Social Media Privacy Settings You Need to Change Now

I used to think my social media was “locked down” because I set things to Friends Only once in 2015. Then I started actually checking the privacy menus on each app and realized I was leaking way more than I was comfortable with.

You do not need to delete your accounts to protect your privacy. The short version: you should lock down who can see your posts, limit how people can find you (phone, email, search), turn off ad tracking and activity tracking where possible, review connected apps, and stop your content from being used to train models or shown outside your network. Most of this lives in the “Privacy” and “Security” menus on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, Snapchat, and YouTube, and you can change it in under an hour.

Why social media privacy settings matter more than you think

The tricky part with social platforms is that they are not really free. You pay with your data and your attention, and privacy settings are the closest thing you have to a control panel.

If you are not checking your privacy settings at least once a year, assume you are sharing more than you think.

Every platform has three overlapping problems:

Risk	What it looks like	Why it matters
Exposure	Strangers see posts, photos, friends, likes	Stalking, harassment, reputation damage
Tracking	Ads follow you, “personalized” feeds	Profiling, higher ad prices, bias in how you are seen
Re-use	Your content is used to train systems or sold to partners	No control over where your data ends up

You cannot fully fix these. But you can reduce the impact.

Let us go platform by platform and then look at a few advanced settings that most people skip.

Facebook: the most important privacy settings to change

Once you are logged in, most of what you need sits under:

“Settings & privacy” → “Settings” → “Privacy”, “Profile and tagging”, and “Ads”.

Here are the key Facebook settings you should change right now:

• Who can see your future posts
• Limit past posts
• Who can look you up (phone, email, search engines)
• Profile and tagging controls
• Location and off-Facebook activity
• Ad settings and data sharing

1. Lock down who sees your posts

Go to “Settings & privacy” → “Settings” → “Privacy”.

Change:

• “Who can see your future posts?” → set to “Friends” (or “Only me” if you want a near-private account).
• Click “Limit the audience for posts you have shared with friends of friends or Public” → click “Limit past posts”.

If you have never used “Limit past posts”, do it once. It retroactively closes old content that can still show up in searches and screenshots.

If you run a business page, keep that public. But keep your personal profile separate and locked.

2. Control how people find you

Still under “Privacy”:

Change:

• “Who can send you friend requests?” → “Friends of friends” to reduce spam.
• “Who can look you up using the email address you provided?” → “Friends” or “Only me”.
• “Who can look you up using the phone number you provided?” → “Friends” or “Only me”.
• “Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile?” → Turn this OFF.

This cuts down random searches, scraping, and surprise contact from people you do not want to hear from.

3. Profile and tagging controls

Go to “Settings” → “Profile and tagging”.

Adjust:

• “Who can post on your profile?” → “Only me” or “Friends”.
• “Who can see what others post on your profile?” → “Friends” or a custom list.
• “Review posts that you are tagged in before the post appears on your profile?” → Turn ON “Review”.
• “Review tags people add to your posts before the tags appear on Facebook?” → Turn ON.

Turning on tag review is one of the simplest ways to stop other people from dragging you into drama you did not choose.

You still appear in their posts. But you get control over what shows up on your own profile.

4. Location and off-Facebook activity

On mobile: “Settings & privacy” → “Settings” → “Location” and “Off-Facebook activity”.

Set:

• Location services → turn OFF or limit to “While using the app”. Avoid “Always”.
• “Location history” → Turn OFF and clear history.
• “Off-Facebook activity” → Clear history and disconnect future activity where possible.

This reduces how much Facebook knows about where you go and what you do on other sites and apps.

5. Facebook ad settings

Go to “Settings” → “Ads”.

Change:

• “Ads based on data from partners” → Turn OFF or limit.
• “Ads based on your activity on Facebook Company Products that you see elsewhere” → Turn OFF.
• “Ads shown outside Facebook” → Turn OFF if available.
• “Categories used to reach you” → Review interest categories and remove sensitive ones (health, politics, religion) where you can.

You will still see ads. You just make them less personal and less tied to your behavior across the web.

Instagram: control visibility, tagging, and tracking

Instagram is more visual and feels informal, which makes it easy to overshare. A single public photo can reveal your home, kids, workplace, and routines.

The core settings live under your profile:

Profile → menu icon → “Settings and privacy”.

