Lulu firewall app. Please advise!

I have used Radio Silence before, I've never heard of Lulu though. I can confirm that Radio Silence is a pretty lightweight app and it's good for monitoring your network usage/firewall on your Mac. It has a very simple and aesthetically pleasing interface and is easy to use! I can definitely recommend it.

There is no need for any third party app that claims to protect, clean, manage, etc. Such third party apps tend to interfere with your Mac's built in security. Your Mac has a builtin firewall.

macOS - Security - Apple

Protect your Mac from malware - Apple Support

Set up your Mac to be secure - Apple Support

Azurircred wrote:

True! but what about outcoming connections? The built-in firewall only takes care of incoming ones.

How are you going to distinguish between legitimate outgoing connections and nefarious outgoing connections? All connections are going to be secure and encrypted. All you have to go by is the app itself and it’s reputation. So, use that and don’t install scamware.

Yes. I am aware of the app. I'm just expressing frustration as a developer. I sometimes get complaints about something not working on my app and in many cases, the problem is some over-zealous network security. I don't collect any marketing or metrics of any kind. But in hindsight, that was a bad idea. I have significant, one-of-a-kind features and I don't know if anyone is using them. I get zero feedback from users about them. The only contact me when there is a problem.

But I have zero doubt that if I had some free app for a major social media platform, I could collect all kinds of data and share it all over the world. If anyone blocked my data, the app just wouldn't work. Are you saying that you don't use any free social media apps? None? Because that's how they work. You have to pay for software and services. Either you pay with cash or you pay with data so that other people can potentially convert it into cash. But when you try to pick an choose network connections to block, the only people you are hurting are small, honest developers. The people you are trying to protect yourself against are quite unaffected.

True! but what about outcoming connections? The built-in firewall only takes care of incoming ones.

Don't install apps that establish nefarious outgoing connections.

😎

And you are able to inspect these data streams to confirm this? If you know, or think you know, which apps are doing this then don’t use those apps. Otherwise, you are interfering with the app and causing it not to work properly. Furthermore, you’ve given me a great idea for my own apps. I should setup an “analytics” server for my app. If that connection is blocked, but not other connections, then I know I’m behind one of these firewalls and can act accordingly by shutting down, not showing a review prompt, not allowing some features, etc. Thanks!