To protect or not

Hi. I have just brought a Mackbook air
& keep being told (apple shop & John Lewis) that i don't really need internet protection. It would be nice to hear other peoples view. Peteg1

Against viruses, true. However, there is malware out there in the form of popup ads and various hijackers for browsers. Malwarebytes has the currently best app to clean that up if it happens. Ghostery and AdBlock+ are good for preventing most of it in the first place. I've recently seen some poor evaluations of AdBlock+, but I don't use it myself so I cannot say if they are true. I use Ghostery and it seems to work very well.

EDIT: OH, and welcome to the forum and to the world of Macs. I think you'll enjoy both!

Here are the steps that I've taken to ensure safety on my Macs without the need for any active anti-virus software..

I employ Flashblock, Adblock and Ghostery on my browser. This prevents the bulk of the browser related issues. Only download files from reputable sites and be VERY weary when you are prompted for your password to ensure that is absolutely needed.

With these simple things, my machines have been clean and fine for many years..

This might be useful to some, it's new: https://www.eff.org/privacybadger

cradom said:

This might be useful to some, it's new: https://www.eff.org/privacybadger

Click to expand...

This...this I like! Nice find. And, given that it's the EFF, I'm inclined to believe that this is probably a fairly solid methods of blocking trackers.

peteg1 said:

Hi. I have just brought a Mackbook air
& keep being told (apple shop & John Lewis) that i don't really need internet protection.

Click to expand...

You need some level of critical thinking (which goes for any computing device). Check URLs to make sure that you are where you think you are, don't open random things, etc. The Mac is no different - common sense is still necessary here.

So what does PrivacyBadger do that Ghostery does not? Let's see if I have a grasp on this... Adblocker blocks adds from popping up. Ghostery blocks ads, analytics, trackers, beacons and widgets. PrivacyBadger blocks trackers only.

I did see where running both Ghostery and PrivacyBadger is not supposed to be a problem but I guess I am wondering if I need both and if not which is better.

Lisa

cradom said:

This might be useful to some, it's new: https://www.eff.org/privacybadger

Click to expand...

Craig

When I used your helpful link to discover more about the product, it specifically said that my browser (Safari) was not supported and recommended Firefox & Chrome. I'm running Mavericks, but even so, I would have thought that Safari would have been supported??

Ian

IWT said:

I'm running Mavericks, but even so, I would have thought that Safari would have been supported??

Click to expand...

When your browser barely reaches 5% of the market and is only supported on one platform, it's hard to get full support.

The difference between Ghostery and PB might be more philosophical - Ghostery is used as a business tool and depends on using the data you voluntarily submit about where trackers do their work (they sell this data). PB is made by the EFF for the sole reason of protecting privacy (the EFF is non-profit). PB also works in a slightly different way, learning from your browsing whereas Ghostery depends on externally developed lists of trackers. In other words, PB looks at what sites seem to follow you as you browse the web and then blocks those instead of analyzing loaded pages and seeing if they match a list.

vansmith said:

The difference between Ghostery and PB might be more philosophical - Ghostery is used as a business tool and depends on using the data you voluntarily submit about where trackers do their work (they sell this data). PB is made by the EFF for the sole reason of protecting privacy (the EFF is non-profit). PB also works in a slightly different way, learning from your browsing whereas Ghostery depends on externally developed lists of trackers. In other words, PB looks at what sites seem to follow you as you browse the web and then blocks those instead of analyzing loaded pages and seeing if they match a list.

Click to expand...

Okay, that make sense. I think I will run both for now and see how it goes. One interesting thing I noticed - I installed PB on my Mac Pro and when I got home and opened my MBA it was installed on it and the webpage for PB was open on the thanks for installing page. Never had that happen before.

Thanks for the info!

Lisa

lclev said:

One interesting thing I noticed - I installed PB on my Mac Pro and when I got home and opened my MBA it was installed on it and the webpage for PB was open on the thanks for installing page. Never had that happen before.

Click to expand...

Are you using Firefox's sync feature or something like Xmarks?
They can be set to sync extensions too. That might account on it being installed on the Air.

I'm running Opera Beta at the moment and have Ghostery and AdBlock running on that so I've installed PB on Chrome just to compare. I think it is a bit more user friendly in some ways and it gives a very clear explanation of how it works via the question mark on the activity window. I like the "learn as you browse" concept, it's a different direction compared to starting out with a list of things to block and may make it more effective in the end.
Remains to be seen.