AUGUST 2021 MACWORLD 99Safari
warns of
connections
to sites that
aren’t what
they appear
to be—but
you’ll see it
on a hotspot
network if
you haven’t
yet passed
the portal
page.can follow these instructions (fave.
co/3dDgP0h) to disable automatic image
and media loading. Starting with the
release later this year of iOS/iPadOS 15
and macOS 12 Monterey, you can go
further by enabling Mail Privacy Protection
(fave.co/3dBqAfH), which loads trackers
through a proxy to break the connection to
you. (This feature doesn’t require iCloud+,
the new name for paid iCloud tiers.)
DON’T CLICK ON SITE LINKS
IN EMAIL
While it’s convenient to click links in
emails, not clicking links and instead using
bookmarks or typing the first few letters of
a site bypasses most phishing attacks.
HOVER OVER LINKS BEFORE
CLICKING
If you’re thinking of clicking and have an
email client (like Apple’s Mail) that
supports it, you can hover over any link
and see what it looks like. If it’s not the
URL of the company or group that sent it,
don’t click. Some companies use email
tracking and route their links through
Mailchimp and other legitimate email-
sending firms. You can’t differentiate
between use and misuse in those cases.
With Apple email, hovering over shows
the URL as tip text; only when you click
the downward-pointing arrow do you get
a full preview, which I recommend not
doing given the risk of providing more
information about yourself.LOOK FOR WARNINGS
IN EMAIL
Some email apps automatically warn you,
or you can enable warnings that tell you a
message looks suspicious or has links that
point to known phishing sites. I use
Postbox, which has this option. It’s not
always accurate—it dislikes eBay’s emails,
for some reason—but it at least makes me
warier of an incoming email.
If you decide the link is legitimate and
you go ahead and click it, be wary and
follow this advice:
Check the padlock. Safari and most
other browsers display a lock icon in the
Location or similar bar at the top of their
window in desktop and mobile versions. If
you don’t see a padlock, it’s a problem.