If you want to keep private or confidential information secure on removable media, you need to encrypt the information on it.

WARNING: When you encrypt a disk or other media, the disk format is converted to the APFS format and then encrypted. Macs with earlier versions of macOS that don’t support the APFS format are not able to read the device’s data. Consider whether you need to connect the media to a Mac with an earlier version of macOS before you encrypt the data. You can also update your other Mac to the latest version of the macOS that supports the APFS format.

To protect your removable media with encryption:

• On your Mac, click the Finder icon in the Dock to open a Finder window
• In the sidebar, Control-click the item you want to encrypt
• Choose Encrypt [item name] from the shortcut menu
• Create a password for the disk and click Encrypt Disk

Be sure to record and keep this password in a safe place. You cannot access the data on the encrypted disk without it.

It may take some time to encrypt, depending on how much information is stored on your Mac. However, you can use your Mac as usual while the disk is being encrypted. To decrypt an encrypted disk, Control-click the disk you want to decrypt, then choose Decrypt [item name] from the shortcut menu.

Like most technology companies, Apple stores information about you on its servers. Unlike most technology companies, however, Apple does not store identifiable information such as locations, instant messages, and so forth. Thanks to Differential Privacy techniques, Apple can build smart services without using the cloud for insight, keeping information about each individual user completely private.

The list of personally identifiable things Apple knows about you is rather short compared to other technology companies. Identifiable information Apple knows about you includes the following:

• Apps you’ve downloaded
• A log of every time you updated your installed apps
• Movies, books, and other media you’ve downloaded
• All of the songs you’ve stored in iTunes Match
• In-app purchases you’ve made on your devices
• All the devices you’ve bought from Apple, along with their serial numbers
• A log of every AppleCare support query you’ve made
• A repair session log of what was damaged
• Serial numbers for both the old and replacement parts

Your archive does not contain identifiable data already included within your Apple ID account, such as calendar content, your iCloud emails, iTunes content, and so forth.

To download your Apple data archive:

• Visit the Apple Privacy Policy webpage at privacy.apple.com and sign in using your Apple ID and password
• Click "Request a copy of your data" under the Manage your data > Get a copy of your data section
• Choose the data you want to download
• After selecting what you want to download, click the "Continue" button
• Select a maximum file size for each file (irrespective of what you choose, you will get all the data)
• Click "Complete request"

You have now successfully requested Apple for your data. They will notify you on your Apple ID email address in about seven days. Once you receive the email, click "Get your data" within the time frame mentioned at the top of the email. Sign in with your Apple ID, and you will see the "Download your data" screen. Click the little download icon next to the data types to download them locally to your computer (open the ZIP file and dive in to see your data).

With modern macOS releases (Mojave and later), Macs have a hidden screen record app with more advanced controls like a timer, save to destination choices, show/hide the mouse pointer, remember last selection, microphone control, and more.

If you mostly do straightforward screen recording on Mac, the native functionality is free with no app to download.

• On your Mac keyboard, press the combination Command + Shift + 5 (can be used while running any app)
• In the bottom middle of the screen, choose the rectangle with a circle icon to record the whole screen or the dotted-line rectangle with a circle icon to record a selection of your screen
• Click the Options button if you’d like to enable the microphone, show mouse clicks, select a save location, and more
• Choose Record to start
• When you’re done, click the Stop button (circle with square icon) in the menu bar found in the top middle/right of your screen
• Your recording will show up on your Mac’s desktop by default unless you picked a different save location

You can also pull up this menu in QuickTime by clicking File > New Screen Recording but the keyboard shortcut is usually faster.

Websites use cookies and other site data to remember you, so you don’t have to log in again, repeat the two-factor authentication process, refill text forms, etc. Cookies and site data can also be used to remember your choices from previous browsing sessions and customize your preferences. For instance, a flight booking website can save the two cities you were looking to book tickets for.

