Controlling Internet access

[Bill Stanley]

Recently on this discussion list, there was a tread about disallowing 
Internet access to certain programs.  The approach is essentially to 
maintain a list of blacklisted programs.  I think that this is looking 
at it all wrong.  Is there a way to maintain a list of programs that you 
trust on the Internet?  You see there are new programs written daily. 
How do you know if you can trust them?  My answer would be that you 
don't until they can be considered safe or at the very least, so 
essential that they must have Internet access.

Yes, this seems to be paranoid but the goal is to keep malware off your 
computer.  A program does not necessarily have to harm your computer, it 
might just send personal data which might be detrimental to you.

Bill Stanley