0:00 if you're like me you probably spend
0:01 hours every single day on your mac and
0:04 you probably use a number of different
0:06 apps too but what if some of these apps
0:09 had a dark purpose behind them or were
0:12 even downright dangerous
0:18 from collecting and selling all of your
0:20 personal data web searches and credit
0:22 card details to hackers using these very
0:25 apps to infiltrate your computer and
0:27 steal private files to cleaner or
0:30 anti-virus apps slowing down your entire
0:33 mac and wearing out your battery faster
0:36 there's a lot of really dodgy stuff
0:38 going on out there make sure you watch
0:40 this video to the very end because i'm
0:42 going to expose these apps and also tell
0:44 you which apps you should be using
0:46 instead also quick thanks to the sponsor
0:49 of this video but more on that later
0:51 okay let's start with a well-known app
0:53 that you're probably using to watch this
0:55 very video and that is google chrome now
0:59 at the end of the day chrome does
1:00 accomplish the task of browsing the web
1:03 but it comes with some hidden costs
1:05 firstly chrome can be a bit of a
1:07 resource hog compared to other browsers
1:10 it typically sucks up more battery life
1:12 and consumes more of your max memory
1:14 also known as ram leading to slower
1:17 performance now granted chrome
1:19 optimization has gotten better recently
1:21 but it's still lacking especially
1:23 compared to something like safari which
1:26 is designed specifically for macs and as
1:28 a result is blazing fast take this
1:31 browser benchmark for example you can
1:33 see just how safari outperforms chrome
1:36 in everyday usage now sure safari isn't
1:40 perfect you don't get the wide selection
1:42 of extensions like you do on chrome and
1:45 some things are just more compatible
1:47 with chrome especially if you're a web
1:49 developer the second reason you
1:51 shouldn't use chrome and perhaps the
1:52 most important is that chrome is
1:54 notoriously bad from a privacy
1:56 perspective seriously what i'm about to
1:58 tell you might shock you just look at
2:01 google's publicly available privacy
2:03 policy they literally track record and
2:06 likely sell to advertisers almost
2:08 everything you do including your search
2:10 history voice and audio information geez
2:14 that is creepy and even your calls text
2:16 messages and they can also access nearby
2:19 offline devices via bluetooth and this
2:22 is only what google publicly admits to
2:25 the reality could be much worse they've
2:27 been caught with their pants down time
2:30 and time and time again so if you're
2:33 using chrome right now even if you're
2:35 not signed into a google account every
2:37 single keystroke click search and image
2:40 you view is being logged and sent
2:43 straight back to google hq also you
2:45 might want to stay away from browsers
2:47 like brave and opera they've had their
2:49 fair share of leaks and controversies
2:51 over the years too now i'm actually
2:53 quite passionate about the topic of
2:55 online privacy and i won't go full tin
2:58 foil hat on you guys but i do use a
3:00 mixture of safari and firefox which is a
3:03 more privacy oriented open source
3:05 browser i also use a few extensions to
3:08 further lock down my privacy and
3:10 security on firefox but to keep this
3:12 video relatively compact i won't go into
3:14 the whole privacy spiel but let me know
3:16 down in the comments below if you do
3:18 want a separate video on that topic now
3:21 while we're on the topic of browsers
3:23 let's also talk about browser extensions
3:26 also known as add-ons or plugins did you
3:29 know that some of them can actually be
3:31 extremely malicious here's just a few of
3:33 the things these malicious browser
3:35 extensions can do everything from
3:37 stealing your credit card information to
3:40 installing malware directly onto your
3:42 device back in 2020 security firm awake
3:45 released a report revealing it had
3:47 discovered 111 malicious chrome
3:50 extensions that had been downloaded a
3:52 collective 33 million times and had been
3:56 doing the very activities i just
3:58 described now these extensions were
4:00 naturally disguised as a number of
4:02 things including rather ironically
4:04 extensions to flag dangerous websites
4:07 and also things like file and image
4:09 converters now google did end up
4:11 removing these plugins but they're also
4:13 not the only browser that is susceptible
4:16 to these kinds of vulnerabilities
4:18 realistically any browser is at risk and
4:20 these issues happen all the time such as
