“We all need to protect our private data,” Thorin Klosowski writes for Lifehacker.
“But when you’re working with sensitive files, pictures, and your passwords, you want to ensure other people can’t easily get to it,” Klosowski writes. “Beyond that, with a Mac, even simple things like your text messages can pop up in someone else’s face if you’re not careful. For some of us, this can feel like a huge privacy issue, but thankfully OS X has tons of settings you can tweak to lock down your data, search results, and more.”
Klosowski writes, “Much of the default behavior in OS X is meant to make things easier for you, but it also means that if someone sits down at your computer they can accidentally come across a ton of stuff you might not want them to. Here are a few general settings worth tweaking…”
Read more in the full article – recommended – here.
Thorin seems a bit paranoid me thinks.
Yeah, there are like 1 or 2 good suggestions, and aside from that just turning shit off to the point it defeats much of the purpose behind the apple ecosystem. What the hell are the authors doing that make them THIS paranoid? They’re clearly tech illiterate as there are better ways to go about these issues, and probably closet drug dealers cheating on their spouses and watching gay porn.
Lots of bad advice in that article. Why is it “recommended?”
Odd – he considers that you would have somebody sitting at your computer using your account so therefore turn things like spotlight and messages off? I don’t let anybody sit at my computer using my account. If someone needs my computer, I either have them use the guest account, or set up a non-admin account for them which takes no time at all. And I can just delete it later.
Still wondering why Apple ships OS X with the firewall off. Years ago default was on and who decided that doing so was a good idea.
Probably too many complaints from newbies.
I 100% agree DavGreg. I’ve been ranting at Apple about it for at least five years.
The other bizarro thing Apple still does is include in Safari ‘General’ Preferences “Open “safe” files after downloading“. That setting SHOULD NOT EVEN EXIST. It’s begging for Trojan horse troubles! If someone comes across a Masque Attack Trojan, that setting will let the damned thing right in, welcome to PWNing.
Bad Apple! Bad!
I’m sorry to have to say this. But Thorin Klosowski’s article is vastly inadequate. I also find some of his tips questionable. I’d rather he talked about how to stop people from looking over your shoulder or accessing your Mac than have him suggest turning off Facetime and Messages.
What’s entirely missing is privacy over the Internet! That’s where we ALL are the most vulnerable. (Unless someone is an outright ‘LUSER’, that being someone who attracts security problems).
There are plenty of better articles about privacy that INCLUDE Internet privacy. One of these day’s I’ll be posting a few of my own.
May I politely recommend:
Part 1: Everybody can understand this part and HAS to do it
Part 2: More knowledgeable people get this part and will act
Part 3: For the real tech-people
Easy way is just disconnect from the Internet! Works for all OSes and keeps all your info secure to whoever has physical access to your computer. 🙂