Tracker Database

The Tracker Database is the catalogue of telemetry and analytics servers built into Outbound, grouped by the company that runs them and by the apps that send to them. Open it from the sidebar under Lists › Trackers. The window title is Tracker Database. Looking something up reads only the built-in files. How connections are labelled from this catalogue is in Trackers and telemetry.

If the catalogue cannot be read, the pane says No Tracker Database and “The tracker list built into Outbound could not be read, so there is nothing to show.” The footer then says “No tracker database is loaded.”

Choosing companies or apps

A segmented control at the top of the list offers Companies and Apps. Companies is first. The word Show is the control’s label and is hidden; the two segments are the labels you see.

Companies are grouped by category. A row shows the company’s name and owner, a Seen on this Mac marker when your traffic reached one of its servers, and “1 server” or “N servers”. An empty catalogue says No Companies and “This tracker database lists no companies.” A search with no match uses the system search-empty view.

Apps are split into Apps and tools and Runtimes. The Runtimes footer says: “Many different programs run inside these, so Outbound does not block them as a whole.” An app row shows the maker’s name when there is one, and the same Seen marker. It does not show a server count. An empty list says No Apps and “This tracker database lists no apps.”

The toolbar search follows the view: “Search companies, servers and apps”, or “Search apps and servers”. In Companies, every word must appear in the company name, the owner, the category, a server pattern, or a linked app’s name. In Apps, every word must appear in the app name, the maker’s name, or a server pattern.

A company’s page

With nothing selected the detail says No Company Selected: “Choose a company to see its servers, what each is for, and which apps on this Mac reached them.”

The page then shows the company’s name, and its owner when that differs from the name. Then:

• Servers, headed by the count (“1 server” or “N servers”). Each pattern is monospaced and selectable. Under it: what it is for, what blocking it would do, and Reached from this Mac when it showed up in your traffic. A server Outbound only labels adds “Outbound labels it but never blocks it.” A server it never blocks adds “Outbound never blocks it.” A server that belongs to one app adds “Only for connections from (App).” From an app’s page, the company name is a link whose help is “Show (name) in the Tracker Database”.
• Apps on this Mac that reached it: programs the catalogue saw sending there, with Telemetry… on a program’s row in the Network Monitor, and Show in Network Monitor for this company’s servers.
• Blocking: one sentence for what Block known telemetry does to this company today. It can say Outbound never blocks the company’s servers because apps need them to work, that it labels them but does not block them, that some are needed and the rest are only labelled, that it knows no servers yet, that a category is left alone in Settings › Telemetry, that each server is used by one app only, that only runtimes use them, or that blocking them could turn off features or stop an app from working. When the switch is on, the sentence says how many of the company’s servers it blocks and which categories are turned off. Open Telemetry Settings opens that switch (Telemetry).
• Known apps: catalogue apps made by the company (“Made by (company)”) or sending to it (“Sends to (company)”).
• Links: Website and Privacy Policy, only for https addresses that have a host.
• Sources: “Last checked (date).” for each source that has a date.

An app’s page

With nothing selected the detail says No App Selected: “Choose an app to see its telemetry servers and how its maker says to turn them off.”

The page lists the app’s own telemetry servers, or “Outbound knows no telemetry servers of (name)’s own.” Each server opens its company. Turn it off in (App) lists the maker’s own documented switches, when there are any. On this Mac lists programs the catalogue recognised as this app, with their traffic and the telemetry sheet. Sources is the same date line as on a company.

The footer

The footer counts what you are reading: “Version (version) · N companies · N servers · N apps. Built into Outbound. Looking something up never sends anything.” One company, one server, or one app uses the singular. Suggest a Correction… opens a message to support@outboundfirewall.com. The subject and body already name the selected company or app, its servers, and the database version. Its help is “Write to Outbound’s support with the selected company or app filled in”. With nothing selected, the subject is “Tracker database correction”.