macOS privacy tool ratings
Tools that harden macOS systems.
8 macOS hardening are rated against 4 public criteria, and 8 have enough evidence for a letter grade. Of the 6 with a known jurisdiction, 5 are based in a Five Eyes country, and 5 in the wider Fourteen Eyes.
Open-source macOS hardening only · Criteria for this category · Suggest an addition · Markdown
| Name | Grade | Score | Data | Jurisdiction | Open source | No trackers or telemetry | No ads or data sales | Independent audit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A free macOS tool from Objective-See that monitors common persistence locations and alerts when software tries to install itself to run at startup. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
A free macOS tool from Objective-See that lists software installed to run persistently, such as launch agents, login items and extensions, to help find malware. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
A free macOS tool from Objective-See that alerts when the microphone or webcam is turned on and shows which process is using it. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
A command-line tool that configures macOS firewall, logging, sharing and other security settings. It was designed for older macOS releases. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
A binary and file access authorization system for macOS that allows or blocks apps by hash, signing certificate or team ID. Created at Google and now maintained by North Pole Security. |
Grade D | 50 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | Yes | No | Yes | No |
LuLu Firewalls Free, open-source firewall for macOS that blocks unknown outgoing connections and asks the user to allow or deny each new one. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Radio Silence Firewalls Paid network monitor and outbound firewall for macOS that lists every app's connections and blocks chosen apps from reaching the internet. |
Grade D | 50 | 100% | – | No | Yes | Yes | No |
Little Snitch Firewalls Application firewall for macOS that alerts on outgoing connections and lets users allow or deny network access per app and per server, with a map of connections. |
Grade F | 35 | 100% | Austria Outside Eyes | No | Partial | Yes | No |
Questions
What is the most private option among macOS hardening?
No pick has been made yet. The table above is sorted by score, based on public evidence.
How are macOS hardening rated?
Each entry answers 4 questions: open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales and independent audit. Answers need links to evidence. See the full criteria.
Does jurisdiction matter?
Jurisdiction decides which laws can compel a provider to hand over data. Each entry shows its country and whether it is in the Five, Nine or Fourteen Eyes. The data a provider can hand over depends mostly on what it stores and who holds the keys. Read about jurisdictions and the CLOUD Act.