MacOS Settings

This section is settings of MacOS. This isn’t how we become improve privacy too much it is mostly a follow up from the initial setup guide. I think this can give you fairly private settings. You must first do settings before you connect yourself to the Wi-Fi but I highly recommend that you don’t actually connect until you get little snitch on your system.

Signals & Network

          • In MacOS Settings.
          • Launch “System Settings” from the Dock.
          • Select “Wi-Fi” from the left menu and disable it.
          • Disable both “Ask to join networks” and “Ask to join hotspots”.
          • Select Bluetooth from the left menu and disable it.
          • Go back.
          • Select “Network” from the left menu and select “Firewall”.
          • Enable the Firewall and click “Options”.
          • Disable “Automatically allow built-in software to receive…”.
          • Disable “Automatically allow downloaded signed software to receive…”.
          • Enable “Stealth mode”.
          • Click “OK”.

Some people may like notifications, I do too, some. Well some people like to have them completely off especially if it is a work computer. I prefer having very specific notifications on but its very customizable and you can get it exactly how you want it. In the MacOS Settings you can control everything to do with notifications. I prefer to have things that matters do notifications, such as Signal.

          • Still in the MacOS Settings.
           • Select the “Notifications” option from the left menu.
           • Change the “Show previews” option to “Never”.
           • Disable “Allow notifications when the device is sleeping”.
           • Disable “Allow notifications when the screen is locked”.
           • Disable “Allow notifications when mirroring or sharing the display”.
           • Open each and all application, press disable notifications, and then click the arrow to return.

Disable Sound

We then can go and disable sounds. Why disable sounds? Well you don’t have to, its not like sound will destroy your privacy but I just don’t like them. It’s whatever you prefer. Only be aware when you are in public.

           • Select “Sound” from the left menu.
           • Change “Alert volume” to the minimum setting.
           • Disable “Play sound on startup”.
           • Disable “Play user interface sound effects”.
           • Disable “Play feedback when volume is changed”.
           • Scroll Down to the bottom and click “Input”
           • Pull the slider all the way to the left.

Now you have disabled sounds and you have disabled your microphone, you can go to the following options, this will prevent intrusive features.

Disable AirDrop

          • In MacOS Settings.
          • Select the “General” option from the left menu.
          • Select the “AirDrop & Handoff” option.
          • Disable everything in this screen.
          • Make sure AirDrop is set to “No One”.
          • Select the “General” option from the left menu.
          • Select the “Sharing” option.
          • Confirm all options are disabled.

Disable Siri

          • Select the “Siri & Spotlight” option from the left menu.
          • Make sure “Ask Siri” is disabled.
          • Select “Siri & Spotlight” from the left menu.
          • Click on the “Siri Suggestions & Privacy” option.
          • Click on each option and disable all toggles, then click on “Done”.

Disable Searching The Hard Drive

          • Still in the MacOS Settings.
          • Select “Siri & Spotlight” from the left menu.
          • Disable all options within the Spotlight area.
          • Click “Spotlight Privacy”.
          • Click the “+” in the lower-left.
          • Change the dropdown field to “Macintosh HD”.
          • Click “Choose”, confirm with “OK”, and click “Done”.

Terminal Settings

          • Open “Finder” from the Dock.
          • Select “Applications” from the left menu.
          • Double-click the folder named “Utilities”.
          • Open the “Terminal” application.
          • In the terminal to disable Apple’s spotlight services write the following and enter your password to disable                    Apples spotlight services
          • sudo mdutil -i off /
          • sudo mdutil -E /
          • To disable Gatekeeper write the following command – Read below before proceeding.
          • sudo spctl –master-disable
          • spctl –status

Gatekeeper is a safety feature that sends data about applications back to Apple on first launch or update. If the software is not verified by Apple, it will cause applications to be seen as dangerous to the system. Now we can and should disable this.

Once Gatekeeper is disabled, go back to your MacOS settings. You should see the following options within.

Privacy & Security Settings