The digital world is intuitive and easy to navigate. However, it can sometimes make you too engaged, leading you to share more about yourself with strangers online than you intended. All of this contributes to your growing digital footprint.
We all have our own digital footprint, but if yours is exceptionally thorough, you could become a prime target for cybercriminals. With all this information about you, cybercrooks may steal your identity, trick your social circle, or compromise your accounts to demand ransomware. To avoid this, take a step back before diving deeper into the internet and ensure your Mac offers as much protection as possible first.
In this article, we’ll teach you how to reduce that footprint down in size and keep it small while optimizing your Mac for privacy and performance.
Table of Contents
Assess and Reduce Your Current Digital Footprint
If you’re a long-time Mac user, you’ve likely already established a digital footprint that won’t disappear simply by adopting healthier privacy habits. That’s why removing data that’s already on the internet should be your first priority.
Start by making an inventory of all the online accounts and email addresses connected to you. Some of these may have been inactive for years but could still contain your personal data. The best approach is to log into such accounts, remove any identifiable information, and then delete the account. Unsubscribing from newsletters and mailing lists that are no longer relevant is also advisable.
Next, start by searching your active accounts for any sensitive information, such as your home address or phone number. Additionally, review older posts that might reveal sensitive information like details about your hobbies, favorite pet’s name, or close friends. If you keep this information live, they can be easily found on Google and may be used to compromise your accounts or facilitate identity theft.
Even a thorough check can only do so much, especially if the information has been publicly available long enough for data brokers and people-finder sites to create detailed profiles based on your data. If you’re wondering how to remove personal information from Google for free, there are data removal services that can help. Such services systematically remove any data that brokers might keep on you.
Adjust MacOS & Safari Settings
Having reduced your digital footprint, it’s time to adopt some habits that will keep it that way. So, become mindful of your online activities. That includes thinking twice about what you share on social media, setting your accounts private, and not creating new ones if the sign-up form is too intrusive.
Importantly, remember that a large part of your digital footprint is generated passively. Merely using your Mac or browsing through Safari creates enough data for advertisers and cybercriminals to get a good read on you. Consequently, they can influence or scam you more effectively.
MacOS Privacy & Security
The Privacy and Security section of MacOS’s System lets you make several key adjustments to data collection. Specifically, you can disable Location Services and Apple Advertising to deny apps data on your location and stop targeted ads. You can also opt out of analytics sharing in the Analytics and Improvements segment.
Besides that, it’s a good idea to review all the apps on your Mac and uninstall the ones you no longer use. Some apps may ask for inappropriate permissions and collect data you may not be aware of. Privacy and Security allows app filtering based on requested access to features like the camera and microphone, calendars, etc. Use it to identify and delete apps with excessive permissions.
Safari
Setting Safari up for maximum privacy will greatly help reduce active and passive contributions to your digital footprint.
Its Privacy settings contain two crucial items. The Prevent cross-site tracking option stops third-party cookies from collecting data on the sites you visit and following you with targeted ads. Block all cookies is a more extreme option that offers more privacy at the cost of some website elements not working anymore.
Running Safari in Private Browsing mode will prevent it from building up a website history and automatically filling in logins and search results. But if you don’t want to use Private Browsing by default, be sure to clear your browsing history and manually delete cookies regularly.
Finally, install a reputable ad blocker extension to navigate websites more easily, block intrusive ads, and avoid potential malicious links disguised as them.
Use the Right Security Tools
While MacOS is among the more privacy and security conscious operating systems, you can greatly increase your cyber defenses with just a few additional programs.
The first is a Mac password manager. Reusing passwords drastically increases the risk of account compromise, especially if your credentials get exposed in a data breach. Password managers make creating and storing complex, unique passwords easy. Plus, they can work across all your Apple devices and are a safer autocomplete alternative to the browser’s autofill one.
You’ll also want to use an all-purpose diagnostics and optimization tool to keep your system in shape. CleanMyMac can free up space by deleting junk data and old files you don’t need anymore. It will optimize startup times, streamline browser history as well as cookie removal, and even scan for malware.
Conclusion
Digital footprints are part of the concessions we make to enjoy all the commodities of digital life. While it’s nearly impossible to remove your digital footprint altogether, you now have the knowledge to keep yours as small and inconspicuous as possible.
