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How-to: Lock down private files on your phone or computer
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It doesn’t matter what you save to your phone, computer or tablet — everything you keep on your devices should be considered private unless you give someone else permission to look through your files, images and apps.
Unfortunately, the default settings on most gadgets aren’t set up to keep everything hidden or password-protected. Anyone who accesses your devices can see everything. Tap or click here to learn how to passcode-protect your apps.
So, how do you protect your information? There are a few settings and privacy apps that can help lock down your devices. Let’s start with protecting your Mac.
Your own private terminal
In the latest version of macOS, you can hide files and folders using your computer terminal program. This text-based emulator is used for typing commands, and the one command you need to know is “chflags hidden.”
Open Terminal by clicking the Launchpad icon, which looks like a little space shuttle. This can be found on your Mac’s Dock, the bar at the bottom of your screen. Type “Terminal” in the search field, then click the app when it appears.
Another way to open Terminal is to open Finder, which looks like a blue and white face. Go to Applications, then the Utilities folder and double-click Terminal.
Now open the folder or file you want to hide. In Terminal, type in the following command, but do not hit the Return key yet:
Double-check to ensure you did place a space between “chflags” and “hidden,” then add another space after “hidden.” Next, drag your file or the entire folder from its location and add it to the end of the Terminal command and hit Return.
Now no one who looks through your computer will see that your file or folder exists — even if they use Finder.
To unhide anything you’ve already hidden, simply open Terminal and input the following command, again without hitting Return yet:
Your hidden files and folders will appear here, so just drag them out and hit Return. Now you can see your secret files in Finder again.
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