If you’re on a Mac, chances are you download apps from Apple’s App Store. Add your Apple ID, and everything is neatly in one place, updated with the click of a button.
But convenience comes at a price. Linking an Apple ID to your computer ties all your activity together and makes profiling you effortless.
In past articles, we’ve shown how much data Apple collects, and explained that Linux is the gold standard for privacy. But if you’re not ready to switch, there are still steps you can take right now to make your Mac more private.
This article focuses on Apple IDs, the App Store, and a powerful alternative called Homebrew. It’s a package manager that gives you the convenience of centralized updates without the surveillance.
It may seem impossible to avoid Apple IDs and the App Store. On an iPhone, you’re locked in: You need to add an Apple ID and use the App Store to download any apps. (The EU recently forced Apple to allow sideloading, but that doesn’t apply everywhere.)
On a Mac, things are different. You don’t need the App Store at all. You can download software directly from each developer’s website, which means you never need to attach an Apple ID to your computer. And that’s one of the best privacy moves you can make.
Unfortunately, Apple makes it a little tricky to opt out.
When you buy a new Mac, the store will push you to hand over an Apple ID at checkout. You should tell them you don’t have one.
Then when you first set up your computer, it will prompt you to add an Apple ID, and it’s not immediately clear how to skip past this step. The “Continue” button is grayed out unless you fill in your ID. What you might have missed is in the bottom left corner it says “Set Up Later”. Click that.
But Apple still puts up roadblocks. Gatekeeper, which is a macOS security feature that controls which apps are allowed to run on your Mac, by default only allows apps from the App Store or from developers that Apple has verified. If you want to allow downloads from elsewhere, you first have to turn off Gatekeeper’s strict enforcement using command line, and then go back into your settings and select the option to allow apps from “Anywhere”.
Apple really wants every download to run through them. That way, they can log every install, every update, and build a permanent profile of your habits and interests.
You can always enable auto-updates, but that means your apps constantly ping servers in the background. For many people, that’s a privacy trade-off not worth making.
In fact, I use the firewall software Little Snitch to block my apps from unnecessarily talking to the internet, which makes auto updates even harder. I have to disable the firewall, check every app one by one, and then remember to re-enable the firewall afterwards. It’s easy to slip up, and Apple knows most people won’t bother with this manual process.
Homebrew is a package manager for macOS and Linux. A package manager is similar to an app store in many ways. Think of it like a hub: a single place to find, install, and update apps quickly and reliably.
Homebrew is well known and open source, but it looks different from the stores you’re used to. There’s no visual store or GUI: Instead you use the command line in Terminal. You can’t buy anything in the store, the software is free. Some apps have paid upgrade features, but Homebrew itself has no ability to collect payments. You don’t need any account to access it, there’s no hidden tracking, and no ads.
For now, the takeaway is simple: Homebrew gives you the convenience of centralized updates without the privacy trade-offs. You get easy installs, built-in safety checks, and you never have to tie your Mac to an Apple ID.
If you want the benefits of an app store without the profiling that comes with it, Homebrew is the smarter choice.
Yours in Privacy,
Naomi
Naomi Brockwell is a privacy advocacy and professional speaker, MC, interviewer, producer, podcaster, specialising in blockchain, cryptocurrency and economics. She runs the
NBTV channel on Rumble.
