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What’s the best Mac alternative then? I’d pay.
If you do anything involving voices, then iZotope RX8 Elements is fantastic and often on sale for $20. I used to used BIAS Peak Pro for 15 years and went through many, many options before finding the amazing RX app a few years ago, which I’ve upgraded to the Advanced version. Best audio editor I’ve ever used (for my needs) - cleans up decent audio into amazing stuff.

BTW on the rare occasions when I was using it I always found Audacity's GUI and user experience awful.
 
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Would it be prevented if one just disable internet access of the app from the firewall?
Maybe it's also time for desktop OS to have an easy setting to enable/disable network access of all apps just like smartphone OS.
 
Oh well. Saw this and went after all the files for deletion, crash reports found and not used it for many months.
My iMac is crashing a lot, quite a list in the crash report it gathered.
 
no

I can select VPN in LA or any VPN server in the world and set person would only see the VPN company IP address on their website or set websites grabbing IP address and not my real IP address.

But VPN will not help if you have spyware on your computer collecting lots of information and phoning home every day.

This software is spyware and collecting information and set person should just remove it. There is nothing person can do to stop it it just spyware and too risking to leave the software on the computer.

actually, you're the one that's wrong.

you're making an assumption the VPN has no ad blocking functionality. there's no reason it cannot block connections to the phone home addresses.
 
I ran it recently without knowing about this, but got no alerts from LittleSnitch, so... when exactly is it supposed to be phoning home?
Do you have the latest version?

I have Audacity on my Mac as well, but the last time I've updated it was probably 2 or 3 years ago.
 
Just the other day in news I read the police raided a VPN company because some hacker was using VPN to do attack on some business.

Well some VPN do logging and are mostly free VPN and the VPN you pay for it well they claim they do no logging but you only have their word for it. And I'm sure there are some VPN in the US who are own by the police.

Real hackers use VPN out side of the US and many VPNs and are mobile using mobile hotspots. To make tracing really hard.

But with cameras popping up every where now on the street and in the stores even this is not 100% proof you will not get caught. As if you sitting in park using mobile hotspot or in van by restaurant using their hotspot there may be video of you. As the cops raid the VPN company than other VPN company than other VPN company than to park or coffee shop than bring up the video.As every bar, restaurant, store, mall and just every where now has cameras.

Unless things have changed recently, VPN companies in the US must disclose all info to the authorities on request.
I don't, and I wouldn't, use an US based VPN company.


 
Red Giant, Magic Bullet Plugins are always in my Activity Monitor running background processes 24-7.

What else could that be for but collecting data? Either I downloaded a virus using the software, or it's built into the software and people aren't noticing.
 
That may have been the case when it launched, but not anymore. Never trust Tor.

Anyway we can probably count on more “open source” software getting bought out and hijacked from now on. Sadly this is becoming the new normal.
Huh? First I’ve heard about ‘never trust tor’. What are you referring too?
There have been the odd issue and exit nodes compromised etc, but it’s still extremely secure and anonymous (as much as one can be) as long as you take care yourself with what you do. There is nothing better than tor for this, and you can verify it yourself, you needn’t trust anyone.
 
I ran it recently without knowing about this, but got no alerts from LittleSnitch, so... when exactly is it supposed to be phoning home?
I just checked also with v3.0.2 and it doesn't use the network at all. Looked at my LittleSnitch rules and there was nothing there so it never did. Note to self, copy current version to new M1 Mini when I finally decide to make the move.
 
no

I can select VPN in LA or any VPN server in the world and set person would only see the VPN company IP address on their website or set websites grabbing IP address and not my real IP address.

But VPN will not help if you have spyware on your computer collecting lots of information and phoning home every day.

This software is spyware and collecting information and set person should just remove it. There is nothing person can do to stop it it just spyware and too risking to leave the software on the computer.

Correct. A VPN helps because it masks your IP address to the world.
You are also correct regarding an app's spyware potential. The data collects at the source and is almost certainly packaged above L3. A VPN isn't likely to have effect on that.
 
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Unless things have changed recently, VPN companies in the US must disclose all info to the authorities on request.
I don't, and I wouldn't, use an US based VPN company.


It's getting to the point that I am not sure it's safe to us any US based software that is not open source.
 
Damn, and I was just getting ready to download and use it for the first time in years. I’d been putting it off for a few months…

is there an easy way to get ahold of an older version?
 
MuseScore's privacy notice seems pretty similar:


I agree that it's probably blown out of proportion by free software evangelists, but collecting geo-location data seems unnecessary.

