>>>Why does a firewall need to protect outbound traffic? I thought the purpose was only to handle inbound.
>>
>>Well, if some lovely thing like adware etc. gets into your computer it can pull data from your machine over the Internet. I like to control outbound traffic. :)
>
>Ahhh, personal stuff. Got it. How does a firewall know what shouldn't go out? Or is it more that it doesn't let anything out unless you specifically send it out?

Outbound firewalls will normally ask you to confirm a programs request to access the outside network.