How to Prevent Cross-Site Tracking Automatically in Safari on Mac

When you browse the internet, data brokers and advertising networks use tracking cookies to monitor the websites you visit, the products you look at, and the articles you read. They then compile this data to build a profile of your interests, which is why a pair of shoes you viewed on an e-commerce site will suddenly haunt you in banner advertisements across the rest of the web. Apple Safari includes a built-in privacy feature called Intelligent Tracking Prevention that automatically blocks these third-party trackers from following you.

How to Enable Prevent Cross-Site Tracking

Apple enables this privacy feature by default on new Mac installations, but it is always wise to verify that it is turned on, especially if you recently restored your computer from an older backup or altered your settings.

1. Open the Safari browser on your Mac.
2. In the top menu bar, click on the bold Safari name.
3. Select Settings… (or Preferences) from the dropdown menu.
4. At the top of the settings window, click on the Privacy tab (the icon looks like a hand).
5. Locate the Website tracking section.
6. Ensure the checkbox next to Prevent cross-site tracking is ticked.

How to See Who is Trying to Track You

Once this feature is enabled, Safari works silently in the background, analyzing the behavior of the domains loading on your screen and aggressively blocking those identified as known trackers. If you want to see exactly how much tracking Safari is preventing on your behalf, you can view the Privacy Report.

1. Navigate to any standard website in Safari (e.g., a news site or a shopping site).
2. Look at the address bar at the top of the browser. On the far left, just before the website URL, you will see a small icon that looks like a shield.
3. Click the Shield icon.

A pop-up window will appear showing you exactly how many trackers were blocked on the current page. If you click the small arrow icon in that pop-up, you can view a comprehensive list detailing the specific advertising networks and data brokers that Safari stopped from recording your activity over the last 30 days.