While cookies, cache, and local site data are essential parts of web browsing, there can be instances where you will want to delete them. For example, if a website is showing error pages, is not loading correctly, takes ages to render images, displays an older version of the web page, or prevents you from logging in, clearing cookies and site data can help fix such problems. Additionally, it’s well known that hotel, flight, and other such sites track your past activity and may jack up the prices in future visits as they know you’re returning to their website and are likely to book. So, clearing cookies, cache, and site data before revisiting can help.

Why not clear all browser cookies? While you can certainly clear all your web browser data and start fresh, doing so logs you out of every website you’re signed into. Therefore, if your browsing experience across all sites is fine, but you have trouble with a specific website, clearing the cache and site data for that particular site is the best option.

In Safari:

• Launch Safari and click Safari > Settings... in the top menu bar
• Go to the Privacy tab and click Manage Website Data
• Wait for the website list to load and find the site whose cookies, cache, and data you want to delete (you can also type the website name in the search bar to find it quickly)
• Select a website or hold the Command key to select more than one
• Click the Remove button and hit Done

In Chrome:

• Open Google Chrome and click the three vertical dots in the top right corner, followed by Settings
• Click Privacy and security in the left sidebar and go to Site settings > View permissions and data stored across sites
• Go through the list of websites or use the search bar to find the one whose data you want to delete, click the trash icon next to it to delete its cookies and data

In Firefox:

• Launch Firefox, click the hamburger menu icon in the upper right corner, and select Settings from the bottom
• Click Privacy & Security
• Click the Manage Data button under the Cookies and Site Data heading
• Select the website whose cookies and data you want to delete and click Remove Selected, then click Save Changes

There’s another way to clear a website’s data without going to settings. Unfortunately this tip will not work in Safari.

• Open Chrome or Firefox and visit the website whose cookies and local data you want to delete
• In Chrome, click the website settings icon on the left side of the address bar, if you’re in Firefox, click the tiny padlock icon instead
• If you’re in Chrome, click Cookies and site data, followed by Manage on-device site data, if you’re in Firefox, click Clear cookies and site data
• Click the trash icon or the remove button to delete that site’s data

Unicode incorporates nearly 150,000 symbols, and our keyboards let us directly enter no more than several dozen (even with Shift and Option). Many of the remaining characters can be found in Character Viewer, a part of macOS that’s hidden by default. This viewer lets you find symbols, drag them or double-click them to insert symbols into text, and mark them as favorites for later access.

You can bring up the Character Viewer through several methods:

• On a keyboard with a Globe key (lower-left corner), you can press that key to bring up the viewer. If pressing Globe doesn’t bring up the viewer, check your settings. In macOS 13 Ventura or later, go to Apple menu  > System Settings > Keyboard and choose Show Emoji & Symbols from the “Press Globe key to” menu; in macOS 12 Monterey or earlier, go to Apple menu  > System Preferences > Keyboard and enable the option in the Keyboard tab.

• Press Command+Control+Space.

• In macOS 13 Ventura or later, go to Apple menu  > System Settings > Keyboard, click Edit next to Input Sources (under Text Input), and enable “Show Input menu in menu bar”.

• In macOS 12 Monterey or earlier, go to  > System Preferences > Keyboard, choose the Input Sources tab, and check “Show Input menu in menu bar”: Emoji & Symbols is one choice.

When it first appears, the viewer might be in an abbreviated form that emphasizes emojis and shows links along the bottom. If so, click the palette icon in the upper-right corner to expand it into the larger Character Viewer.

You can search for characters via the field in the upper-right corner, and the viewer provides matches. Say you want to routinely insert 1/2, 1/4, and other fractions using the compact drawn fraction symbols in a font? Search for fraction, and all fractions appear. You can then select each one you want to have easy access to and click Add to Favorites below its preview on the right-hand side.

After adding the first favorite, a Favorites link appears in the left-hand navigation list. You can then click Favorites to access characters and symbols you’ve added to the list.