Little Snitch Research Assistant — Privacy Statement

The Research Assistant in Little Snitch 7 and later helps you decide whether to allow or deny a connection by providing information about what a process is, why it may be connecting, and what might happen if you block it. Because Little Snitch exists to protect your privacy, the assistant was designed to send only what is needed to answer that question, and only when you explicitly ask.

Nothing is sent unless you ask

The assistant is idle until you use it. It is never triggered automatically and does not run in the background. You request information about one specific connection at a time, and before anything leaves your Mac you can see exactly what will be sent by clicking the “What will be transmitted?” link in the Research Assistant interface.

What is sent

A request describes the two ends of a single connection:

• The process: its name, plus the code identifier and team identifier from its code signature. The name alone is not trustworthy, since malicious software can adopt the name of a legitimate app. The signature information reliably distinguishes between identically named processes and can help the assistant detect and report an impersonation attempt.
• The server: either its hostname or, when no hostname is known for the connection, its IP address. The request states which of the two it is.
• Connection details: the port number, the transport protocol, and whether the connection is inbound or outbound. These help the assistant work out what kind of service is involved and what the connection is likely for.
• Requesting component: which part of Little Snitch asked, for example a connection alert.
• Language: your language, as a two-letter code, so the answer can be written in the language you use.

Nothing else is transmitted. In particular, a request contains no file paths, no user or account name, no license key, no device or installation identifier, and no contents of your network traffic. Your other connections, rules, and settings are never sent.

Where your request goes

Your request is sent over an encrypted connection to a server operated by Objective Development in the European Union. If the server does not yet have information about that connection, it researches the connection using an external AI service provider (currently Anthropic). The server then returns the answer to you. Your Mac never contacts the AI provider directly, and Objective Development has opted out of having the data used for training.

What is stored, and what is not

Our web server keeps standard access logs for three months. Unlike other log entries, those for Research Assistant requests record neither your IP address nor the content of your request. Nothing in our records links the connection you asked about to you.

Answers are cached so that common questions can be answered instantly. A cache entry contains only the request details described above and the corresponding answer. It contains nothing that identifies who asked. If another user asks about the same connection, they receive the cached answer and no request is sent to the AI provider at all.

No account required

Using the assistant requires no user account, no registration, and no API key of your own. It is included in your license at no additional cost.

What the assistant cannot promise

Answers are generated by an AI model and may be incomplete or wrong. Treat them as input for your own judgment, not as a verified statement of what a program does. You always make the final decision about whether to allow or deny a connection.

Your rights and contact

Objective Development Software GmbH (Große Schiffgasse 1a/7, 1020 Vienna, AUSTRIA) is the controller for this processing. Contact us at https://obdev.at/support/ with any questions about access, deletion, or other data protection matters. See also our general Privacy Policy.