Here are the key Instagram privacy changes to focus on:

• Set your account to private (for personal use)
• Limit message requests
• Tagging and mentions controls
• Activity status and “last seen”
• Ad and tracking preferences

1. Private vs public account

In “Settings and privacy”:

• Look for “Account privacy”.
• Toggle “Private account” ON for personal profiles.

Public might make sense if you are building a creator or business presence. For a personal account, private is usually better.

If you want both, many people keep:

• One private account for close friends and family.
• One public account for brand, business, or content.

Do not mix the two if you care about control.

2. Message and comment controls

Under “Settings and privacy” → “Messages and story replies”:

• Set message requests from people you do not follow to a separate “Requests” folder or turn them off when possible.
• Block or restrict known spam accounts or harassers.

Under “Comments”:

• Turn on “Hide comments” for offensive or filtered words.
• Add your own blocked keywords list (slurs, spam phrases, etc.).

This is part privacy and part mental health.

3. Tags, mentions, and reposts

Under “Tags and mentions”:

• Set “Allow tags from” → “People you follow” or “No one” if you want full control.
• Turn ON “Manually approve tags”.
• Set “Allow mentions from” → “People you follow” or “No one” for strict control.

If you have any kind of public profile, strict tag and mention settings are often more useful than a fully private account.

This gives you a filter before your handle gets used next to content you would never endorse.

4. Activity status and read receipts

Still in “Settings and privacy”:

• Find “Activity status”.
• Turn OFF “Show activity status”.

This hides when you were last active from others. It also hides theirs from you, which is a fair trade.

5. Instagram ads and tracking

Instagram shares much of its ad setup with Facebook since they are under the same parent company.

In “Settings and privacy” → “Ads”:

• Switch off “Use data from partners” if available.
• Limit “Activity information from ad partners”.
• Review your “Ad topics” and choose “See less” for sensitive topics.

On your phone, also go to your device settings:

• iOS: Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking → turn off “Allow Apps to Request to Track”.
• Android: Settings → Privacy → Ads → turn on “Delete advertising ID” or equivalent.

This affects multiple apps, not just Instagram, but it helps reduce cross-app tracking.

TikTok: what you should change immediately

TikTok is heavily algorithm-driven. It learns fast from tiny signals: what you watch, rewatch, pause on, or skip. It also has a lot of options that control what others see and how you can be found.

Go to Profile → menu icon → “Settings and privacy”.

Focus on these TikTok privacy settings:

• Private account and who can view your content
• Who can download your videos
• Search and contact discovery
• Personalization and data usage
• Connected apps and devices

1. Private account and content visibility

In “Privacy”:

• Turn ON “Private account” for personal use.
• Set “Suggest your account to others” to OFF across contacts, Facebook friends, and people who opened shared links if you want to stay low profile.

Then review:

• “Who can comment on your videos” → “Followers you follow back” or “Friends”.
• “Who can duet with your videos” → “Friends” or “Only me”.
• “Who can stitch your videos” → “Friends” or “Only me”.

If you are more public, you might keep some of these open, but make that choice deliberately.

2. Block downloads and screen time clues

In “Privacy” → “Downloads”:

• Turn OFF “Video downloads”.

People can still screen record, but you remove the built-in, high quality download option.

TikTok also shows when you are active to your friends unless you change it:

• Look for “Activity status” and turn it OFF.

That reduces how much other users can track your habits.

3. Contact discovery and search

Still under privacy:

• Turn OFF “Sync contacts” and “Sync Facebook friends”.
• Turn OFF options that suggest your account to people based on shared connections if that makes you uncomfortable.

This is especially useful if you do not want co-workers, past classmates, or clients to find your more casual account.

4. Personalization and data

In “Settings and privacy” → “Content preferences” and “Privacy” → “Personalization and data” (labels may move a bit over time):

• Turn OFF “Use of device info” for ad personalization where possible.
• Turn OFF ad personalization based on off-TikTok activity if there is a toggle.
• Review options around content categories and sensitive topics.

The biggest control you have on TikTok is still what you watch and how long you watch it. Your scrolling behavior is a privacy setting, even if it does not look like one.

If you do not want the app to assume things about you, be very intentional about what you linger on.

X (Twitter): fixing old defaults that expose you

X (the platform formerly called Twitter) has existed for a long time, which means a lot of accounts still run with ancient defaults.

Go to “Settings and support” → “Settings and privacy”.

