NETMUTE PRESS KIT Balane GmbH, Munich, Germany Last updated: 10 September 2026 Online version, always current: https://www.netmute.com/press Everything in this kit is cleared for use in articles, videos and newsletters. No embargo, no approval needed. ================================================================ AT A GLANCE ================================================================ Product NetMute What it is A per-app firewall and tracker blocker for the Mac, run from the menu bar. Maker Balane GmbH, Munich, Germany. Built by one person, Jonas Hoettler. Requirements macOS 26 (Tahoe) or later. Version 2.3.4 Price Free to download. NetMute Pro is a one-time purchase. Two shops, two amounts: 19,99 EUR / 17.99 USD as an in-app purchase in the Mac App Store, and a direct licence with an invoice sold through the site. Five and ten seat licences exist. No subscription, no account. netmute.com/press always carries the current figures; please check them there before printing. Availability Mac App Store worldwide, and directly from netmute.com with a licence key. Languages 47. App Store https://apps.apple.com/app/id6759836552 Website https://www.netmute.com Press contact j@hoettler.com ================================================================ DESCRIPTIONS, READY TO PASTE ================================================================ ONE LINE NetMute is a menu bar firewall for the Mac: see what every app sends, and cut it off in one click. SHORT (55 words) NetMute is a firewall for the Mac that works per app. It lists every program talking to the internet, names the servers behind each connection, and lets you cut any of them off from the menu bar. Its Tracker Shield blocks known tracking domains system-wide. Free to download, with a one-time purchase for the full feature set. LONG (150 words) NetMute is a per-app firewall and tracker blocker for the Mac. It sits in the menu bar and answers a question macOS itself does not: which program is talking to whom, right now, and how much. Every connection is resolved to a readable service name, sorted by what it is after (advertising, analytics, telemetry, fingerprinting, or a function the app genuinely needs), and can be blocked with one switch. NetMute also builds a picture over time: traffic per app, per day and per network, a privacy grade per app, and a map of the countries a Mac talks to. Analysis happens on the Mac, and nothing about the traffic is uploaded unless a clearly marked option is switched on. NetMute is free to download; NetMute Pro is a one-time in-app purchase with no subscription and no account. It is made by Balane GmbH in Munich. BOILERPLATE Balane GmbH is a software company in Munich, Germany, founded by Jonas Hoettler. It builds Mac and iOS software, of which NetMute is the largest. Press contact: j@hoettler.com ================================================================ NUMBERS YOU CAN QUOTE, AND WHERE THEY COME FROM ================================================================ 381 Curated tracker domains NetMute blocks out of the box. Source: tracker_domains.json in the shipped app has 584 entries, 381 of them classified as tracking. A test pins the number so it cannot drift unnoticed. 50 Of those, the number the free version blocks: the most active ones. Source: trackerShieldFreeLimit in the app. 37,847 Domains on the block list once the optional public lists are switched on (Hagezi plus EasyPrivacy, Balanced level), measured 4 September 2026. This number moves with the lists. 47 Languages the app ships in, 1,220 strings each. 346/75/1 Tracker names actually blocked in Safari, Chrome and Brave on one Mac, measured 9 September 2026 against real block records. See "Where NetMute does and does not reach". 0 Bytes of traffic content NetMute can read. It sees names, sizes and destinations, never payloads. ================================================================ WHERE NETMUTE DOES AND DOES NOT REACH ================================================================ It blocks by name, not by content. NetMute reads the destination of a connection, its size and its timing. It never reads what is inside, and it could not: the traffic is encrypted and NetMute does not attempt to break that. Browsers that do their own encrypted DNS. NetMute learns a server's name from the Mac's name resolution. Safari is covered twice, through the network filter and through a Safari extension. Chrome, Edge and Arc are covered through NetMute's DNS proxy. A browser that resolves names over its own encrypted DNS (Brave, by default) hides the name, and there the tracker blocking does not bite. NetMute says so in the app rather than claiming coverage it does not have. "Nothing leaves the Mac" has two exceptions, both off by default. The optional public block lists are downloaded from their maintainers, which reveals an IP address to them like any web request. And an unknown tracker name can be reported back to us, with explicit consent for each report, carrying the tracker name and nothing about the user. It is not a VPN and not an antivirus. NetMute routes no traffic anywhere, hides no address, scans no files. macOS 26 only. It relies on system extensions that only current macOS provides. ================================================================ ASSETS IN THIS ZIP ================================================================ screenshots/netmute-store-*.jpg Six App Store frames, 2880x1800, headline baked in. Good lead images. screenshots/netmute-ui-*.png Raw app windows, 2400px wide, light and dark. No headline, no framing. netmute-icon-1024.png App icon, 1024x1024, transparent. netmute-icon-512.png Same at 512x512. Icon and name: NetMute is one word, capital N and capital M. The paid tier is NetMute Pro. The icon may be scaled and placed on any background, but please do not recolour, stretch or add effects to it. The company is Balane GmbH; NetMute is the product. ================================================================ REVIEW COPY ================================================================ The app is free, so it needs no code. For NetMute Pro, a mail to j@hoettler.com naming the outlet gets a Mac App Store promo code, usually the same day. No conditions: we do not ask to see the piece first.