Social media platforms collect vast amounts of data about you. Every post, like, comment, and click helps build a detailed profile of your interests, relationships, and daily habits. While you can't use these platforms without sharing some information, you can significantly reduce what's collected and who can see it.
The challenge is that privacy settings are often buried deep in menus, and platforms frequently change where they're located. This guide walks you through the most important privacy settings on five major platforms, helping you take back control of your personal information.
A Word About Updates
Social media companies regularly redesign their interfaces and move settings around. While specific menu locations may change, the types of controls described here remain consistent. If you can't find a setting in the exact location mentioned, look for Privacy, Security, or Account Settings.
Facebook Privacy Settings
Facebook operates the largest social network and collects more data than most platforms. The company shares information across its family of apps including Instagram and WhatsApp, and tracks you even when you're not using Facebook directly.
Getting to Your Settings
Click your profile photo in the top right corner, then select "Settings & privacy" followed by "Settings." The Privacy section in the left menu contains most of the important controls.
Who Sees Your Posts
The most fundamental setting controls who can see what you share. Facebook defaults to "Public" for many users, meaning anyone on the internet can see your posts. Change this to "Friends" or create a custom list of people you trust.
Go to Settings, then Privacy, then "Who can see your future posts?" Select your preferred audience. This becomes the default for everything you post going forward.
Limiting Old Posts
If you've been using Facebook for years, you likely have hundreds or thousands of old posts that might be public. Rather than manually changing the privacy on each one, use the "Limit Past Posts" tool. This changes all previous public posts to Friends-only with one click.
You'll find this under Settings, Privacy, "Your Activity," then "Limit Past Posts."
Who Can Find You
Facebook lets people search for you using your email address or phone number. This is how spammers and scammers often find targets. Change these settings to "Friends" or "Friends of friends" to prevent strangers from looking you up.
Look under Settings, Privacy, "How people find and contact you." Adjust both the email and phone number options.
Off-Facebook Activity
This is one of the most invasive features. Thousands of websites and apps send information about your activity to Facebook, even when you're not using the platform. Facebook uses this data to target ads and build your profile.
Go to Settings, "Your Facebook Information," then "Off-Facebook Activity." You can view which companies are sharing your data and choose to disconnect it. More importantly, turn off "Future Off-Facebook Activity" to stop new tracking.
Ad Settings
Facebook allows extensive control over how your data is used for advertising. Go to Settings, then Ads. Turn off all the toggles, particularly "Ads based on data from partners" and "Ads based on your activity on Facebook Company Products."
Instagram Privacy Settings
Instagram, owned by Meta (Facebook's parent company), shares many of the same privacy concerns. However, Instagram's visual nature and younger user base create unique privacy considerations.
Private Account
The single most effective privacy control on Instagram is making your account private. When your account is private, only approved followers can see your posts, stories, and reels. People must request to follow you, giving you control over your audience.
Tap your profile, then the menu icon (three lines), select "Settings and privacy," then "Account privacy." Toggle on "Private account."
Activity Status
By default, Instagram shows other users when you're active on the app. This "online now" indicator can feel invasive and isn't necessary for the platform to function.
Go to Settings, "Messages and story replies," then toggle off "Show activity status."
Story Controls
Stories feel temporary, but they still reveal information about your location, activities, and relationships. Control who can see your stories, reply to them, and share them as messages.
In Settings, go to Privacy, then Story. Here you can hide stories from specific people, prevent sharing, and control who can reply.
Tags and Mentions
Other people can tag you in photos without your permission, potentially exposing you to their entire audience. Change this so you must approve tags before they appear on your profile.
Under Settings and Privacy, go to "Tags and mentions." Select "Manually approve tags" and choose who can mention you in comments and captions.
Twitter/X Privacy Settings
Twitter's public nature makes privacy challenging, but important controls still exist. The platform has undergone significant changes, but core privacy settings remain accessible.
Protected Tweets
Like Instagram's private account, protecting your tweets limits visibility to approved followers only. This fundamentally changes how you use Twitter but offers the strongest privacy protection.
Click "More" in the sidebar, select "Settings and Support," then "Settings and privacy." Navigate to "Privacy and safety," then "Audience and tagging." Enable "Protect your posts."
Photo Tagging
Control who can tag you in photos. Set this to "Only people you follow" or disable it entirely to prevent unwanted associations.
Find this under Settings, Privacy and safety, Audience and tagging, Photo tagging.
Discoverability
Like Facebook, Twitter allows people to find you by email or phone number. Disable this to make your account harder to discover.
Go to Settings, Privacy and safety, Discoverability and contacts. Uncheck the boxes for email and phone number discoverability.
Location Information
Twitter can add your precise location to tweets. This reveals where you live, work, and spend time. Turn this off completely.
Under Settings, Privacy and safety, Location information, toggle off location tracking and delete any previously stored locations.
LinkedIn Privacy Settings
LinkedIn is a professional network, but professional doesn't mean everything should be public. Your contact information, connections, and job search activity deserve protection.
Profile Viewing Options
When you view someone's LinkedIn profile, they can see that you visited. This can be useful for networking but problematic for job searching or competitor research.
Click your profile photo, select "Settings & Privacy," then Visibility, "Profile viewing options." You can browse in private mode, though this means you won't see who viewed your profile either.
Email Address Visibility
By default, your connections can see your email address. If you don't want professional contacts having direct access to your email, change this.
Go to Settings, Visibility, "Who can see your email address." Select "Only you" or limit to specific connection levels.
Connection Visibility
Your connection list reveals your professional network, including competitors, clients, or employers you'd rather keep private. Hide this list from others.
Under Settings, Visibility, "Who can see your connections," select "Only you."
Data for Advertising
LinkedIn uses your activity for targeted advertising. While you can't opt out entirely, you can limit how your data is used.
Go to Settings, Advertising data. Turn off all toggles to minimize tracking.
TikTok Privacy Settings
TikTok has faced significant scrutiny over data collection practices. While using the platform involves accepting some data sharing, you can still limit exposure through privacy settings.
Private Account
Making your account private means only approved followers can see your videos, likes, and following list. This is especially important for younger users.
Tap your profile, select the menu (three lines), go to "Settings and privacy," then Privacy. Toggle on "Private account."
Who Can Interact With Your Content
Even with a public account, you can control who can duet with your videos, stitch them, or download them. These features allow others to repurpose your content, potentially out of context.
Under Privacy settings, find "Duet and Stitch" and set both to "Only you" or "Friends." Do the same for Downloads.
Comments and Messages
Control who can comment on your videos and send you direct messages. Limiting these to friends or followers helps prevent harassment and spam.
In Privacy, adjust "Who can comment on your videos" and "Who can send you direct messages."
Personalized Ads
TikTok uses your activity to target advertisements. While ads will still appear, turning off personalization reduces how much of your behavior is tracked for marketing.
Go to Settings, Privacy, then "Ads personalization." Toggle it off.
Privacy as an Ongoing Practice
Adjusting these settings once is a great start, but privacy protection requires ongoing attention. Social media platforms regularly introduce new features with their own privacy implications. They also periodically reset settings or encourage you to make your account more public.
Set a reminder to review your privacy settings every three months. When platforms announce major updates, check if they've added new data collection features. Most importantly, think before you post. The strongest privacy protection is not sharing sensitive information in the first place.
Take Action Today
You don't need to tackle all five platforms at once. Start with whichever one you use most frequently. Spend 15 minutes adjusting the settings described here. Then move on to your next most-used platform tomorrow. By the end of the week, you'll have significantly improved your social media privacy.