I agree it can be overwhelming... that being said, the benefits are great and once a first pass is done, the overhead isn't that bad.

Thanks for the push Louie and kudos for learning this stuff!

Not an expert, but this is what I would search myself. I will look into the permissions of the chrome extensions and anything that says all websites, passwords, clipboards, etc. is probably good to disable when not in use, at least. But you should uninstall them if you can find a safer alternative. Or, block outgoing connections of those apps and extensions so even if they take your data, it can't be sent back. The goal for me, personally, is not to have hacker-level security and total anonymity, but to lower as much of my personal data and risk that companies have about me. That means I compromise on some services and apps that I find valuable to me, like macos screen time - which helps me manage time and my productivity although Sun had mention it's not a good idea for your privacy cuz Apple logs every minute of your app usage. The big tech made these things calling them "screen time limiting" , "for digital wellbeing" but really they made it cuz they can monitor your usage and learn user behaviors to make even more money. We're living in the primitive era of personal data and privacy as a right, companies making us agree to their terms and services. This practice will be looked as unethical, unprofessional, and inhumane in the future where hopefully we grow as a society that grants us our data and control over it.

@@StephenOrion are chrome extension able to take ur clipboard for example a password u clip and then send it to their servers where they can see it? Are they able to take that kind of info or does chrome limit those kind of data going out. I would assume chrome knows developers don't need ur clip history and does something about it. but I dunno just an assumption. Seems like only developers can know the extent of what info can be extracted and abused.

Hey Arvin, thanks for the push. I have no experience on Windows and haven't stumbled upon Glasswire. Perhaps others can share feedback?

@@sunknudsen Okay, that's fine. I think it is not bad, as there are no open source alternatives to Windows, I'll probably research a little more, and see which works.

Hey, haven't tried Lulu, but the project has a good reputation. About your older Mac, I will be publishing an episode shortly that should help with your questions. About the firewall, I would recommend blocking everything that doesn't break your user experience.

I agree this is frightening... will have to look into this in depth before considering an upgrade.

Thanks for sharing. I have but haven't experimented with LuLu. The project is on my backlog. 🤓

Have you tried disabling "Wake for Wi-Fi network access" and "Enable Power Nap while plugged into a power adapter" in "Energy Saver"?

@@sunknudsen hi!! thanks for the reply :-) yes, done all that and more recommended by apple. the want me to do a log test and send them it, but it takes 2 hours before the fans come on , and I need find time to download a fresh Catalina os so that there is nothing added to confuse the log with outside apps. I also had a problem with a sticky tape strip on the inside of the Mac Pro casing coming unstuck and folding back on its self, ive had 2 units with this issue. ive asked apple is this a design fault or or is it 2 faulty units ? what do you think they will say ? ( I dontthink they'll admit to a design fault .. you can also put the case on the wrong way !!)

Hey Viacheslav, thanks for the push. Many! Put simply, I block everything I can without breaking the apps I use.

@@sunknudsen Can you please write the list of these processes?)

I see why that would be useful... but doing so would reveal more than I am comfortable with. Also, everyone has their own setup so configuring Little Snitch is really a personal process.

@@sunknudsen Ok, I understand, thanks!

Hey Craig, have a look at the description of kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rKlnmb2nlpnFiIE.html.

Hey Rutvik, looks like the new HTTPS-only feature is essentially a built-in HTTPS Everywhere. That feature should have no effect on DNS over HTTPS (which is a separate protocol).

@@sunknudsen oh that's good then, I wonder if it will have any effect on page loading time though

Haven’t tried Lulu… have to look into the project!

Thanks for sharing! I agree... unfortunately most people are overwhelmed by application-layer firewall like Little Snitch and end up allowing everything.

Thanks for the push and for sharing Outline. I will look into it. While I investigate this protocol (not sure if and when I will publish on the subject), curious to learn what is your opinion on the benefits provided by Shadowsocks vs strongSwan or WireGuard?

