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How to Enable a Passcode for iPhone / iPad

Jan 22, 2014 - 15 Comments
The Enter Passcode iPhone Screen

Virtually all iPhone and iPad users should set an iOS passcode for their individual devices. This forces anyone attempting to use the device to enter a password before being able to unlock it or gain access to anything on the device, and it also requires the same passcode before any user is able to make … Read More

How to Block Cookies in Safari for iPhone or iPad

Jan 17, 2014 - 4 Comments
Safari

The Safari web browser for iOS provides for tremendous user control over how web cookies are handled on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, allowing users to choose to block all cookies, allow all cookies, or selectively block only third party tracking and advertiser cookies.

How to Set a Firmware Password on a Mac with macOS Mojave, Sierra, OS X El Capitan, Mavericks

Jan 6, 2014 - 14 Comments
Set a firmware password on a Mac

Mac users in higher security risk situations may wish to enable an optional firmware password on their machines,which offers an advanced level of protection. In short, a firmware password is a lower level layer of security that is set on the actual Mac logicboards firmware, rather than at the software layer like FileVault encryption or … Read More

How to Enable & Control Access for Assistive Devices & Apps in Mac OS

Jan 5, 2014 - 5 Comments
Accessibility feature

Assistive Devices and Assistive Apps are applications and accessories which can control parts of the Mac and MacOS beyond the normal scope of app limits. While it’s primarily thought of as an Accessibility feature, it’s also commonly uses for general apps too, ranging from screen sharing functions, to apps that require microphone access, to even … Read More

How to See & Control What Apps Use Location Data in Mac OS X

Dec 28, 2013 - Leave a Comment
See when an app is using Location Data in Mac OS X

Do you want to control which apps can use your location on Mac? Want to see exactly what apps are using your location data on the Mac? Mac OS X now has the ability to easily view and manage which applications can access a users location data. This article will review first how to determine … Read More

How to See & Control What Apps Have Microphone Access on iPhone & iPad

Nov 26, 2013 - 4 Comments
List of apps with microphone access in iOS

Wondering what apps have access to your iPhone or iPad microphone? Want to control and manage which apps can use the microphone on your device? Apple has added an additional security feature to iOS that allows users to control exactly which apps can have access to the microphone. Yes, the microphone that you speak into … Read More

Create a Password Protected Text File with vi and the Command Line

Nov 22, 2013 - 6 Comments
Terminal in Mac OS X

It’s easy to create a password protected text file by using the command line text editor ‘vi’. This is infinitely useful for privacy purposes, whether the protected file is for containing login details, various passwords, personal information, a private journal, or just about anything else that you want stored securely in a single password protected … Read More

Hide Notifications from the Lock Screen of Mac OS X

Nov 21, 2013 - 3 Comments
Disable Notifications from showing on the lock screen of Mac OS X

Don’t want to see Notifications and alerts on the login screens and locked screens of Mac OS X? Me neither, and because Notifications can be fairly personal items from calendars, reminders, messages, or apps, they aren’t necessarily something you want on the lock screen of a Mac that is visible in public, like at an … Read More

How to Use Private Browsing with Safari for iOS 14, iOS 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, etc

Oct 19, 2013 - 13 Comments
Safari icon for iOS

Private Browsing is an optional Safari browsing mode that causes no data from the browsing session to be saved, this means no cache files, cookies, or browsing history will be stored or collected in iOS, making for a fairly anonymous session on the client side. Using Safari Private Browsing is a popular browsing choice for … Read More

How to Tell if Someone Snooped Your iPhone / iPad & Read Emails, Messages, Call Log

Sep 7, 2013 - Leave a Comment
How to see if someone snooped on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

If you suspect someone is snooping through your iPhone call log, messages, email, or through other apps, you can set a simple trap of sorts to potentially catch such intrusions on privacy. The idea behind this is pretty simple: quit out of all apps to leave the task bar empty, then check on the multitask … Read More

How to Block All Incoming Network Connections in Mac OS X

Aug 28, 2013 - 3 Comments
Block all incoming connections in Mac OS X with this firewall option

The Mac OS X Firewall provides an optional ability to block all incoming network connections , offering a significant security boost to Macs that are located in untrusted networks or hostile network environments.

Hide Email Previews from the Lock Screen of iPhone, iPad, iPod touch

Aug 26, 2013 - 3 Comments
Hide email previews from the lock screen of iOS devices

New email arrivals display a small preview of the message itself on the lock screen of iOS devices, which shows the sender, the subject, and part of the actual email message body. Because emails can contain some very private and/or personal details, you may wish to hide those email message previews from showing up on … Read More

Erase Free Space on a Mac Hard Drive with OS X Disk Utility to Prevent File Recovery

Aug 21, 2013 - 7 Comments
Erase free space on a hard drive

The Mac OS X Disk Utility app provides an ability to erase free space on traditional hard drives, which overwrites vacant disk space on the drive to prevent any potential recovery of deleted files (that is, files that have been removed traditionally, rather than through secure methods). For most users this is an unnecessary procedure, … Read More

How to Use Tor on Mac to Browse the Web Anonymously & Access Blocked Websites

Jul 18, 2013 - 4 Comments
Tor

Tor is a free anonymity network that aims to conceal a users location and browser usage from snoopers, in addition to allowing access to websites that are otherwise blocked or filtered out through firewalls. The official description of the Tor browser and network is described as follows: The Tor software protects you by bouncing your … Read More

How to Set Up Lavabit Secure & Encrypted Email on the iPhone and iPad

Jul 13, 2013 - 1 Comment
Lavabit outbound email port setup in iOS Mail

Lavabit is a secure and encrypted email platform that has been getting a lot of attention lately in light of recent news events. Lavabit aims to prevent reductions of privacy, and so not only does Lavabit have excellent antispam and antivirus features along with your standard email niceties like autoresponders, its most relevant feature at … Read More

Cell Carriers May Sell Your Location & Browsing History, Here’s How to Opt Out

Jul 7, 2013 - Leave a Comment
Privacy

Cellular carriers in the USA are looking to start selling customer usage data to third parties and marketers, according to TechCrunch. This is being done in an effort labeled as ‘personalization’ and using some other boring and friendly sounding descriptions. Though the information is supposedly aggregate and anonymous, it still may include fairly personal details … Read More

Maximize FileVault Security by Destroying Key Storage in Standby Mode

Jul 6, 2013 - Leave a Comment
Maximum FileVault Security

Standby mode is a power saving feature that automatically hibernates a Mac after it has been in sleep mode for a while, which it does to further decrease drain on battery. When a Mac using FileVault encryption is placed into standby mode, a FileVault key (yes, this key is encrypted) is stored in EFI (firmware) … Read More

Secure Remove Files & Directories from Mac OS X with the Command Line

Jun 9, 2013 - 5 Comments
Terminal logo

Need to securely delete a file, group of files, or an entire directory, insuring that it’s quite literally never recoverable by any known possible means? You can do this easily from the command line with the help of an incredibly powerful tool called srm. srm, as you may have guessed, stands for ‘secure removal’, and … Read More

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