Protect Your Privacy
Security took center stage in 2018 as high profile incidents, including the Cambridge Analytica scandal, exposed just how vulnerable our personal data can be. In response to Mac users’ increasing concerns, Mojave is packed with new security features. Safari receives the most attention since, whether you’re worried about protecting your privacy from advertisers or Russian hackers, your information is most clearly vulnerable online. But Apple doesn’t stop there, it also blocks apps from accessing your camera or microphone without your consent, and more.
Keep an Eye on Your Apps
What’s been the internet’s best advice for people worried about hackers surveilling them through their laptop’s camera? Slap a Band-Aid on it. Literally. (See this TED Ideas interview.) Mojave offers a more elegant—and definitely less sticky—solution. It asks for permission when an app wants to use the microphone or camera; automate or control apps and the Finder; or access data from apps like Time Machine and Mail. (High Sierra checked with you when an app asked to access contacts, photos, your location, and more.) You must click Don’t Allow or OK to proceed (Figure 32).
To see what you’ve sanctioned, go to Apple > System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy (Figure 33).
Click through and uncheck items to revoke their access.
Note that, because of this increased security, you’re likely to trigger warnings the first time you launch apps that need to access your data (especially backup and automation apps). After you sanction them, they’ll appear under the Full Disk Access category.
Use Strong, Unique Passwords Online
We all know that we’re supposed to use long, strong passwords that mix numbers, letters, and punctuation, as well as uppercase and lowercase letters. But you’re not alone if you find yourself using, and reusing, a simple, memorable password instead like, um, password,qwerty, or 123456—three of the most popular passwords out there.
One of the main reasons people reuse passwords is because they’re afraid they’ll forget them, but this is less of an issue if you use a password manager like 1Password or set up iCloud Keychain on your Mac and other Apple devices. Turn iCloud Keychain on by going to Apple > System Preferences > iCloud and checking the Keychain box in the list. Once you do, your Mac saves user names, passwords, and credit card information as you enter it and automatically fills in the info as you need it on all devices using the same iCloud account.
To get you moving toward password probity, Mojave’s Safari automatically suggests a 20-character-long password whenever you sign up for a new account or change a website password (Figure 34).
Safari makes it just a little more difficult for you to ignore its suggestion by automatically filling the fields and requiring you to click either the Don’t Use or Use Strong Password button before you move on.
To help you root out instances when you’ve already reused a password, Safari flags duplicate passwords in the list found at Safari > Preferences > Passwords. Click a warning 
icon to reveal the password in question and see how many times it has been repeated (Figure 35).
Click the Change Password button to begin the process of creating a new password using Safari’s suggestions.
Get Help with Security Codes
To up security, some websites use two-factor identification (or 2FA). Basically, they make you confirm your login with a security code sent by text message to another one of your trusted devices. (See the Apple support page Two-factor authentication for Apple ID to learn more.)
The notifications for these messages can come and go quickly, sending you scrambling to type the code in before it disappears. Mojave makes it easier to fill in the blank by recognizing security codes and offering them as Safari AutoFill suggestions. Click the AutoFill suggestion and the code populates the field. Easy peasy.
Stop Advertisers Tracking You Online
If you’re like me, you’ve been mildly surprised, at least once, to see the exact pair of Merrell’s Jungle Mocs you were looking at on Zappos appear in a Facebook ad the next day. This is the result of cross-site tracking, which is typically done with third-party cookies that let advertisers learn about the products you’re looking at as you move from site to site.
You can use Safari’s Private Browsing feature (File > New Private Window), to avoid being tracked, but when you do, Safari also doesn’t add pages to your history, save information (like your user names and passwords) for autofill, or add searches to the pop-up menu of recent searches. That can be overkill if all you really want is to avoid sharing your information with advertisers. (It also doesn’t always work. See Thwart Non-Cookie Methods of Tracking.)
In High Sierra, Apple began limiting cross-site tracking by default using a new feature called Intelligent Tracking Prevention. (Go to Safari > Preferences > Privacy to see the “Prevent cross-site tracking” option, which is selected by default.) But since then, the Cambridge Analytica scandal has raised awareness of how data brokers track people, building detailed profiles in order to target them with advertisements and, in some cases, political messaging. (Read more about how 50 million Facebook users’ data was compromised in “You Are the Product”: Targeted by Cambridge Analytica on Facebook from The New York Times.)
Require Permission to Track
Apple’s Internet Tracking Preventing 2.0 aims to foil social media tools—such as Facebook’s Like and Share buttons, as well as comment fields that use a Facebook login—that are used to collect information about you as you browse the web (even if you don’t click them). Safari requires you to give explicit consent whenever a cookie or plugin wants to track your browsing.
That means that, after you cruise Zappos, you’ll only see those shoes you had your eye on in Facebook ads if you gave permission.
Thwart Non-Cookie Methods of Tracking
Safari also reduces the amount of information it shares about your setup—for instance, your Mac’s plugins, fonts, and system configuration—making it harder for companies to put together a profile of you. This technique, known as device fingerprinting, lets companies track you even when cookies are cleared. (Resourceful, aren’t they?)
Set Ad Preferences for Apple Apps
All this empowerment around privacy wouldn’t sit quite right if Apple itself was exempt. Now you can set preferences for advertising you see in the App Store, News, and Stocks, too. Go to Apple > System Preferences > Security & Privacy and click Advertising in the list (Figure 37).
Click the View Ad Information button to see what personal information Apple has collected, including the types of content searched for and downloaded through the App Store and iTunes; what types of publications and categories you follow in News; your birth year, gender, and zip code; and your basic device information.
Apple says that this information is not sent directly to advertisers. Instead, the company groups people with similar profiles together anonymously, and gives each one an identifier that follows them, but is not connected with their name or Apple ID. The company says no information about sexual orientation, religious beliefs, political affiliations, or health is ever shared or used for advertising.
The idea here is to show you ads that you’ll be interested in, but if you’d prefer to keep your personal information to yourself, turn on the Limit Ad Tracking option and then click the Reset Advertising Identifier button. You’ll still see ads in the App Store, News, and Stocks, but they won’t be tailored to you. For more information, click the “About Advertising and Privacy” button.
Allow Websites to Check for Apple Pay
You’ll find a new option when you go to Safari > Preferences > Privacy: “Allow websites to check if Apple Pay is set up” (Figure 38).
Leave this checked if you don’t mind sites pinging Safari to see if you use Apple Pay and then offering it to you as a purchasing option. Uncheck it if you do (or don’t use the service).