HOW TO Toughen up Safari’s security
1 Privacy extensions
Click Safari > Safari Extensions to open the extensions page of the App Store. Install the DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials and Ghostery Lite extensions; these will block unwanted trackers and content from the websites you visit using Safari.
2 Clear your history
Open Safari’s preferences and click the General tab. Under the ‘Remove history items’ and ‘Remove download list items’, choose a duration. Shorter times will see your history removed sooner to protect your privacy.
3 Open ‘safe’ files
On the same General tab, untick the checkbox next to ‘Open “safe” files after downloading’. Some seemingly innocuous files can be infected with malware, so automatically opening them could cause problems on your Mac.
4 Turn off AutoFill
Now click the AutoFill tab. Next to ‘AutoFill web forms’, untick all options. If someone else uses your Mac, this will prevent things like your credit card information from being automatically entered on shopping websites.
5 Problem passwords
Click the Passwords tab and enter your login password. At the top of the window, ensure the ‘Detect passwords compromised by known data leaks’ checkbox is ticked to get warned about passwords you need to change.
6 Use DuckDuckGo
On the Search tab, click the search engine drop-down menu and choose DuckDuckGo. This is a privacy-focused search engine that does not collect or store anywhere near as much of your data as Google, Yahoo and Bing do.
7 Detect fraudulent sites
Move on to the Security tab and tick the checkbox next to ‘Fraudulent sites’ so that it is enabled. This will warn you if you visit a fake website, such as one that impersonates your bank to steal your account info.
8 Cross-site tracking
Click the Privacy tab and tick the box next to ‘Prevent cross-site tracking’. If you have ever had an advert follow you across multiple websites, cross-site tracking is the reason. This feature will stop it in its tracks.
9 Website permissions
Finally, click the Websites tab. Go through the left-hand categories to see if you want websites to access to your location data, camera, and other Mac features. You can allow all, block all, or make websites ask each time.