It may be blown out of proportion but the gut reaction concern of people is warranted given the huge depth of the Surveillance Retail industry.
To some extent a bunch of these companies must be thinking 'what did we do? This is standard operating procedure in the industry. Put out "free" software, the software gathers your habits-thoughts-movements-words you use(among others), we use that for ad monetization revenue. This is how we pay for your free software'.
It's an understandable state of mind for some of these companies. It had been going of for years unabated. Unfortunately for them, the tide is turning to some degree (if it is not Google or Facebook). This huge ad industry of surveilling you through your smartphones/pcs/etc shouldn't have ever got so far off the ground to begin with. And the more companies that come around to that, the better off we ("we" meaning those who don't want to be surveilled by our devices) are.
Companies can still surveil those who don't care about it, can still offer ad free paid option, or they're going to have to put up ads the old fashioned way (non surveillance ads).
 
Just the other day in news I read the police raided a VPN company because some hacker was using VPN to do attack on some business.

Well some VPN do logging and are mostly free VPN and the VPN you pay for it well they claim they do no logging but you only have their word for it. And I'm sure there are some VPN in the US who are own by the police.

Real hackers use VPN out side of the US and many VPNs and are mobile using mobile hotspots. To make tracing really hard.

But with cameras popping up every where now on the street and in the stores even this is not 100% proof you will not get caught. As if you sitting in park using mobile hotspot or in van by restaurant using their hotspot there may be video of you. As the cops raid the VPN company than other VPN company than other VPN company than to park or coffee shop than bring up the video.As every bar, restaurant, store, mall and just every where now has cameras.

Logless VPN is the only VPN to use IMHO. If a VPN company is keeping a user log, I don't see enough benefit to using that VPN. But if logless, that will be part of their terms of service. So that's one serious sticky criminal and civil wicket to put a company/its officers in on fraudulently operating against their ToS. So chances of bankruptcy and jail are excellent motivators for logless to be actually logless.
Important for users to understand:
VPN completely masks your IP address.
VPN logless doesn't keep a record of your 'IP address to the VPN address/masked IP address' traffic.
Apps you have installed on the source device that record and send granular data on you, this app will almost certainly operate just as intended regardless of VPN.
Don't install these apps in the first place if you are looking to maintain as much privacy as possible. If the app has a paid version that states in TOS no tracking, go with that. Otherwise, at minimum make use of the built in privacy controls on your iOS device.
 
Anyway we can probably count on more “open source” software getting bought out and hijacked from now on. Sadly this is becoming the new normal.

I think the confusion here is there some open source projects run by company and others done by one man show or group of people living in there parents home and adding some code here and there.

So the confusion is software X had 2,000 people living at there parents home vs software Y of 400 people in company making open source projects. Where company bought it from.

Because than how can you buy code from 2,000 people or 5,000 living at home adding some code here and there. As it not company and those 2,000 people or 5,000 do not own it and cannot sell it.
 
actually, you're the one that's wrong.

you're making an assumption the VPN has no ad blocking functionality. there's no reason it cannot block connections to the phone home addresses.
I think you mean VPN that have some firewall function.

As it not ads that is problem here as he has software on the computer collecting information and phoning home every day. And just like windows 10 will phone home every day.You do not need your browser open it will by pass the browser.

Well spending all the time to have spyware software on your computer and trying to block it and hope 90% of the information does not go through is not the best way.

If he must have that software he may want to look for older version of it before the company bought it.
 
If you’re trying to hide from the law and/or be anonymous, then Tor is the only way to go.
If you trust the tor browser and tor network.

And assuming that it is safe and the government and police do not raid it or try to out some tracking software.
 
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Unless things have changed recently, VPN companies in the US must disclose all info to the authorities on request.
I don't, and I wouldn't, use an US based VPN company.


You really have to use VPN out side of the US in countries that do not play nice with the US.

As any VPN company could get raided by police or run by the police.
 
If you trust the tor browser and tor network.

And assuming that it is safe and the government and police do not raid it or try to out some tracking software.
You don’t need to trust either of them. The tor browser is open source and verifiable, and the network is distributed and open. All you have to do it follow the rules and take care of how you approach your browsing habits.

The police can still ‘get you’ if they target you personally and you slip up, but that’s about it really.

Waxing lyrical about VPNs is folly whilst dismissing Tor when the very nature of any VPN is centralised. There are an abundance of extremely shady VPN companies, and very few trustworthy ones, I only have one which I fully trust, and even that relies on my trusting what they say about logging!
Tor doesn’t have that limitation, being a decentralised network means trust is irrelevant and trust of the browser is verifiable.
 
You don’t need to trust either of them. The tor browser is open source and verifiable, and the network is distributed and open. All you have to do it follow the rules and take care of how you approach your browsing habits.

The police can still ‘get you’ if they target you personally and you slip up, but that’s about it really.

Waxing lyrical about VPNs is folly whilst dismissing Tor when the very nature of any VPN is centralised. There are an abundance of extremely shady VPN companies, and very few trustworthy ones, I only have one which I fully trust, and even that relies on my trusting what they say about logging!
Tor doesn’t have that limitation, being a decentralised network means trust is irrelevant and trust of the browser is verifiable.
Not sure what you mean by the network is distributed and open.
 
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