Even when you're covering your tracks by opening a new incognito window, your web browsing history might not be as private as you think. Information about what you do online, down to every single URL, can likely be purchased on the web by anyone who wants it. And while in most cases people are making those purchases for marketing reasons, they could choose to use their newfound knowledge maliciously as well.

In a recent blog post titled "Hardening macOS," Ricard Bejarano offers an extensive list of settings you can tweak to make macOS as secure as possible. It's a comprehensive list of tasks — and we love it — but it's important that you understand the "why" behind his recommendations, too. Here are a few of his top tips and explanations for why you're adjusting, installing, or modifying your Mac that way.

It’s safe to say that this recent Facebook access token hack is a complete mess — much more than a simple inconvenience that might have forced you to log back in to your Facebook account on your devices.

And while the company is still sorting out the details and working on ways for developers to mitigate the effects of the attack, there are three things you can do to regain a little more control over your digital life.

Let’s talk about that elephant in the room: Facebook’s recent disclosure that attackers got their hands on access tokens for an unknown number of Facebook accounts is a big deal, since it’s the kind of hack that you, a happy Facebook user, could not prevent.

A few years ago a friend told me about Streak, a Gmail extension that allows you to track whether your email has been opened. For me it was a game changer, simply because it allowed me to have some concept of whether or not a message had made it to the person I intended or had gotten stuck in a spam folder in cyberspace somewhere.

Another day, another Facebook hack. This time around, the accounts of some 50 million users were left vulnerable for over a year, with Facebook only identifying and fixing the problem on September 25. Find out exactly what happened, if you're affected, and what you can do to protect yourself in the future.

Facebook and other companies routinely track your online surfing habits to better target ads at you. Two web browsers now want to help you fight back in what's becoming an escalating privacy arms race.

Chrome wasn't the only browser to get a visual overhaul this week, because the privacy-focused Tor Browser was also given a new lick of paint, as well as a host of under-the-hood upgrades, and refinements to make it easier to use for newcomers. There are now more reasons than ever to make Tor your daily browser of choice.

In this week’s tech-support column, I’m taking on an uncomfortable issue: How to regain control of your accounts from a not-so-kind ex. I’m hoping your former loved one isn’t a complete psychopath — or, at least, isn’t a psychopath that has access to your accounts — but it’s an all-too-familiar story. You live with someone, you share your hopes and your dreams, and they find a way to get into your accounts. (That, or you share login credentials, which is a pretty bad idea, too.)

Privacy advocates love it. Law enforcement hates it. The Tor web browser is especially designed to provide web users with a a completely anonymised online experience - and it recently received a big new update. But what is Tor? Why do we need it? And is it actually worth using?

Facebook's investigation into thousands of apps that had access to large amounts of data has claimed the scalp of myPersonality while over 400 other apps have been suspended.

Whenever you go to Amazon, the site shows you some of the last items you looked at. The idea is that if you see that shirt, frying pan, or epic novel again, you might decide to bite the bullet and make a purchase. It's an OK idea in theory, but when the last item you looked at happens to be a gift you're researching for a loved one or something else you'd prefer to not broadcast to the world that you were looking at on the site, the tracking feature can be a bit problematic.

Browser developer tools are super-handy, allowing you to do all sorts of wonderful things to the sites you visit. All good things, of course. But, through social engineering, these tools can be used for evil. Turns out this was enough of problem for Facebook to stick a very visible warning in the website's source code.

Browser extensions are fantastic but, as superheroes have taught us, with great power comes great responsibility. Malicious developers can hide bad behaviour inside useful extensions and when they slip through the screening process, the only option left to the likes of Mozilla and Google is to ban them. Mozilla has updated its blocked add-on list and it includes an extension the company itself gave the thumbs-up just this week.

Do you have any idea whether you’re “safe” online? Online security and privacy are complicated, and risks vary by person: You might worry about getting harassed, hacked, or your boss finding your terrible old blog posts and using them as an excuse to fire you. Crash Override’s Automated Cybersecurity Helper helps you secure your accounts according to your needs, and it guides you one step at a time so you don’t get overwhelmed.

You may think you’ve turned Google’s location tracking history off, but according to a new Associated Press report released today, you might be wrong.

Chrome: Keeping up on the latest security information is tough and odds are good that you don't think about website hacks very much unless you see a headline that a particular site or service exposed your user name and password.

If you’ve ever experienced that eerie moment where you’ve been chatting about needing a new pair of shoes, then see an ad for a shoe sale in the middle of your social media feed just a few minutes later, you’ve likely wondered just how much our devices are listening in without us realising. Whether or not that’s happened to you, privacy and security are concerns for us all, and it’s important to know what our devices are up to.

Given all the controversy surrounding Facebook and how third parties have been slurping up up our data and using it in ways that fall outside their terms and conditions, it would have seemed prudent to hang back from releasing any new services that might be considered sensitive. But Facebook is pushing forward with testing of its new dating service.