At first glance, I see Shadowsocks was designed to circumvent censorship. Do you know if self-hosting a VPN also works in countries where Shadowsocks is used? Curious about what nation state firewalls use to detect and block traffic.

@@sunknudsen Thanks for replying! The biggest benefits that I get is that in my country Vietnam where the internet is censored, in some holidays we often experience VPN crackdowns which make tools like WireGuard and strongSwan unusable. However, Outline (and tools based on Shadowsocks) work just fine on those days. Also, when I set up both strongSwan and Outline on the same server, Outline gave me a 30% better speed which made me wonder if the protocol is actually better or there are some downsides comparing to the traditional VPN protocols.

Are self-hosted WireGuard and strongSwan VPNs also censored (meaning Shadowsocks is somehow allowed through the firewall)?

@@sunknudsen Correct. I tried both your strongSwan installation script and Nyr WireGuard script, none of them work on special holidays but Shadowsocks work just fine.

Very strange… I would contact Little Snitch support about this. Sounds like a bug or edge case. Never experienced this myself.

Thanks for sharing. I agree, but for most people the convenience trade-off outweighs the benefits.

Great point! Another use case for self-hosting our own VPNs.

Thanks for sharing. Will do!

What is Lulu actually doing? I installed it once, and wasn't sure it's even there, and filtering anything.

@@leoingson As far as I'm concerned, when an app attempts to create a connection over the internet, LuLu displays a popup asking whether you want to allow it or not. Also check if you haven't got passive mode on, as that causes all new connections to be allowed.

@@WolfDaniel Thanks, will try! Active mode could do the trick.

Great question... not sure, but haven't noticed anything alarming in this regard.

@@sunknudsen thx for replying. I tested little snitch myself. It seems to work fine with demo version

Hey, not sure if there are benefits of not blocking the calls... unless a developer goes rogue. I included a line to undo the patch in last episode.

@@sunknudsen great thanks. must‘ve missed 🙃

@@sunknudsen I really can't find it. Where exactly can I find it?

@@sunknudsen please let me know how i can undo the echo thing. running big sur, and i had no wifi connection after reboot. edit: now i found out that in DNS-settings, macos sets a search-domain after every reboot, and I don't unterstand why....

Totally agree!

Thanks so much for mentioning this and sorry for messing up your name Jacopo (if ever you read this).

​@@sunknudsen It's not my name, but you seemed concerned about the correct pronunciation. So it seemed right to me, knowing the right pronunciation, to write it down in the comments .

On mobile (being an Android user), you could have a look at GrapheneOS.

I totally agree and feel the pain. I had a gut feeling this episode would spawn this conversation. The good news is not everyone needs to go that deep into the rabbit hole, but I believe everyone should at least be conscious of the invisible.

@@tofu4080 thats exacly my point... these people just want to surf the internet... ublock is easy - point granted. but if you really want to go for safety, you need umatrix too... its anyoing for them to install plugins and configure them. in the long run, this way of saving privacy will never reach mainstream users. sadly.

Not on Catalina right?

@@sunknudsen Not that i know of, It definitely is in Big Sur though.

Thanks for sharing... Will have to explore the Big Sur rabbit hole extensively before upgrading.

Hey Matteo, great question. Will look into LuLu!

Its open source too!

Do you mean on Apple's end?

Feel you.

Hey, feel you... getting started with application layer firewalls (such as Little Snich) in alert mode is overwhelming. I agree it's sad we have to do all of this to essentially have privacy which we should just have... I hope you find the courage to plow through. Once you endure this initial phase of allowing and blocking processed, things get more quiet.

@@sunknudsen my main concern when using little snitch is allowing some things to go out of my computer, if theres malware or viruses already on my computer and i might just accidentally allow them to go back and forth on my computer without even knowing it. Ive tried to highlight the file and pasting it in the browser to find out what it is, but theres so many different types of answers and no direct or common answers, like i mentioned before, its driving me nuts!!!

Thanks, will keep that in mind.