Key areas:

• Audience and tagging (public vs protected)
• Discoverability and contacts
• Direct messages
• Location and spaces
• Ads preferences and sharing

1. Protected tweets vs public

Under “Privacy and safety” → “Audience and tagging”:

• Turn ON “Protect your posts” if you want a private account.
• Set “Photo tagging” to “Only people you follow” or “Off”.

With protection on:

• Only approved followers can see your posts.
• Old posts become visible only to followers too (but old screenshots and archives still exist).

If you stay public, you may want to curate what you tweet more carefully and use lists for closer circles.

2. Discoverability and search

Under “Privacy and safety” → “Discoverability and contacts”:

• Turn OFF “Let others find you by your email”.
• Turn OFF “Let others find you by your phone”.
• Turn OFF contact syncing.

This reduces how easy it is for distant contacts, old clients, or students to connect your account to you through their address book.

3. Direct message settings

Under “Privacy and safety” → “Direct messages”:

• Turn OFF “Allow message requests from everyone” if you get spam or harassment.
• Disable read receipts if you want to read messages without pressure to respond immediately.

There is a balance here. If you network heavily on X, you may keep some message options open, but check them once in a while.

4. Location, spaces, and live features

Some older posts might have location tagging turned on without you realizing.

• Under “Privacy and safety” → “Location information”, disable “Add location to your posts”.
• If there is an option to delete existing location data from past posts, do that once.

For Spaces or live audio, check:

• Who can join, speak, and see your activity around Spaces.

You might not think about these, but they reveal when you are active and what you listen to.

5. Ad preferences

Under “Privacy and safety” → “Ads preferences”:

• Turn OFF personal data sharing with business partners where possible.
• Review “Interests” and uncheck ones that feel sensitive.

This does not erase your history, but it limits how it gets used for future targeting.

LinkedIn: quiet down what you share with employers and recruiters

LinkedIn is built for professional exposure, so privacy is relative. You might want a visible profile, but you probably do not want every edit and action broadcast to your entire network.

Go to “Me” → “Settings & Privacy”.

Key areas:

• Profile viewing options
• Sharing profile edits and activity
• Visibility of your connections and email
• Data used for ads

1. Profile viewing and anonymous mode

Under “Visibility” → “Profile viewing options”:

• Choose between “Your name and headline”, “Private profile characteristics”, and “Private mode”.

If you do not want people to see that you have looked at their profile, use “Private mode”. The trade-off: you lose visibility of who views your profile too.

2. Stop sharing every profile change

Still under “Visibility”:

• Turn OFF “Share profile updates with your network”.

Before you edit your job title, headline, or About section, turn off sharing. Update quietly, then turn it back on later if you like.

If you are job hunting and want recruiters, not your current boss, to know, this setting is key.

3. What others can see about you

Look for:

• “Who can see your connections” → change to “Only you” to hide your network from competitors.
• “Who can see your last name” → usually “Everyone” is fine for professional use, but you can limit it in sensitive fields.
• “Who can see your email address” → set this to “Only you” or “1st-degree connections” instead of public.

You can still add a contact email in your About section manually if you want controlled outreach.

4. Data and advertising on LinkedIn

Under “Data privacy” → “Advertising data”:

• Turn OFF “Use data from third parties for ad personalization” where available.
• Limit “Ads based on your interactions” outside LinkedIn.

Your work history is already sensitive enough. No reason to attach outside browsing habits on top of that.

Snapchat: reducing real-time exposure

Snapchat builds around short-lived posts, which gives a false sense of safety. Screenshots, screen recordings, and camera roll saves keep content alive much longer than the app hints.

Go to your profile → gear icon.

Main areas:

• Who can contact you and view your story
• Snap Map and location sharing
• Memories and backup

1. Contact and story privacy

Under “Privacy controls”:

• “Contact me” → set to “My Friends”.
• “Send me notifications” → keep to friends you trust, not everyone.
• “View my Story” → “Friends Only” or “Custom” for a smaller group.

If you use “Custom”, you can exclude certain contacts. This is useful if you add co-workers but do not want them to see everything.

2. Snap Map

The Snap Map is one of the highest risk features if it is set loosely.

• Tap the map icon, then the settings gear.
• Turn on “Ghost Mode” to stop sharing your location entirely.
• Or limit location to a few close friends you trust.

If you would not text someone your live location, you probably should not share it with them on Snap Map.

