Locking screen

Setting screen to lock when coming back from idle states:

• Open Security in System Preferences
• Select the General tab
• Activate Require password after sleep or screensaver begins

Setting a shortcut to lock the screen:

• Open Exposé & Spaces in System Preferences
• Select the Exposé tab
• Select one of the shortcuts to be Put display to sleep or Start screen saver

Via MacTips

Why MacBook comes from source with lax security settings is beyond my understanding.
A fresh install will have a single user that automatically logs in, and the user's password is only necessary for administration tasks.
But there is a lot more to security than avoiding tampering with system settings. There is identity protection, there is data protection, there is privacy, there is...

The only explanation I find is that the emphasis was placed on the versatility and pleasantry of use that is being ready to start working within a dozen seconds of turning the laptop on.
But for a laptop, on which one expects the average user to take his sensitive data anywhere (be it internal company documents on a work computer, or personal files on a leisure computer)… isn't the vulnerability of this data a much graver concern than the minor inconvenience of having to input a password?
Why would that data be vulnerable without even this minimal protection?

In this day and age of digital identity and privacy management I would expect [much!] better from any company, product or service.