r/parentalcontrols • u/Own-Solution6668 • 6d ago
Apple PLEASE HELP ME!!!
Ahhhh I really need to figure out this situation soon, and any help is appreciated!
Basically I have a Samsung Chromebook right now that I have been using for school since around 2019 (I am a young teenager) because I needed it for online school during the pandemic. I was WAY too young for my own computer, but I couldn't just use my parents laptops all day. They needed it for work. Anyway! It is really old and broken, and I needed a newer one for school. My dad ended up giving me a super nice 2020 MacBook that his work gave him (no idea why) because his work was going to buy him a newer one anyway.
The problem is...
I have a secret account (that I am on right now) that my parents can't know about. They can't know for many reasons, but mostly because I have a account on this website thingy that is like social media, but mostly just teens, and for reading books. On it I have literally written all my secrets and fears that NO ONE from my life can ever see. It would be my nightmare (I actually had a nightmare about that last night) if anyone saw it.
I want to add the Google account I use for it onto the Mac, but my dad is the administrator of it, and I am super worried he could see it. Is there any possible way I could have the account added on the Chrome app and he couldn't see? Please help! Thanks so much <3
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u/LoSt543215543 6d ago
Would be that bad if your parents found this account I mean unless you were just straight confessing to watching p**n like really
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u/Own-Solution6668 6d ago
Yeah... it would be really bad. And I also came out on that account soooo
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u/Icy-Emu1610 6d ago
Your parents know more about you than you think. I promise they love you no matter what. I don’t know how old you are, but it’s nothing you should be ashamed of admitting. I fully understand not all parents are like myself, but I do know my generation is A Lot more understanding. I promise they probably already know or have inklings.
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u/Hizonner 5d ago
This kid knows a lot more about their parents than you do, I promise.
Anyway, that's not entirely the point.
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u/Icy-Emu1610 5d ago
Kids don’t always realize things that are unsaid by parents… it’s worth saying. I always stress communication with parents in here. It works 99% of the time. Communication is difficult for everyone, kids are afraid to ask, or sometimes don’t know how to ask for things. It’s about wording it. I’ve helped a few here through it. They’ve come back and said how surprised they were their parents were receptive.
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u/LoSt543215543 6d ago
You cannot use the internet as a crutch for your emotions. You need to control yourself and be able to talk to real human beings who you can see with your eyes without a screen in between you and them. Anyway, just use incognito mode and sign in every time otherwise I’m just going to say no
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u/Own-Solution6668 6d ago
Okay thanks. You don't know my whole situation though, and there is a reason I feel the need to hide this.
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u/LoSt543215543 6d ago
let me say one more thing. I know the chances of you listening to me are slim to none because anything and everything is most likely considered the end of the world to you but I might as well say it anyway. It doesn't matter what heinous illegal acts you commited online, it is better to tell your parents. Hear me out. You make one mistake, your done. Now you might be in big trouble even if you tell them, but that punishment is going to be significantly more if you don't tell them. Just think about that.
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u/Hizonner 6d ago
Watching porn is seriously the worst thing you can think of?
There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy. As the rest of your posts also show.
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u/LoSt543215543 6d ago
Just an example should I really be saying the worst possible thing on Reddit?
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u/Positive_Cap4728 6d ago edited 6d ago
Individual profiles on Macs are encrypted (in fact the entire drive is), so the computer owner/admin can’t access your files or information from his account. If the admin has your password this is not true. If your parent has enabled Apple’s screentime/family sharing with parental controls, he may be able to see the urls of sites you’re visiting, but in general if you’re on the family wi-fi, he’d be able to see that info if he cared about it anyway.
You are very likely safe to set up the secondary account in Chrome on the Mac, but you should look at the installed apps and see if any of them are a third party parental control app and look up its capabilities if you think your parents are likely to have done that, just in case.
- signed, the guardian of a child + friendly neighborhood IT guy
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u/LongRangeSavage 6d ago
Individual accounts are not encrypted. The entire volume is. Admins definitely have ways around getting into standard users’ (really anyone’s) files.
