Privacy in MacOS: How to configure your Operating System to take control of your data? step by step guide

Be confident that thanks to our operating system that we use on our Mac we are safe from any action of intrudersit is probably a major mistake to think like this today.

While it is true that MacOS is considered one of the safest operating systems that exist today, but unfortunately these considerations are often not enough, there are malware and adware that pass through a Mac with total peace of mind.

In this post we will analyze everything related to security within a Mac, we will show you what tools exist to increase the security level of our computer.

Why is it important to maintain our privacy on the Internet?

When browsing the Internet network, we leave our traces on the different pages we go through.

These traces are neither more nor less than our personal dataour IP address, our preferences, where on a page we click and many other things.

The place to store that sensitive information is cookies. These junk files connect, according to the codes with which they were developed, with third parties, which can be companies or people. These third parties collect all this data and use it to make invasive advertisements, know what products or services we prefer, favorite places we visit, among other things.

A more important problem is that through these cookies they could access our computergenerating a true chaos in our most direct data, in addition to breaking the equipment.

When we take steps to protect our virtual privacy, we are actually protecting ourselves and our loved ones.

Identifying the problems What are the main privacy vulnerabilities in MacOS?

MacOS is a very reliable and resilient operating system, but it also has some security-related vulnerabilities.

According to this point of view, we can identify the problems according to these weaknesses that the operating system presents. They are:

IP addresses

When we talk about the IP, we have to refer to the fact that the MacOS operating system has a weak point due to the design that any IP presents, since the protocol transports data packets, but also sends other very valuable information to other different protocols.

The way these protocols work also provides information that third parties can access, and the MacOS operating system still can’t fix it.

The Navigator

Through the browser you can install different kinds of data in the cookie folderso having data that we have not authorized to enter is already quite an issue.

Although it is true MacOS provides us with the possibility of not allowing the access to this folder from Internet siteswe should keep in mind that in this way many websites will not work properly, so the user experience is affected considerably.

The cookies

Subject related to the previous point, MacOS does not automatically delete cookies, so these small files are permanently providing our information to third parties. They can access them through the different designs and developments that have the same cookies to be able to send them and thus act accordingly later.

MacOS has not yet been able to solve this problem to avoid cookies and thus be able to increase our computer security.

the scripts

Our security is compromised through XSS, from English “Cross-site Scripting“, commonly called Script. These files work based on the trust that we have to certain sites.

The work that these scripts have, fortunately, depends on the user’s action, since they are necessary for the user’s approval to be executed..

The way they work is to execute some alert message, on the page that we trust, and force us to enter our data. This information is stolen by third parties and has negative consequences for us and our team.

MacOS beyond all the security it offers, one of its most important weaknesses and requested by all users is that these files can be avoided.

Announcements

The advertisements are a consequence of all the previous topics that we have been talking about, since they are directed directly at us with an important insistence.

When companies know what our needs or tastes are, they begin to send us advertisements that become really invasive, making us vulnerable and sometimes agreeing to accept their proposals.

An advertisement is a security problem when, much like the Script, we enter the advertiser’s page and dump the personal information they need about us.

Steps to increase our online privacy and protect our personal information on MacOS

There are different recommendations so that our security is protected and also our operating system.

We will then begin to show you the best steps to increase our privacy:

Encrypt the IP address

In order to understand a little why we should encrypt our IP First we should know that when we browse different websites and enter their URL, the DNS server translates that domain and converts it into an IP.

It is at this moment, in where there is communication on the network between our IP and the IP which we want to access, is where the greatest vulnerability occurs since our IP can be intercepted in the DNS server.

So that this does not happen we will have to encrypt the IP for this we will need to do downloading a VPN.

Choose a safe browser

Among the benefits offered by unknown browsers is the speed with which they work, initially this would be very good, but it brings a more than important consequence, many of them the only thing they do is enter our operating system and install spy files to steal information.

When we access the Internet with a secure or trusted browser, what we are doing is knowing how they handle their cookie policies, we can also know which are the folders in which their temporary or browsing files are downloaded.

block cookies

We have previously mentioned a small part of this topic. Our security will increase when we block cookies.

Cookies are nothing more than small data or information that is installed in our browser initially to remember our data and not have to reload them when we enter an Internet page again.

But cookies do not always work to improve our user experience, but there are also third-party cookies that use them as spy files.

Next, We will show you the steps so you can delete according to the browser you use.

