📖Stay Secure & Private
Stay safe and sound
The Security & Privacy section in the System Settings of elementary OS provides options to manage and customize various aspects related to security and privacy: from managing data history to giving apps permission to determine your actual location. All these settings empower you to maintain a secure and private computing experience.
Let's explore the settings inside the section:
History Management
The History settings allow you to control the manner of how elementary OS stores local usage data. The system can store local usage data, so you can quickly access recently-used files, get more relevant local search, etc.
You have the following settings to configure:
Select data sources from which elementary OS obtains data.
Define applications and folders that will be excluded from data collection sources.
Clear the history for a specified period, or for all the time passed.
By disabling the main toggle in the top-right, totally turn off data retaining.
Regardless of the listed settings configuration, usage data is never transmitted off of this device or to third parties.
Locking Options
In the Locking section, you can specify when the system must get locked for security purposes. Enable or disable the toggles in the Locking subsection depending on your desire to:
Lock the system on suspend
Lock the system after the screen turns off
Forbid new USB devices when the system is locked
You can configure the settings of session suspending and turning off the display in the Power section of the System Settings.
Firewall Settings
Firewall acts as a barrier between your computer and potentially malicious incoming network connections. In the Firewall section, you can set up rules to deny, allow, or limit the network traffic via specified ports and protocols.
Normally, you can leave the firewall disabled, unless you are a CIA agent on a secret mission 😉
Configuring firewall requires certain skills and knowledge regarding network ports and protocols. Proceed to create rules for ports only if you are sure in what you are doing.
System Housekeeping
In the Housekeeping section, you can specify when and whether to automatically delete downloaded, temporary, and trashed files to keep your system clean and optimize storage space.
To view the trash bin content, click Open Trash in the bottom-right.
Location Services
In the Location Services section, you can enable/disable the permission for applications to determine your location.
When enabled, and if there are installed applications that use location services, you can see them automatically appeared in this section.
Related Links
Except for the Security & Privacy section, there are more settings that can be applied for a better security and privacy within the system. For example, you can create multiple accounts to manage user access and permissions, configure the lid close behavior for laptops to lock the system, determine permissions for installed applications, and so on.
Follow the links below to learn more.
NEED a LINK for apps permissions, the article is not yet written.
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