If you're like me,
you probably spend hours every single day on your Mac,
and you probably use a number of different apps too.
But what if some of these apps
had a dark purpose behind them,
or were even downright dangerous?
(exploding)
From collecting and selling all of your personal data,
web searches and credit card details,
to hackers using these very apps to infiltrate your computer
and steal private files,
to cleaner or anti-virus apps slowing down your entire Mac
and wearing out your battery faster,
there's a lot of really dodgy stuff going on out there.
Make sure you watch this video to the very end,
because I'm going to expose these apps
and also tell you which apps you should be using instead.
Also, quick thanks to the sponsor of this video,
but more on that later.
Okay, let's start with a well known app
that you are probably using to watch this very video,
and that is Google Chrome.
Now, at the end of the day,
Chrome does accomplish the task of browsing the web,
but it comes with some hidden costs.
Firstly, Chrome can be a bit of a resource hog.
Compared to other browsers,
it typically sucks up more battery life
and consumes more of your Mac's memory, also known as RAM,
leading to slower performance.
Now, granted, Chrome optimization
has gotten better recently, but it's still lacking,
especially compared to something like Safari,
which is designed specifically for Macs,
and as a result, is blazing fast.
Take this browser benchmark, for example.
You can see just how safari outperforms Chrome
in everyday usage.
Now, sure, Safari isn't perfect.
You don't get the wide selection of extensions
like you do on Chrome,
and some things are just more compatible with Chrome,
especially if you are a web developer.
The second reason you shouldn't use Chrome,
and perhaps the most important,
is that Chrome is notoriously bad
from a privacy perspective.
Seriously, what I'm about to tell you might shock you.
Just look at Google's publicly available privacy policy.
They literally track, record, and likely sell to advertisers
almost everything you do, including your search history,
voice and audio information.
Geez, that is creepy.
And even your calls, text messages,
and they can also access
nearby offline devices via Bluetooth.
And this is only what Google publicly admits to.
The reality could be much worse.
They've been caught with their pants down
time, and time, and time again.
So if you are using Chrome right now,
even if you are not signed into a Google account,
every single keystroke, click, search, and image you view
is being logged and sent straight back to Google HQ.
Also, you might want to stay away
from browsers like Brave and Opera.
They've had their fair share of leaks
and controversies over the years too.
Now, I'm actually quite passionate
about the topic of online privacy
and I won't go full tin foil hat on you guys.
But I do use a mixture of Safari and Firefox,
which is a more privacy-oriented open source browser.
I also use a few extensions
to further lock down my privacy and security on Firefox.
But to keep this video relatively compact,
I won't go into the whole privacy spiel,
but let me know down in the comments below
if you do want a separate video on that topic.
Now, while we're on the topic of browsers,
let's also talk about browser extensions,
also known as add-ons or plug-ins.
Did you know that some of them
can actually be extremely malicious?
Here's just a few of the things
these malicious browser extensions can do,
everything from stealing your credit card information
to installing malware directly onto your device.
Back in 2020, security firm Awake released a report
revealing it had discovered 111 malicious Chrome extensions
that had been downloaded a collective 33 million times,
and had been doing the very activities I just described.
Now, these extensions were naturally disguised
as a number of things,
including, rather ironically,
extensions to flag dangerous websites
and also things like file and image converters.
Now, Google did end up removing these plugins
but they're also not the only browser that is susceptible
to these kinds of vulnerabilities.
Realistically, any browser is at risk,
and these issues happen all the time,
such as the data spy leak in 2019,
where the following extensions were collecting
personal and private data.
So here's how to protect yourself
against dangerous browser extensions.
Feel free to pause the video here
to read this in more detail.
Also, while we're on the topic of browser extensions,
here's a good one you can use to keep your passwords
and login info safe.
Do you use a secure password for all your online accounts?
Don't lie to me.
Well, NordPass is definitely something you should look into.
If you get hacked or someone steals your password,
they can gain access to all of your photos, videos
emails, credit cards, and more.
Or worse, they can even steal your identity.
NordPass is more than just a password manager.
It's an essential cybersecurity tool
allowing you to store all of your passwords in one place,
use the autofill feature for quick logins,
sync your passwords across up to six devices,
and find out if your online account,
or credit card information has been leaked
via the data breach scanner.
Designed by cybersecurity experts,
NordPass is used by more than 14 million users worldwide,
and is a zero knowledge password manager,
meaning no one else, including NordPass themselves,
can see your encrypted vault.
So get exclusive access to NordPass' best offer
and get a 30-day money back guarantee
using the link in the description,
or use code CREATEDTECH at the checkout
to get an additional month for free.
Okay, moving on to our next controversial app
and that is antivirus software.
So getting straight to the point, you simply do not need it.
No, it's not because Macs can't get viruses
because they still can.
It's just pretty unlikely that you will get one.
"Why is this?" you ask.
Well, just 15% of computers use the macOS operating system.
So there's not as much incentive to dedicate too much time
and resources to such a small target market.
When instead, if you are trying to hack someone
or get them to install malware,
you'll focus on an operating system like Windows,
which makes up 75% of the market.