For Safari:

• safari menu
• preferences
• Security
• show cookies
• delete all
• To accept

For Firefox:

• Tools
• Options
• Privacy
• cookies
• show cookies
• cookies
• Delete all cookies
• To accept
• Accept to be able to close “Options“

For Opera:

• Opera
• Tools
• Delete personal information
• Details of the options
• erase all traces
• We deactivate “Private data“that we don’t need to remove
• Remove
• Block third party scripts

block ads

There are different ways to block ads when using a MacOS operating system.

Among the best alternatives we present the following:

• Install an ad blockerthere are very good blockers on different sites, which are extensions to the browser and do not allow us to see advertisements when we are browsing.
• Block pop-upsalthough here we could have a little problem when we browse because not all pop-ups are advertisements.

To be able to block the windows we will carry out these steps:

• Safari
• preferences
• Security
• Block pop-ups

When we have pop-up windows blocked and we need to unblock those from a particular site, the browser will notify us that it has blocked a window, we will click on it and we will set the permission so that that particular site can offer us pop-up windows.

If we use Google Chrome as a browser on our Mac we can block pop-up windows as follows:

• Chrome
• preferences
• Advanced configuration
• Privacy & Security
• Content Settings
• Pop-ups and redirects
• Block (recommended)

Activate reader mode in Safarithis will allow us to have on our screen only the format for comfortable reading.

To be able to configure the reader mode we will carry out these steps:

• Display
• show reader

The problem with this topic is that not all Internet sites always have reading mode enabled.

Enable blocking of website trackingin this way we can avoid the installation of cookies in our MacOS.

In order to perform this configuration, we will do these steps:

• Safari
• Privacy
• Ask websites not to track me

enable firewall

The activation of firewalls is very useful since they work by blocking different programs or data blocks that do not meet previously determined specifications.

The disadvantage that we could have with this type of tool is that, at some point, we need to work with data that does not meet the specifications that we gave to the firewall. So this software or hardware will block that data that we are requiring.

List of the best programs to keep our privacy to the maximum in MacOS

We are going to give you a list of the best programs to make the MacOS operating system safe from the presence of intruders.

These programs are:

Adblock Plus for Safari

This tool provides blocking of ads and any appearance of banners or pop-ups on our internet screens. Completely free to install, its steps are very intuitive, so you don’t need a lot of experience to be able to use it correctly.

Safer VPN – Fast & Easy VPN

With this application we can change the location of the IP, we have unlimited access to internet siteswe can connect anonymously to different servers, we will become invisible to all other members of the network to which we are connected.

It also offers to prohibit the monitoring of websites as well as to have our identity protected before the access doors of WiFi networks.

Star VPN: Proxy & Security App

It is a paid version offering us around €9 per month or a membership of €34 per year.

With this tool we will not only be able to make ads but also have our secure VPN and be able to configure different tools offered by this app according to our needs.

X-VPN – Unlimited VPN Proxy

This application offers 500 MB for free to be able to download and manage any information that we need on the Internet. If this limit is reached, we must subscribe to the Premium service, with which we will not allow the entry of cookies and other files into our system.

Among the functions that this service fulfills, we can mention that there are 9 protocols that we can choose from and if we want to save money we can install this application on up to 5 different devices.

It offers the possibility of scanning the network to which we are connected and discovering if there are people who are not authorized.

HotspotShield VPN & Wi-Fi Proxy

It offers us 7 days of trial to evaluate its performance and we can cancel our subscription at any time for freebeing able to rest easy during this period because adware and malware will be blocked.

The tools that this powerful software has allow us to quickly navigate through more than 3, servers in more than 70 countries. It has a 24-hour user support service.

Surf Easy

The cost of this service is €4 per month prior to this period we have a 7-day free trial. It allows configuration through the personal needs that we have.

It is a software with an elegant interface and It allows you to take advantage of all the power features that our Mac has.

VpnOneClick Pro

The VPN servers that this application offers are available in 51 countries, I did a monthly trial of €4 and if we wanted to register annually we can do it by paying €23 per year.

When we connect to a virtual private network server we are protecting our security since it also allows us to delete cookies.

thunder bird

It is also a virtual private network blocker, offering cookie blocking and cleaning of any intrusive files. It has settings with which we can do our analysis automatically or manually.

The cost of the subscription is €11 per month, offering us a promotion of €24 for 3 months or €58 per year.

SafeIn Cloud

It is an integrator who works with the browser and you can perform the automatic import of our data thus allowing the administration of each of the passwords that we have on our Mac.

It works by synchronizing the database that we have with the cloud, thus protecting it from any spyware that has entered our computer.

Advanced System Cleaner

This app can scan the most hidden corners that exist in our MacOS operating system finding those data that many times cannot be found by other antiviruses. Remove viruses and duplicate files among other tasks.