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
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're 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 max 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're 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're
using chrome right now even if you're
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 plugins 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 cyber security
tool allowing you to store all of your
passwords in one place use the auto fill
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
cyber security 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's
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 anti-virus
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 mac os 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're 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 anti-virus 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 max
and mac os 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 this 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 x protect which is mac
os's built-in anti-virus 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 x protect
will catch it also if you go to 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 file vault 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 anti-virus for
that added level of protection but it's
just not necessary and sometimes
anti-virus 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 2 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 mac keeper app just like
ccleaner it was also hacked exposing the
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 mac os
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 mac os 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
mac os 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 or 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 ola caught stealing user
bandwidth and fraudulently reselling it
or pure vpn 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