4:22 the data spy leak in 2019 where the
4:25 following extensions were collecting
4:27 personal and private data so here's how
4:30 to protect yourself against dangerous
4:32 browser extensions feel free to pause
4:35 the video here to read this in more
4:37 detail also while we're on the topic of
4:40 browser extensions here's a good one you
4:42 can use to keep your passwords and login
4:45 info safe do you use a secure password
4:48 for all your online accounts
4:50 don't lie to me
4:54 well nordpass is definitely something
4:56 you should look into if you get hacked
4:58 or someone steals your password they can
5:00 gain access to all of your photos videos
5:02 emails credit cards and more or worse
5:05 they can even steal your identity
5:07 nordpass is more than just a password
5:09 manager it's an essential cyber security
5:11 tool allowing you to store all of your
5:13 passwords in one place use the auto fill
5:15 feature for quick logins sync your
5:17 passwords across up to six devices and
5:19 find out if your online account or
5:21 credit card information has been leaked
5:23 via the data breach scanner designed by
5:25 cyber security experts nordpass is used
5:28 by more than 14 million users worldwide
5:31 and is a zero knowledge password manager
5:34 meaning no one else including nordpass
5:36 themselves can see your encrypted vault
5:39 so get exclusive access to nordpass's
5:41 best offer and get a 30-day money-back
5:44 guarantee using the link in the
5:45 description or use code createdtech at
5:48 the checkout to get an additional month
5:50 for free okay moving on to our next
5:52 controversial app and that is anti-virus
5:56 software so getting straight to the
5:57 point you simply do not need it no it's
6:01 not because macs can't get viruses
6:03 because they still can it's just pretty
6:05 unlikely that you will get one why is
6:07 this you ask well just 15 of computers
6:10 use the mac os operating system so
6:12 there's not as much incentive to
6:14 dedicate too much time and resources to
6:17 such a small target market when instead
6:19 if you're trying to hack someone or get
6:21 them to install malware you'll focus on
6:23 an operating system like windows which
6:25 makes up 75
6:27 of the market now things like phishing
6:29 and social engineering scams will still
6:32 be prevalent no matter what operating
6:34 system you use but anti-virus software
6:36 doesn't really do much to protect you
6:38 from those things anyway just be careful
6:40 about what you download and if you do
6:42 get a suspicious looking email don't
6:44 click on any links or download any
6:46 attachments contained within it because
6:48 don't forget you as the user are the
6:51 easiest point of attack regardless max
6:54 and mac os already have a lot of
6:56 protection built in to keep your mac
6:58 safe for example notarization which is a
7:01 malware scanning service provided by
7:03 apple app developers who want to
7:05 distribute apps outside the app store
7:07 have to submit their apps for scanning
7:09 apple scans this software for known
7:11 malware and if none is found issues the
7:14 app something known as a notarization
7:16 ticket then if one of these apps is
7:18 installed a security process known as
7:21 gatekeeper kicks in to verify the app's
7:24 notarization ticket or check if it's
7:26 been revoked even if something does slip
7:29 through there's yet another security
7:31 process known as x protect which is mac
7:34 os's built-in anti-virus technology now
7:37 xprotect is pretty cool because it
7:39 automatically checks for malicious
7:41 content whenever any of the following
7:43 things occur so if an app you've already
7:45 installed gets a dodgy update for
7:47 example there's a good chance x protect
7:50 will catch it also if you go to system
7:52 preferences then security and privacy
7:54 you get a bunch of additional security
7:56 options for example restricting what
7:59 type of apps can be installed a feature
8:01 called file vault to lock down and
8:03 encrypt your files a built-in firewall
8:05 to prevent unauthorized apps programs
8:08 and services from accepting incoming
8:10 connections and finally the privacy tab
8:13 where you can fine tune exactly what the
8:16 apps on your mac can and cannot access
8:19 and you've also got some pretty powerful
8:21 features built into safari itself to
8:23 protect you while browsing the internet
8:26 now if you're still paranoid or maybe
8:27 you have an older family member who's
8:30 not very good with computers
8:31 sure you can still use an anti-virus for
8:34 that added level of protection but it's
8:36 just not necessary and sometimes
