MacOS – Protect a folder from access

The following worked with my Synology NAS:

1. Browse to the network drive in Finder
2. Double-click on the sparse bundle file for the computer you want to access.
3. Click on the "Time Machine Backups" disk image in Finder (added to the left-hand pane by step 2 above).
4. Open the backups.backupsdb folder inside this disk image.
5. Continue as per previous comments.

This is the standard permissions configuration and has been around since the beta days of Mac OS X when Unix underpinnings were established for Apple’s new computer OS.

The root of your home folder is global read, but standard macOS folders within such as Desktop and Documents should be global no access. Feel free to set the permissions of other folders which you create in the root of your home folder to match the permissions on the standard folders.

If you wish new folders to, by default, be global no access, change the permissions on the root of your home folder, propagate the permissions recursively and set up ACLs to inherit permissions for new folders, however I am unsure as to any effects this may have.