Lockdown Privacy Desktop

Most knowledgeable Mac users run multiple layers of protection on their devices from custom DNS configurations, custom firewalls, VPNs and ad blocking software in their browser. If you want a free, open-source firewall with preconfigured rules that places a minimal load on your computer, Lockdown Privacy Desktop and its companion iOS app Lockdown Privacy Ad blocker VPN do a great job on both platforms. The setup procedure is minimal, and the basic configuration is done for you. Lockdown also lets you create custom rules and is capable of blocking any site. I'm not recommending the paid VPN though because there are better and cheaper choices out there.

To be clear, there are firewalls out there with more features. The new release of Little Snitch is great and costs $59. Lulu is another option. It's free and open source but it's not preconfigured to block all of things Lockdown blocks. Getting Lulu set up takes several steps and making it work the way you want it to requires some technical know-how. Lockdown is a good option to set up if you are helping anyone with a Mac and they aren't comfortable with the more technical aspects of things. I put it on my mom's iMac.

Lockdown is certified by the Openly Operated foundation and every aspect of the product is 100% transparent, including code, infrastructure, privacy and security claims, and even company location and owners. All claims and information is backed by public proof that anyone can check, and verified by independent auditors. Lockdown was developed byDuet Display CEO Rahul Dewan and former iCloud engineer Johnny Lin.

The preconfigured rules block the following:

• Amazon Trackers
• Crypto mining
• Data Trackers
• Email Trackers
• Facebook Trackers
• Game marketing
• General marketing
• Google shopping
• Marketing trackers
• Ransomware
• Reporting
• Snapchat trackers
• WhatsApp trackers

In my testing, even with Little Snitch running 140,000 different rules, Lockdown still continued to find things to block on my Mac, mostly Google trackers. I won't go into a lot of detail on the iOS app but I'll just say my iPhone installation has blocked 82,000 trackers.