Now things like phishing and social engineering scams
will still be prevalent
no matter what operating system you use,
but antivirus software doesn't really do much
to protect you from those things anyway.
Just be careful about what you download.
And if you do get a suspicious looking email,
don't click on any links
or download any attachments contained within it,
because don't forget you as the user
are the easiest point of attack.
Regardless, Macs and macOS
already have a lot of protection built in
to keep your Mac safe.
For example, notarization,
which is a malware-scanning service provided by Apple.
App developers who want to distribute apps
outside the app store
have to submit their apps for scanning.
Apple scans the software for known malware,
and if none is found,
issues the app something known as a notarization ticket.
Then if one of these apps is installed,
a security process known as gatekeeper kicks in
to verify the app's notarization ticket,
or check if it's been revoked.
Even if something does slip through,
there's yet another security process known as XProtect,
which is macOS's built in antivirus technology.
Now, XProtect is pretty cool
because it automatically checks for malicious content
whenever any of the following things occur.
So if an app you've already installed
gets a dodgy update, for example,
there's a good chance XProtect will catch it.
Also, if you go through System Preferences,
then Security and Privacy,
you get a bunch of additional security options.
For example, restricting what type of apps can be installed,
a feature called FileVault
to lock down and encrypt your files,
a built-in firewall to prevent unauthorized apps,
programs and services from accepting incoming connections.
And finally, the Privacy tab, where you can fine-tune
exactly what the apps on your Mac can and cannot access.
And you've also got some pretty powerful features
built into Safari itself
to protect you while browsing the internet.
Now, if you're still paranoid
or maybe you have an older family member,
who's not very good with computers,
sure, you can still use an antivirus
for that added level of protection,
but it's just not necessary.
And sometimes antivirus software
can be a bit of a drag on your Mac's performance,
by constantly running in the background
and scanning your system over and over again.
Okay, getting back to some more dodgy apps.
Another one you do not need
is any of the various cleaner apps out there.
They're just not necessary.
And in fact, some of them might even slow your computer down
or straight up leak your data.
Take CCleaner, for example.
It was actually hacked back in 2017,
putting over two million users at risk of malware infection.
And if you read their privacy policy, it doesn't sound good.
They can collect a fair amount of personal data from you,
and potentially sell that data to advertising companies.
Another example is the infamous mackeeper app.
Just like CCleaner.
It was also hacked exposing these sensitive account details
of 13 million users.
There are also tons of reports
from people claiming that these cleaner apps
run in the background 24/7 consuming system resources
and are almost impossible to remove.
The reality is you simply don't need
to be constantly scanning your Mac
to improve performance or remove viruses.
macOS does a pretty good job of clearing caches,
temporary files and keeping performance at an optimal level.
And if you do run into any issues, guess what?
These cleaner apps aren't going to help you any more
than what a simple restart would do.
But no matter what the issue, worst case scenario,
you can simply format your Mac's internal drive
and reinstall a fresh copy of macOS.
It'll take you about five minutes and maybe an hour
for the Mac to download and install everything.
But it's a really simple process.
Moving on, have you ever wanted to convert
or compress an image?
Maybe you're trying to send an image via email
and it's too large,
or it needs to be a JPEG instead of PNG, for example.
Usually, you'd have to upload this image
to a dodgy free image compressor website.
And if you look into the privacy policy of these sites,
you get the usual "We look after your data" spiel,
but some of these websites will actually keep your images
on their server for up to 24 hours.
Imagine if that website got hacked two hours
after you converted a whole bunch of revealing photos
or important tax documents, for example.
Alternatively, you can download free image converter apps,
which might be a bit safer,
but they're typically pretty clunky to use.
Well, you don't need to bother with these apps any longer.
As long as your Mac is running macOS Monterey or later,
you'll get access to the convert image quick action.
You can choose to convert your image
to a variety of popular formats,
select what size you want the image to be,
and also get the option to remove
private metadata from the image,
all with just the click of a button,
and the added advantage of a lot more privacy.
Now, this video would not be complete
if I did not talk about VPNs.
Firstly, you should definitely
stay away at all costs from free VPNs.
Just like all the other trash
I've already mentioned in this video,
a free VPN is just going to collect and sell your data,
have awful security measures in place,
and in some situations, route another user's online activity
through your internet connection.
So you better hope that dude
isn't downloading anything involving tentacles or anime.
Even some of the paid VPN services are just as bad.
This article from restore privacy
goes into detail on some of them.
For example, Hola caught stealing user bandwidth
and fraudulently reselling it.
Or PureVPN with numerous data leaks
and logging of customer data.
Now, if you are looking for a VPN,
I can recommend Private Internet Access and Proton VPN.
I'm not being sponsored or paid by either one.
They're just VPNs I currently use
and haven't had any issues with.
Plus, they also have good track records,
a zero log policy, and good security protocols.
So yeah, there's a ton of really dodgy stuff out there.
Hopefully, this video was able to shed some light
on some of it for you.
And if you do have any questions,
let me know down in the comment section below.
But apart from that, thanks for watching,
and I'll catch you in the next one.