My Frustration With Privacy Screens For My MacBook Pro

I find privacy screens frustrating, yet necessary. As I prepare to head to Buenos Aires for the ICANN 53 meeting I was reminded by a thread on Facebook that I should re-install my privacy screen on my 15" MacBook Pro. It's not that I have anything in particular to hide... it's just that when I'm sitting in chairs surrounded by people on all sides of me I don't particularly want people next to me reading whatever it is I have on my screen.

My frustration is that it seems that the only real provider for a MacBook Pro is 3M (here's a search on Amazon) and the problem is simply this...

It's very hard to take the privacy screen on and off!

For whatever reason... perhaps the limited space on the edge of the screen... perhaps customer frustration with past implementations... 3M makes the privacy screen go all the way to the edge of the display and then has you mount it using a double-sided tape. There are no clips or anything that you slide your screen in to. You tape it on to the MBP screen.

Now... IN THEORY... you are supposed to be able to take the privacy screen on and off multiple times. The tape is supposed to keep working.

In practice, I've found that you can remove the screen and replace it... but only a couple of times.

After that... the tape loses its stickiness and the screen starts falling off.

With a previous laptop, this was fine. I mounted a privacy screen on the laptop and pretty much never took it off. It worked fine.

However, with this laptop, I've been in several situations where I wound up needing to give a presentation to a small group of people without a projector and so I needed to take the privacy screen off so that people could gather around and see the presentation. Additionally, I had a couple of situations at home where I wanted to have multiple people look at my laptop.

The end result is that the privacy screen no longer sticks to the MBP.

Now, 3M did provide a few extra strips of tape when I bought the screen... but I have no clue where I put those strips of tape.

My solution right now is to just apply a couple of pieces of regular clear tape to hold the screen in place. It works... although it doesn't look all that pretty.

What do any other MacBook Pro owners do for privacy screens?

Do you have another vendor of privacy screens you like? Do you just leave the screen always on? Do you keep re-applying the tape? Have you found a way to have clips on the side?

Comments

[George Michaelson]

Older models came with plastic 'clips which stuck permanently to the screen edge, to make slots to slide it into. Alas, as we've gone edgeless, this has become harder to make work on Macs.

I have found the sticky strips are working. I now remove a lot more than I used to, and have yet to seek replacement sticky.

[Dan York]

George - yes, someone else suggested I try to find those plastic clips... although in looking online it looks like I probably would need to buy a new privacy screen just to get the clips! :-(

I'm glad the sticky strips are working for you. As evidenced by my post, they are not working for me. Perhaps you're taking better care of them than I was able to do.

[John Wall]

I haven't found anything that works. I used to have a 3M one that had tabs that stayed on all the time, but haven't seen those in a while. I've seen people use velcro but that won't work on a Mac. I've thought about super gluing one to a piece of lycra and making a "privacy turtleneck" for my mac but it's less work to risk somebody catching a peek of whatever HBO show I am watching...

[Noah]

You can get free replacement strips at http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/3MScreens_NA/Protectors/Tips-Resources/Parts/

No cost, free shipping.

[Simon]

Can you not just place the privacy filter which you want to use it in front of the screen without sticking it onto the mac?
I was thinking of getting one and since i do not use public transport, I drive, the only time I would use it is when I'm at a desk so I would just switch on my mac and then just place the filter on the screen when I want to use it. I would then take it off and put it into the folder when I'm not using it.

[Dan York]

Noah - MANY thanks for pointing out that page on 3M's site. I've now ordered some replacements.

Simon - if you are at a desk where you can put the privacy filter on and off that can probably work great for you. I need this for my laptop and so it's cumbersome to have the filter in there when it is NOT attached correctly. (It gets in the way of the laptop closing sometimes... or it falls out.)

[Michael]

What I did with an edgeless screen was I "built up" the slide tabs -- I put two slide tabs on top of each other (one pointing up, one pointing down) at the bottom of the screen, and other MacGuyering as needed. It's not pretty, necessarily, but slide tabs rarely are.

[Jim]

I seem to remember that 3M give instructions how to refresh the stickyness. This is what I do, put pure dishwashing detergent on the pads and scrub the detergent into the pads with the back of your finger nail. ie clean the pads. Wash off. Let dry. Stickness should now be a lot better.

[Darcie]

My solution, while not elegant, works for me...."sticky tack". Sometimes called poster tack or poster putty. Just take a couple of tiny pieces, roll them into small balls and place them under the corners of the protective screen. On my desktop I actually place the tack on the outside of the screen protector in each corner and secure it against the lip of the monitor. It allows me to easily remove and replace the protector (which I do often). To refresh the tack, just give it a little roll between thumb and forefinger. Good luck, hope this helps! :)

[david]

Privacy screens are not meant to be take on and off, you put it on and leave it. Or then did you really need privacy...