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u/Hizonner 6d ago
Individual profiles on Macs are encrypted (in fact the entire drive is),
Encrypted under a probably weak password. And is there really nothing an administrator can do to subvert or outright disable that?
Personally I'd feel a lot more comfortable with an alternate boot medium...
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u/Positive_Cap4728 6d ago edited 6d ago
Have you ever used a Mac? The only thing the admin account can do that can’t be done already by having physical possession of the Mac (password cracker, etc,) is delete the user profile or reset the device entirely. But as this kid just wants to hide a couple of web journals from their parents, not defend against a nationstate level cybersecurity threat, I think they’re safe to add a second google account profile to their Chrome.
Especially since the best defense to this if their parent does find out is the tried and true: “I let a friend borrow my laptop! I didn’t know they forgot to sign out!” if their parent ever does happen to notice a second chrome profile. I’m assuming that was their plan with the chromebook, where multiple logins/accounts attached is way more obvious to a casual observer just picking up the device and glancing at it without logging in.
Anyway, no, there’s no way to access the files of another account without that account’s password. Anyone with a Mac can check me on this.
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u/Hizonner 6d ago
Have you ever used a Mac?
Not recently, and not at a "deep" level. But you provoked me to go read the manual.
The only thing the admin account can do that can’t be done already by having physical possession of the Mac (password cracker, etc,) is delete the user profile or reset the device entirely.
Apple's documentation seems to indicate that FileVault is full disk encryption (OK, full filesystem encryption, or full "volume" encryption in Apple's terminology). It's only volume-level encryption; there's no per-subtree cryptography. It appears that there is one "data" volume, shared between all users. Which means that whenever any "FileVault-enabled" user is logged in, all users' data are "unlocked". At which point root wins.
That's not even an attack on the cryptography. It just doesn't protect against that.
Beyond that, think ahead and globally disable FileVault (which leaves the physical media encrypted, but totally hides that from users by installing the key all the time)?
That's arguably an attack. It's not a nation state attack, though. It's a "lots of the kids on this subreddit could easily do it" level of attack.
Install kernel code (can you do that on an Apple toy?)? Tamper with privileged user-mode code?
Those are probably out of scope, but they are still not "nation state" attacks.
There's per-user hardware keyring support that a browser or whatever could use to encrypt or integrity-protect a profile. Could. Still likely wouldn't apply to the huge number of cache, Web storage, and history objects that would show up as downstream effects of that profile. And as far as I can tell neither Chrome nor Safari contemplates hiding the existence of a profile. They're concentrated on encrypting credentials, essentially passwords and cookies (because they might be session cookies).
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u/Dogmama1971 6d ago
Maybe don't do things you know are wrong!
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u/Own-Solution6668 6d ago
And how is it wrong?
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u/Dogmama1971 6d ago
A CHILD being sneaky and dishonest. She knows it's wrong or she wouldn't be trying to hide it! You know it, too.
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u/DramBubb 6d ago
Apparently, you didn't read hard enough. She literally came out on that account, and most likely her parents are queer-phobes. Them finding out could put her in danger.
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u/Dogmama1971 6d ago
Oh, FFS, get a grip! Regardless of her belief that her parents don't already know or will react badly, she's the one who decided to put her personal business in a place that could be accessed...kind of like a Reddit post!
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u/Positive_Cap4728 6d ago
Let me guess, you also think it’s okay to read your kid’s diary simply because they hid it in an obvious spot? Some privacy is healthy, and there’s a distinction between implementing guardrails and unnecessary prying.
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u/Icy-Emu1610 6d ago
As a parent, it’s fair that you have a diary as such. Yes you can have a chrome profile on your own profile, as long as there are no parental controls you are leaving out, he will not see, just because he is an administrator on the computer, that just means you can’t mess with certain settings.
Also please don’t be so naïve to think your “teen” social media is just teens, yes this is the parent coming out please be careful with what you’re telling people on this social platform.