own discussion, and together is a broad and complex topic that varies a lot from person to person. Why you'd do it: Using an Application Firewall, is one part of a larger process of trying to gain online privacy, some parts being more complicated, expensive, and extreme than others such as virtual private networks, obfuscated payment card details, ad-blocking extensions, disabling javascript, opting out of cookies, etc. Little Snitch warns you when that is happening, and lets you choose to stop it (or allow it.) The shortest version: Your computer contacts others when you tell it to.

What is little snitch for mac