As all the Mac users out there will tell you, one of the best features that comes with their computer, is the built in feature to securely empty trash.

When you delete something from your computer, whether it is photos, music, movies or text documents etc it is not really gone forever. Even when you recycle your trash can with a little effort and a couple of software data recovery tools the files can be recovered.

This is because deleting your files requires too much effort on the fly for your computer to handle whilst still being used.

So what your computer does is not delete your files at all, instead hide them and tell your operating system when new files come or are added to the computer, they may right over the same space on your hard drive that the deleted files existed on.

Most people believe it should not be left up to a government, organisation or software company to decide what your privacy should be.

Until recently a terrific feature built into the Apple OSX operating system was the ability to securely delete your files so they were unrecoverable by yourself, or anyone else who had access to your computer.

Unfortunately with the latest release of OSX (El Capitan), Apple has removed the “Secure Delete” feature, and upset a large legion of fans.

Best Alternative to Secure Empty Trash

I am not big on promoting paid software, but because this was really cheap and so valuable it was definitely worth writing about.

So far, the best and most affordable alternative to securely delete files on your Apple Mac computer I have found is FileShredder which can be bought through the Apple Store. There are a lot of programs out there for Windows and Mac with the same name or similar so the one I am referring to, the link is here.

Once the App is installed on your Mac computer, it will add an icon to the Doc on your computer (the bottom bar) and all you will have to do when you want to securely delete a file is drag it into it.

Depending on the size of the file , the speed of your computer and how many files you drag into it will determine how long it takes. It does not happen immediately as the program runs a set algorithm that writes over the file many times to make sure it is unrecoverable.

If the files are too but or there are too many, it might be worth doing at night when you go to bed, and it will be finished in the morning when you are ready to use your computer again.

You can continue to use your computer while FileShredder is running.