Change Privacy preferences on Mac
Use the Privacy pane of Security & Privacy preferences to manage the information your Mac makes available to others across the internet or on a network.
To change these preferences on your Mac, choose Apple menu 
Note: If the lock at the bottom left of the pane is locked 
, click it to unlock the preference pane.
Option | Description |
|---|---|
Location Services | When you enable Location Services, you allow apps, system services, and websites to use the current location of your Mac to provide information, services, and features appropriate to where you are. To see specific system services that use your location, click the Details button at the bottom of the list on the right. To allow the location of your Mac to be used by Siri Suggestions and Safari Suggestions, select Location-Based Suggestions. |
Contacts | Shows the apps that have requested access to your contacts. Deselect an app if you want to prevent it from accessing this information. |
Calendars | Shows the apps that have requested access to your calendars. Deselect an app if you want to prevent it from accessing this information. |
Reminders | Shows the apps that have requested access to your reminders. Deselect an app if you want to prevent it from accessing this information. |
Photos | Shows the apps that have requested access to your photos. Deselect an app if you want to prevent it from accessing this information. Note: If you have items that are stored outside the Photos Library, other apps may still have access to them. |
Camera | Shows the apps that have requested access to the camera on your Mac. Deselect an app if you want to prevent it from controlling your camera. |
Microphone | Shows apps that have requested access to the microphone on your Mac. Deselect an app if you want to prevent it from controlling your microphone. |
Speech Recognition | Shows apps that have requested access to speech recognition on your Mac. Deselect an app if you want to prevent it from accessing speech recognition. |
Accessibility | Shows apps that run scripts and system commands to control your Mac. Deselect an app if you want to prevent it from controlling your Mac. To add an app, click the Add button |
Input Monitoring | Shows apps that have requested to monitor input from your keyboard, mouse, or trackpad, even while using other apps. Deselect an app if you want to prevent it from monitoring your input devices. To add an app, click the Add button |
Full Disk Access | Shows apps that can access all files on your computer, including data from other apps (for example, Mail, Messages, Safari, and Home), data from Time Machine backups, and certain administrative settings for all users on this Mac. Deselect an app if you want to prevent it from having access to your files. To add an app, click the Add button |
Files and Folders | Shows apps that can access files and folders in different locations on this Mac. Deselect an app if you want to prevent it from accessing files and folders. |
Screen Recording | Shows apps that have requested access to record the contents of your screen on the Mac. Deselect an app if you want to prevent it from recording your screen. To add an app, click the Add button |
Media & Apple Music | Shows apps that have requested access to Apple Music, your music and video activity, and your media library on this Mac. Deselect an app if you want to prevent it from recording your screen. |
HomeKit | Shows apps that have requested access to your home data on this Mac. Deselect an app if you want to prevent it from recording your screen. |
Bluetooth | Shows apps that have requested use of Bluetooth on this Mac. Deselect an app if you want to prevent it from recording your screen. To add an app, click the Add button |
Automation | Shows apps that can access and control other apps on your Mac. Deselect an app if you want to prevent it from controlling other apps. |
Analytics & Improvements | To help Apple and other developers serve customers better and improve the quality of their products, you can choose to automatically send analytics information to Apple and app developers.
See Share analytics information from your Mac with Apple and Change Siri preferences on Mac. |
Apple Advertising | You may sometimes receive ads in Apple News, Stocks, and the Mac App Store that are targeted to your interests. To understand why a specific ad was shown to you, click the Ad button on the ad. You can disable Personal Ads to prevent Apple from using your information for ad targeting. This may not decrease the number of ads you receive, but the ads may be less relevant to you. You can disable Personalized Ads by going to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy, select Apple Advertising, and deselect Personalized Ads. To review Apple’s Advertising and Privacy policy, click About Advertising and Privacy. |
, For more information about privacy in macOS, see Guard your privacy.