Make websites behave

Fed up with pop-ups and auto-playing videos? Take control with Safari

- Kenny Hemphill

IT WILL TAKE

> 30 minutes

YOU WILL LEARN

> How to stop annoying online interruptions in Safari

YOU'LL NEED

> Safari for macOS

Jargon buster

Configured websites

are websites for which you have previously chosen an option to either allow or deny, say, location information but which are not currently open.

Privacy has been at the heart of many of Apple's new features and improvements in macOS in recent years. And nowhere is this more evident than in Safari.

Whether it's preventing you from being tracked by cross-site cookies as you browse, or displaying a privacy report for the websites you visit, Apple has done much to make Safari more secure. In addition to those improvements, there are a whole host of ways you can tweak how Safari deals with websites that may want access to your microphone or camera, or auto-play videos, display pop-ups or notifications, or want to know your location.

You can control what data websites have access to and how far they can go with putting content in front of you using Safari's preferences. And you can even tell specific websites to always open in Reader mode ideal for sites that seem not to care whether videos and other animated content prevent you from reading the words on the page. Preferences can be set on a global basis, so all sites follow the same rules, or on a site-by-site basis, whichever you prefer.