Social media platforms collect enormous amounts of personal data—your interests, relationships, location, browsing habits, and more. While you can’t use these platforms without sharing some information, you can significantly limit what’s collected and who can see it. Here are the essential privacy settings you should change today.
Why Social Media Privacy Matters
The information you share on social media can be used for:
- Targeted advertising based on your behavior and interests
- Identity theft by criminals gathering personal details
- Stalking and harassment when location or personal information is visible
- Employment decisions as employers often check social profiles
- Social engineering attacks using information about your life
- Data breaches exposing information you thought was private
Universal Best Practices
Before diving into platform-specific settings, these practices apply everywhere:
Audit What You’ve Already Shared
Go through your past posts, photos, and profile information. Delete anything you wouldn’t want a stranger, employer, or criminal to see.
Limit Profile Information
Only fill in required fields. Your birthday, hometown, relationship status, and workplace are valuable to identity thieves.
Review App Permissions
Third-party apps often request excessive permissions. Regularly audit what apps have access to your accounts and revoke permissions you don’t need.
Be Selective About Friend Requests
Not every request is legitimate. Fake accounts are used for scams, data collection, and social engineering.
Think Before You Post
Before sharing anything, ask: Would you be comfortable if everyone in the world saw this forever?
Facebook Privacy Settings
Who Can See Your Posts
Navigate to Settings > Privacy:
- Future posts: Set to “Friends” instead of “Public”
- Limit past posts: Use the tool to limit all previous public posts to friends only
- Who can see your friends list: Set to “Only me”
- Who can look you up by email/phone: Set to “Friends” or “Only me”
- Search engine indexing: Turn off “Allow search engines to link to your profile”
Profile Privacy
Review your profile’s “Edit” options:
- Make your birthday (at least the year) private
- Limit who can see your friends list, likes, and followed pages
- Consider hiding your relationship status, workplace, and hometown
Timeline and Tagging
Settings > Timeline and Tagging:
- Review posts you’re tagged in: Enable this to approve tags before they appear
- Review tags before they appear: Enable tag review
- Who can post on your timeline: Limit to friends or disable entirely
Location and Face Recognition
- Location Services: Disable location history
- Face Recognition: Turn off “Do you want Facebook to be able to recognize you in photos?”
Apps and Websites
Settings > Apps and Websites:
- Review all connected apps
- Remove any you don’t use or don’t recognize
- Be very cautious about future app permissions
Instagram Privacy Settings
Account Privacy
Settings > Privacy:
- Private Account: Enable this to require follow approval
- Activity Status: Turn off to hide when you’re online
- Story Sharing: Disable “Allow Sharing to Stories”
Story Controls
Settings > Privacy > Story:
- Allow Sharing: Disable if you don’t want your stories shared
- Sharing to Messages: Consider disabling
- Create a Close Friends list: Share sensitive content only with trusted people
Interactions
Settings > Privacy:
- Comments: Filter or disable comments from non-followers
- Tags: Require approval for tagged posts
- Mentions: Limit who can mention you
Data and Content
Settings > Security:
- Login Activity: Review and remove unfamiliar sessions
- Third-Party Apps: Remove unnecessary connected apps
- Download Your Data: Periodically review what Instagram has collected
Twitter/X Privacy Settings
Protect Your Tweets
Settings > Privacy and Safety:
- Protect your Tweets: Enable to approve followers and hide tweets from public
- Photo tagging: Disable or limit to people you follow
- Discoverability: Disable email/phone lookup
Content and Ads
Settings > Privacy and Safety:
- Personalization and Data: Disable “Personalize based on your inferred identity”
- Location Information: Turn off location data on tweets
- Interests: Review and remove unwanted interest categories
Direct Messages
- Message Requests: Enable quality filter
- Read receipts: Consider disabling
LinkedIn Privacy Settings
LinkedIn is particularly important because it’s professionally focused:
Profile Visibility
Settings > Visibility:
- Profile viewing options: Choose how you appear when viewing other profiles
- Edit your public profile: Limit what’s visible to non-connections
- Who can see your connections: Set to “Only you”
- Who can see your last name: Consider limiting
Activity Visibility
- Share job changes, education changes: Consider disabling
- Followers: Limit who can follow you
- Viewers of this profile also viewed: Disable
Data Privacy
Settings > Data Privacy:
- How LinkedIn uses your data: Review and limit
- Advertising preferences: Disable interest-based and partner ads
- Third-party applications: Remove unnecessary apps
TikTok Privacy Settings
Account Privacy
Settings > Privacy:
- Private Account: Enable to approve followers
- Suggest your account: Disable to prevent appearing in suggestions
- Sync contacts: Disable
Safety
- Who can comment: Limit to friends or disable
- Who can duet/stitch: Limit or disable
- Who can download your videos: Disable
- Who can view your liked videos: Set to private
Personalization and Data
Settings > Privacy:
- Personalized ads: Disable
- Download your data: Review what TikTok has collected
General Tips for All Platforms
Two-Factor Authentication
Enable 2FA on every social media account. Use an authenticator app rather than SMS when possible. See our password security guide for more on 2FA and strong passwords.
Login Alerts
Enable notifications for unrecognized logins to catch unauthorized access quickly.
Trusted Contacts
Some platforms let you designate trusted contacts who can help you recover your account.
Regular Audits
Privacy settings change frequently. Set a reminder to review your settings every few months.
Download Your Data
Most platforms let you download everything they’ve collected. Review this periodically to understand what you’re sharing.
What Privacy Settings Can’t Do
Even with optimal settings:
- Platforms still collect data about your behavior
- Friends can share your information (screenshots, mentioning you, etc.)
- Data breaches can expose information regardless of your settings
- Metadata reveals information even when content is private
- Nothing on the internet is truly private
Conclusion
Taking control of your social media privacy settings is one of the most impactful steps you can take to protect your personal information. While no setting is perfect, reducing your digital footprint makes you a harder target for advertisers, criminals, and anyone else who might misuse your data.
Set aside time today to audit your accounts. Start with the platforms you use most, and work through the settings systematically. Your future self will thank you.
For a broader view, check out our guide on how to protect your personal data online and learn why using a VPN adds another layer of privacy.
Remember: when a service is free, you’re the product. Limiting what you share limits what can be collected, analyzed, and potentially compromised.
