Friday, March 29, 2024

Removing Website Cookies From Your Mac

It’s no question that as time passes, keeping your privacy while browsing the internet is becoming more and more difficult everyday. In fact, with advertising becoming more and more intrusive and predominant, almost every website you visit will want to track your activity and pull out as much of your own private data as possible and sell it to third parties. And while it is a very frustrating thing to behold, it is sadly our reality as the internet shifts more and more to accommodate consumer and retail culture. However, the good news is that there are a few things that you can do, to try and minimize the level of information that you give out while browsing online and one of the best ways to do that, is by deleting tracking cookies.

What Are Website Cookies?

For those unfamiliar, cookies are essentially unique and small text files that are placed within your Mac’s browser by the different websites you visit. This is essentially done to help the website easily identify you later. However, while in most cases the information they tend to store is harmless, there is usually no guarantee that the information they end up storing, such as your email, will not be used for other purposes. In fact, despite legislation requiring websites to outline exactly what it is they are doing with your data, the excessive terms of use are usually just too dense for anybody to reasonably go through or be bothered with. As a result, the best solution that is recommended for most Mac users to implement, is to simply clean up the information we leave behind after visiting these websites.

Now, when most people find out how intrusive these tracking cookies can be, tend to panic and wonder how dangerous they can be, in regards to their personal information, browsing habits or even overall Mac’s health. However, cookies aren’t viruses, but simple text files. As such, they do not pose any direct threat to your Mac. However, you should keep in mind that if these text files begin to accumulate in your Mac too much, this information could end up in the wrong hands and be used to phish or scam you. Or, the excess files can be damaging in the long run, as they start to consume storage space. In such instances, it’s always best to have an external storage handy in the event you need to delete files or make room on your Mac, to keep your performance levels at an optimum rate. In this regard, you can always utilise a microsd to usb 3.0 adapter in such cases.

How To Locate And Delete Cookies On Your Mac.

Every browser essentially supports the use of cookies and a s ar result each of them comes with the option to delete cookies that are saved on your Mac quite easily.

Delete Cookies in Safari:

  1. Preferences
  2. Privacy tab
  3. Manage Website Data.
  4. Remove All. 
Delete Cookies in Safari

Delete Cookies in Firefox & Chrome:

  1. Preferences.
  2. Privacy & Security.
  3. Cookies and Site Data.
  4. Manage Data.
  5. Remove.
Delete Cookies in Firefox & Chrome

Removing Website Cookies Automatically

As you have seen above, removing cookies is never really a difficult process. However, considering gate fact that it would be unreasonable and quote tedious to have to do this every single time, it begs the question of whether there is uneasier and automatic way to have your cookies deleted. It is for this reason that installing a third party app like CleanMyMacX can prove to be useful as it will allow yo to easily be rid of any cookies on your Mac with one simple click. It is also a very useful cleanup tool for clearing storage space in your Mac. On this note, it is recommended that you purchase an external storage drive and usb-c multiport hub to help you facilitate better Mac performance.

Can I Prevent Cookies From Accessing My Mac?

The gross news is, if you follow the above recommendations, you should be safer than most other Mac users in regards to keeping your private information secure from website trackers. However, there are also other methods by which websites can track your online activity and store your private information, besides using cookies. Some of these other intrusive methods include; IP address collection, mouse tracking, among several other techniques. As such, it’s best if you have a reliable solution in place that will keep you and your browsing activity safe.

In such instances, you can make use of a third-party app like AdGuard. This is essentially a small but useful application that can help you keep your private information safe from intrusive websites, across all your Mac’s web browsers at the same time. It does this by automatically blocking all cookies, ads, trackers, spyware, and more. Moreover, you can also block specific websites as well.

Conclusion

In summary, this article should have helped you better understand the risk that cookie collectors on certain websites can pose to your privacy and how you can minimise how often this happens. From deleting your cookies manually on each browser to utilising a third party app like CleanMyMacX or AdGuard, there are several ways to keep your private information safe. You should also restrict the websites that your browser accepts cookies from, by activating the “do not track” option in your settings.