Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Mountain Lion Edition

Privacy and Security Features

Every year, there’s another headline about some break-in where millions of credit card numbers are stolen by a hacker, sending panic into the hearts of the world’s innocent Web audiences. In Mountain Lion, Apple strikes back with some of its cleverest privacy and security features yet.

Erasing Your History

Some people find it creepy that Safari maintains a complete list of every Web site they’ve seen recently, right there in plain view of any family member or coworker who wanders by.

To delete just one particularly incriminating History listing, click the icon at the left end of the Bookmarks bar; in the resulting Bookmarks organizer window, click History. Expand the relevant date triangle, highlight the offending address, and then press your Delete key. Click again to return to normal browsing. You’ve just rewritten History!

Or, to erase the entire History menu, choose History→Clear History.

Of course, the History menu isn’t the only place where you’ve left footprints. If you choose Safari→Reset Safari instead, you also erase all other shreds of your activities: any cookies (Web-page preference files) you’ve accumulated, your list of past downloads, the cache files (bits of the Web pages that a browser stores on your hard drive to save time when you return ...