Privacy Tab Options vanished

Question

I'll take you on a tour of how today went, and maybe there's something related.
Seems to have started with Panic Attack total freeze then forced to restart.
I grabbed shot with camera of the black box that appears, 'You need to restart your computer'
I was at Toucharcade reviewing iPad game with several Youtube reviews, then poof, instant lock.
I wouldn't put it past the site inflicting the cause.
Restart, then performed Disc Utility permission repair & restart again.
Went to Safari Preferences, and made Privacy settings to basically kill all.
Went to log into here, Apple Support, Impossible to get here in Safari. Now Firefox.
Go to reset privacy settings, Privacy Tab is blank. Weird.
Explored settings in System Preferences, and noticed Firewall was disabled. Not sure why.
Would of been nice to know this warning on restart any time.
I don't recall actions this weird in 5 years. A major pain,   can no longer access main sites used.
Searched for the issue, found same problem.
If this is something I have to do that follows, or something else, I'll give it a go.
The person below opted to reload system from disc, so we don't know what might have been found.
Thanks
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3206217?tstart=0
Linc Davis
Helpful AnswerRe: safari preferences
Jul 26, 2011 8:56 AM (in response to skalarocks)
Do not reset Safari.
Your problem is caused by a third-party system modification.
Reboot as usual (not in safe mode) if you haven't already done so.
Launch the Terminal application,
copy or drag --
do not type -- the line of text below into the window, and press return:
kextstat -kl | awk ' !/apple/ { print $6 } '
Post the lines of output (if any) that appear below what you just entered (the text, please, not a screenshot.)
Next, do the same thing with this line:
sudo launchctl list | sed 1d | awk ' !/0x|apple|com\.vix|edu\.|org\./ { print $3 } '
That's one line, not two. You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up. You don't need to post the warning.
Next, this command:
launchctl list | sed 1d | awk ' !/0x|apple|edu\.|org\./ { print $3 } '
Again, one line. Finally, one more:
ls -1 /Library/{InputManagers,StartupItems}
Remember, this is all drag-and-drop or copy-and-paste, whichever you prefer -- no typing, except your password.

Answer 1

Go to reset privacy settings, Privacy Tab is blank. Weird.
Try troubleshooting the Safari preference file  (.plist)
Quit Safari.
Go to ~/Library/Preferences
Move the com.apple.Safari.plist file from the Preferences folder to the Desktop.
Relaunch Safari. Try Safari > Preferences - Privacy
If that helped, move the .plist file to the Trash, If not, just move it back to the Preferences folder. If not, move it back to the Preferences folder.
If that didn't help, quit Safari.
Go to ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/Cache.db
Move the Cache.db file from the com.apple.Safari folder to the Trash. Relaunch Safari.
~ (Tilde) character represents the Home folder.
edited by:  cs