[brco]

If there is no known or viable spyware for my Imac Intel 20" why do I need an application such as Little Snitch to keep me safe? Why do I need an application to keep the bad guys from phoning home if there aren't (supposedly) any bad guys? Do I really need a program to tell me Firefox or Turbotax or OS X is checking for updates?

Any thoughts on this will be appreciated.

[mduell]

No. I don't even use an app like that on 'dows.

[Chuckit]

It is not necessary. It is occasionally useful if you are concerned about applications phoning home.

[eatinwokout]

I was always a little weary of applications which stored sensitive notes having the ability to phone home. The only reason I run the Snitch.

[Mac Write]

I love it. In Safari when I go to sites like tv.com it wants to connect to some server on a X,XXX port for some odd reason (ads) so I deny it. Very useful for controlling what goes out of your computer. Of course apps like Skype, World of Warcraft have to be given free range since they connect to unlimited number of nodes and servers.

[Tee]

There are ways of exploiting OS X but they are below the radar of most of the anti-virus apps like NAV and ClamXav.

Little Snitch would be useless against even basic malware implemented via an InputManager...

These types of apps do exist but not on a wide scale. They are used mostly in targeted situations against specific targets.
This is even worse than the situation in Windows because at least there are tools to remove and detect PC malware.

On the Mac no one believes that there is any such thing, so there are no protections for it.