Little Snitch

Alright, today’s coolest program is called Little Snitch. Yes, Little Snitch, and it’s a really useful tool, especially for any of you who like monitor what your Mac is doing. Now, you probably know that your Mac has a firewall, and if you’re using a router, you’re probably behind a physical firewall, both of which will protect you from outside entry, bad guys, malware, etc.

But what about things that on being transmitted out from your computer? What private information is being sent out, what network traffic is being generated from within your computer? (Remember that most scary of lines from those horror movies you used to go watch: “The caller – he’s calling from inside your house!”) Well, Little Snitch works that way, and finds out what is going out, what your programs are sending out, who they are contacting, and rats them out to you. It’s pretty cool!

Little Snitch at first is a little annoying, for it asks about every network request, every outgoing signal in the beginning. But, as you grant various permissions (it’s usually pretty self-explanatory), it eventually slows down on the notices. And after that, only new program requests or anomalies pop up.

For those of you who want to know everything about your computer (and your privacy), this is the height of tech geekdom! Little Snitch costs $24.95, and a trial version is available for you to check it out. You can download it here. Go on, listen to the Little Snitch, I dare you!

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