Revealing operating systems and software

As we know, Microsoft's Windows and some of the applications written for it contact your manufacturer unnoticed when connected to the Internet.

The compilation of the German magazine Macwelt shows that Macintosh users are no exception. Operating systems and software are increasingly sending information that mostly reports on how they work, but in some cases they also transmit user personal information.

The purpose of the feature called phoning home is primarily to check the validity and authorization of programs, but so software vendors can also access some of the user's data. The biggest problem with this procedure is that in most cases, this data traffic is not given enough encryption, so it can be an easy prey for data thieves.

There are several ways to defend against this, but contrary to popular belief, a firewall does not solve this problem. Turning off the automatic connection for programs that appear on the Internet for some reason (such as a software update) helps a lot. There are also free or paid programs Windows and For Mac OS, which protect our computer from this type of unsolicited data traffic.