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Privacy for Mac 2.3.2 beta


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  • Staff

We have just released a new Privacy for Mac beta, version 2.3.2!

The new feature that we could really use help testing is Connection Rules, found under the General tab in the settings. (Note: Connection Rules is not currently available on macOS Catalina.)

Unlike on Windows, Connection Rules on Mac only allows you to set items that will be prevented from making network connections when the VPN is off. It's not possible with our current implementation to allow processes to bypass the VPN when it is turned on.

We ran into some significant complications with this feature on macOS, because of the way macOS tends to hand off tasks to other processes. For example, when you load a page in Safari, it's actually not the Safari process that's doing most of the work - it's actually a WebKit process located elsewhere. That meant that adding Safari itself to the block list did not work.

In the beta, it should work now, but there was some significant logic and new technology added to make that happen. Since it's more complex than expected, we could really use your help hammering on this.

Please test adding as many different apps as you can to the block list in Connection Rules, and make sure that the VPN behaves as expected (blocking the network for those apps when the VPN is off).

We'd also love to hear any feedback about general usability... not just related to Connection Rules, but for anything else you run into that you think is confusing, difficult to use, etc.

Thanks for everyone's help!

Installing the beta

To install the beta, you can do one of the following:

Enable early access mode, in the About tab of Privacy's settings. Then, click "Check for updates", and when the update appears, click the button again to install it.

-or-

Download from this link:

http://cdn.mwbsys.com/packages/macvpn-c.dmg.consumer/5/1/c/1/51c1249128c0275e9d2175ad2e8118d8/84d7746b-dc3a-47c6-8ecd-b52e61160857.dmg

Quit the current Privacy app (don't just close the window, make sure to quit the app itself, which will remove the Privacy icon from the menu bar), then open the downloaded .dmg file and drag the new copy of Privacy into the Applications folder.

Known issues (updated November 5)

  • There is an issue with some text in non-English languages; this will be fixed before release, there is no need to report
Edited by treed
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Hello Thomas:

Although the feature upgrade will be a valuable addition for others, I might be considering it only for banking later. The update was trouble-free & easy as usual. Upon opening the updated Malwarebytes Privacy, for me the choice of the Connection rules app or IP was slightly difficult and as innocuous as it seems, I just selected the Apple's Calculator app to allow completion.

IMHO, the beginning to average consumer must teach themselves to find the IP address which may be fraught with difficulty as opposed to the use of a URL. Infrequently, rotating IP addresses could be encountered, and added nesting only increases the degree of difficulty.

I updated early yesterday morning and I also ran with Malwarebytes Privacy 2.3.2.1164 enabled till now. I'll likely add my personal banking portal IP address this morning.

This update was made on a MBP11,3 running Big Sur 11.6.1 (20G224). Congratulations to the team for this thoughtful update!

Thank you.

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Hello Thomas:

Continuing... Malwarebytes Privacy 2.3.2.1164 seemed to operate as it should while running connected all of Friday and Saturday. I decided to use the IP of another financial institution and the Tor Browser 10.5.10 as the app. As expected, and with Malwarebytes Privacy unconnected, a connection could not be established with the IP I selected and my default browser just silently hung without notification.

Somewhat similarly, my Tor Browser app launched but I imagine my first handshake attempt was denied with the first Tor Node and hung with an error notification. Thank you.

HTH

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  • Staff

Thanks for the feedback! For the IP address entry, I agree with you, but unfortunately there are some pretty major technical hurdles with providing a URL instead. We're not ruling out that it could be done in the future, but this at least gives power users a way to block a particular address if the VPN is off.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • treed unpinned this topic

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