Apple-centric guide to improve privacy and security
gacallea.github.io
Apple-centric guide to improve privacy and security
1–10 of 15 posts
Re: Apple-centric guide to improve privacy and security
#2I know that the link isn't inviting at all, so here's a brief description:
In this Apple-user-orientend and safari-and-mail-centric guide to improve privacy, security, and speed for the Average Joe online experience, I suggest some small tricks, extensions, applications and components for both macOS an iOS. Based on this preamble, I don’t pretend to be writing the perfect guide. I just want to share what I find useful from this perspective and hope that it can be helpful to someone else. If you have better options and they are compatible with my premise I’d like to hear about them, if you please sharing them.
Re: Apple-centric guide to improve privacy and security
#3This is a really good article. Thank you gacallea. I have read many guides of this sort, and most of them are trivial or full of general common sense stuff I already knew. This is the first guide of its type that had information that was both new and useful to me.
Re: Apple-centric guide to improve privacy and security
#4I came across this Mac specific guide on GitHub which looks intense - https://github.com/drduh/macOS-Security-and-Privacy-Guide
Though doesn't anyone else find it sad that we need guides for the expectation of some privacy on supposedly "our own" computers?
Re: Apple-centric guide to improve privacy and security
#5I know that the link isn't inviting at all, so here's a brief description: In this Apple-user-orientend and safari-and-mail-centric guide to improve privacy, security, and speed for the Average Joe online experience, I suggest some small tricks, extensions, applications and components for both macOS an iOS. Based on this preamble, I don’t pretend to be writing the perfect guide. I just want to share what I find usefu…
Thanks, I skimmed through it all (took me 5mins) and nice work! Some of the links and guides you’re referring to are indeed very helpful.
The thing that surprised me the most, however, was your recommendation for antivirus bitdefender. I think that’s not going to really help the average Joe but only give a false sense of security. Moreover, if I am concerned about privacy I wouldn’t want to install an all seeing software that is closed source and provides no control over what is shared with the parent company (which is russian?)
I can’t seem to find more links to the antivirus related argument (on mobile here) but in general folks on HN tend to strongly advise against using one.
Re: Apple-centric guide to improve privacy and security
#6Has anyone written up something like this for a Linux and Android setup?
Re: Apple-centric guide to improve privacy and security
#7Cookie 5 and WifiSpoof look interesting, but USD 20 each is steep.
To spoof your MAC address from the terminal, this used to work (until next reboot), but haven't tried it in High Sierra (use the correct interface (en0, en1, en2)):
sudo ifconfig en0 ether aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff
Re: Apple-centric guide to improve privacy and security
#8Note that your ISP can see/log your internet history regardless of which Dns server you use (unless of course you use a Vpn/Tor.)
So be aware that using a Dns server other than your isp-provided-one, will result in giving your dns lookups to yet another third party (the public dns provider) without gaining an advantage. It might actually decrease privacy.
Therefor, in my opinion, it only makes sense to do this if for whatever reason you distrust your ISP to mess with your dns lookups (censoring etc.)
Re: Apple-centric guide to improve privacy and security
#9I know that the link isn't inviting at all, so here's a brief description: In this Apple-user-orientend and safari-and-mail-centric guide to improve privacy, security, and speed for the Average Joe online experience, I suggest some small tricks, extensions, applications and components for both macOS an iOS. Based on this preamble, I don’t pretend to be writing the perfect guide. I just want to share what I find usefu…
Thanks, I skimmed through it all (took me 5mins) and nice work! Some of the links and guides you’re referring to are indeed very helpful. The thing that surprised me the most, however, was your recommendation for antivirus bitdefender. I think that’s not going to really help the average Joe but only give a false sense of security. Moreover, if I am concerned about privacy I wouldn’t want to install an all seeing soft…
In my experience, most anti-virus software is very poorly written. They don’t practice safe coding methods themselves.
Moreover, even if it was well-written, because of the nature of what you’re asking the software to do, it will have full and complete access to everything on your system, and usually with significant privileges. So, that would make it a very juicy target for malware writers, if nothing else.
For non-savvy computer users, Bitdefender is the only anti-virus software I would trust, but for more savvy computer users, even Bitdefender might be more of a risk than it is worth.
So, are you computer savvy enough that you know the risks presented by even the best anti-virus software, and would be better off without it? If you are, then maybe you’re not part of the target audience for this page.
Re: Apple-centric guide to improve privacy and security
#10TLDR:
* use like a dozen Adblockers likely all using the same filter lists slowing the browser down
* use some Antivirus from Russia to grant access to your whole system
* use a third party vpn client for the one built into iOS
* use secure passwords