8:38 anti-virus software can be a bit of a
8:40 drag on your mac's performance by
8:42 constantly running in the background and
8:45 scanning your system over and over again
8:48 okay getting back to some more dodgy
8:50 apps another one you do not need is any
8:53 of the various cleaner apps out there
8:55 they're just not necessary and in fact
8:58 some of them might even slow your
8:59 computer down or straight up leak your
9:02 data take ccleaner for example it was
9:04 actually hacked back in 2017 putting
9:06 over 2 million users at risk of malware
9:09 infection and if you read their privacy
9:11 policy it doesn't sound good they can
9:14 collect a fair amount of personal data
9:16 from you and potentially sell that data
9:19 to advertising companies another example
9:22 is the infamous mac keeper app just like
9:24 ccleaner it was also hacked exposing the
9:27 sensitive account details of 13 million
9:30 users there are also tons of reports
9:32 from people claiming that these cleaner
9:34 apps run in the background 24 7
9:37 consuming system resources and are
9:39 almost impossible to remove the reality
9:42 is you simply don't need to be
9:43 constantly scanning your mac to improve
9:46 performance or remove viruses mac os
9:49 does a pretty good job of clearing
9:51 caches temporary files and keeping
9:53 performance at an optimal level and if
9:55 you do run into any issues guess what
9:58 these cleaner apps aren't going to help
10:00 you any more than what a simple restart
10:02 would do but no matter what the issue
10:04 worst case scenario you can simply
10:06 format your mac's internal drive and
10:09 reinstall a fresh copy of mac os it'll
10:12 take you about five minutes and maybe an
10:14 hour for the mac to download and install
10:16 everything but it's a really simple
10:18 process moving on have you ever wanted
10:20 to convert or compress an image maybe
10:23 you're trying to send an image via email
10:25 and it's too large or it needs to be a
10:27 jpeg instead of png for example usually
10:30 you'd have to upload this image to a
10:31 dodgy free image compressor website and
10:34 if you look into the privacy policy of
10:36 these sites you get the usual we look
10:38 after your data spiel but some of these
10:40 websites will actually keep your images
10:42 on their server for up to 24 hours
10:45 imagine if that website got hacked two
10:47 hours after you converted a whole bunch
10:50 of revealing photos or important tax
10:53 documents for example alternatively you
10:55 can download free image converter apps
10:57 which might be a bit safer but they're
10:59 typically pretty clunky to use well you
11:02 don't need to bother with these apps any
11:04 longer as long as your mac is running
11:06 mac os monterey or later you'll get
11:08 access to the convert image quick action
11:11 you can choose to convert your image to
11:13 a variety of popular formats select what
11:16 size you want the image to be and also
11:18 get the option to remove private
11:20 metadata from the image or with just the
11:22 click of a button and the added
11:24 advantage of a lot more privacy now this
11:26 video would not be complete if i did not
11:29 talk about vpns firstly you should
11:31 definitely stay away at all costs from
11:34 free vpns just like all the other trash
11:37 i've already mentioned in this video a
11:39 free vpn is just going to collect and
11:42 sell your data have awful security
11:44 measures in place and in some situations
11:46 route another user's online activity
11:49 through your internet connection so you
11:52 better hope that dude isn't downloading
11:54 anything involving tentacles or anime
11:56 even some of the paid vpn services are
11:59 just as bad this article from restore
12:01 privacy goes into detail on some of them
12:03 for example ola caught stealing user
12:06 bandwidth and fraudulently reselling it
12:08 or pure vpn with numerous data leaks and
12:12 logging of customer data now if you are
12:14 looking for a vpn i can recommend
12:16 private internet access and proton vpn
12:20 i'm not being sponsored or paid by
12:22 either one they're just vpns i currently
12:24 use and haven't had any issues with plus
12:27 they also have good track records a zero
12:30 log policy and good security protocols
12:33 so yeah there's a ton of really dodgy
12:36 stuff out there hopefully this video was
12:38 able to shed some light on some of it
12:41 for you and if you do have any questions
12:43 let me know down in the comment section
12:44 below but apart from that thanks for
12:46 watching and i'll catch you in the next
12:49 one
Chrome Extension