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latexryesterday at 9:42 AM1 replyview on HN

Depends on the target and what you can get. Think about Bartender, an app requiring an insanely high level of trust and permissions, which was quietly sold.

If you know of someone specific you want to target who uses it, the investment could pay off.

For example, we know from your blog posts that you use LittleSnitch. Someone who wanted to target you might do a lot to spy on you by buying LittleSnitch, probably.

Think of your own apps, too. I don’t think you’d do the same that Ben Surtees did and sell everything in secret, but then again I don’t personally know you. You may have a price that I’m not aware of. For that reason alone, even as I trust the current code is not nefarious, I can never give StopTheMadness access to every website and can only use it selectively, which is inconvenient.


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lapcatyesterday at 10:04 AM

> Depends on the target and what you can get. Think about Bartender,

As I said in another comment, Bartender had no target! It was not an attack. An app was sold by one developer to another developer. End of story.

> If you know of someone specific you want to target who uses it

But you don't. And you don't in the case of Little Snitch either.

You can dream up a bunch of absurd hypothetical scenarios, but they are not the reality.

> Someone who wanted to target you

Nobody wants to target me. Nobody cares about me. I am insignificant.

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