Important Problem: How To Prevent App From Calling Home?

Is it possible for me to check if OpenOffice has uploaded any information to the Internet?

Thank you!

Have a look at this thread on the MDL site and see if it can help to quickly block what you want

Windows Firewall with Advanced Security | My Digital Life Forums

Without me buying another app, is it possible for me to double check that OpenOffice is unable to contact the Internet?

Start Menu / Administrative Tools / Resource Monitor - Click on the Network Tab, look for one of the .exe (soffice.exe , swriter.exe, etc)

Is it possible for me to check if OpenOffice has uploaded any information to the Internet?

Short Answer is No. To my knowledge the only thing Open Office might upload is a crash report (if it has crashed) and it ask you if it can do that.

Eagle51 said:

Short Answer is No. To my knowledge the only thing Open Office might upload is a crash report (if it has crashed) and it ask you if it can do that.

Thanks!

Is it really true that open source projects are more secure because more eyes have seen the code so it's less likely for there to be a "back door" to the Internet like what I'm describing?

NiceAndShy said:

Thanks!

Is it really true that open source projects are more secure because more eyes have seen the code so it's less likely for there to be a "back door" to the Internet like what I'm describing?

Yes, it is really true.

TairikuOkami said:

Theoretically yes, practically no. OpenSSL is free SSL used for banking and etc and there has been a simple bug for years....

As you say yourself it was a *bug* not a backdoor, and the OP was asking about the fact that it's less likely that there
is a back door in a open source program;
so i think the OP is right and that it is more simple to hide a back door in a executable no one can inspect the code of
or it's less likely to find an open source back door.

TairikuOkami said:

Theoretically yes, practically no. OpenSSL is free SSL used for banking and etc and there has been a simple bug for years. It was discoverable within minutes, but no one has found it, because everyone was saying, it is open source, if there is a bug, someone will find it, anyone but me and SSL is only a few KBs big, OO has several hundreds MBs of code. You should not trust open source blindly.

Thanks for your input! This is definitely interesting.

I'm still trying to find a way to lock down the OpenOffice app so I can know for sure that it's unable to contact the internet.

Should I look into using a different app?

Instead of using OpenOffice for this, is there another app people can recommend that will ensure the security of my personal notes?

I just want something that's ironclad.