3. Memories and saved snaps

Under “Memories”:

• Decide if you want to back up all snaps or only selected ones.
• Review “Save Button” settings so you know exactly where snaps go (Memories, Camera Roll, both).

Assume that anything backed up can be accessed if your account or device is compromised. Use a strong unique password and turn on 2FA.

YouTube: watch history, comments, and data sharing

YouTube is less about “friends” and more about your watch habits and comments. That still connects to your identity if your account uses your real name or links to your other profiles.

Go to your profile picture → “Settings” and “Your data in YouTube”.

Key settings:

• Watch and search history
• Subscriptions and playlists visibility
• Comments and mentions
• Ad personalization

1. Watch and search history

Under “Your data in YouTube”:

• Pause “YouTube watch history” if you do not want new views saved.
• Pause “YouTube search history” if you prefer not to build a search log.
• Review and delete past history items that feel sensitive.

You can also keep history on but enable auto-delete for items older than a set period in your Google Account activity controls.

2. Public vs private activity

In “Privacy” (inside YouTube settings):

• Turn ON “Keep all my liked videos private”.
• Turn ON “Keep all my subscriptions private”.
• Turn ON “Keep all my saved playlists private”.

This prevents your taste and viewing habits from becoming a public profile.

3. Comments, mentions, and uploads

If you run a channel:

• Set default comment settings to “Hold potentially inappropriate comments for review” or stricter.
• Review mentions and where your channel is tagged.

If your account uses your real name, be aware that your comments tie directly back to that identity, often for years. There is no direct “privacy setting” to change this, but it is worth thinking about what you say and where.

4. Ad personalization on Google

YouTube ads run through Google’s broader system.

Go to your Google Account → “Data & privacy” → “Ad settings”:

• Turn OFF “Ad personalization” if you want fewer targeted ads.
• Review interest categories and remove anything sensitive.

This affects more than YouTube, but that is part of the point. It reduces how tightly your behavior follows you around the web.

Advanced privacy moves most users ignore

Up to this point, we have focused on the obvious stuff in the app menus. Helpful, but not the whole story.

There are a few deeper steps that have a big impact across platforms.

1. Two-factor authentication (2FA) on every account

Privacy is useless if someone else can just log in as you.

Turn on 2FA for:

• Facebook & Instagram
• TikTok
• X (Twitter)
• LinkedIn
• Snapchat
• Google (for YouTube)

Use:

• An authenticator app (Authy, Google Authenticator, etc.) rather than SMS, where possible.
• Backup codes stored offline.

Most social account takeovers happen through weak passwords and reused logins, not clever hacking.

If you repeat the same password anywhere, change that habit now. Use a password manager and set unique passwords for each platform.

2. Limit third-party apps and logins

Those “Log in with Facebook / Google / Apple” buttons are convenient. They also create connections between services.

On each social platform:

• Find the “Apps and websites” or “Connected apps” section.
• Revoke access for any app you do not use anymore.

On your main email/identity provider (Google, Apple, Microsoft), do the same.

The reason is simple: a weak or hacked third-party app can leak your data or post on your behalf. Cleaning this list once or twice a year cuts that risk drastically.

3. Stop your content from training models where possible

Some platforms have added settings to limit how your posts or images are used to train large models.

Look for:

• Settings around “Data for training” or “Use my content to improve services”.
• Options to opt out of content being used for training where provided.

Not every platform offers a real opt-out. When there is one, use it if you care about control over how your data feeds future systems.

4. Separate profiles for different roles

This is less a setting and more a strategy.

Consider:

• One personal account under your real name, with stricter privacy.
• One public account for brand, content, or business under a handle.

If you go this route:

• Use different emails and strong unique passwords.
• Think carefully before linking them publicly.

This reduces spillover where a casual joke on your private account gets screenshotted and linked to your professional identity.

5. Periodic “privacy audits”

Once you set all this up, you are not done forever. Platforms change defaults, add features, and sometimes re-interpret old data.

Twice a year, do a 30 minute check:

• Run each app’s “Privacy checkup” or guided review if they offer one.
• Scroll through “Security” sections for new options.
• Review active sessions and sign out devices you do not recognize.

Assume every major app will introduce at least one new data-hungry feature every year. Your job is to find it and tame it.

It is not perfect, but it keeps you closer to the level of exposure you are actually comfortable with.

How to prioritize if you only have 20 minutes

If you feel overwhelmed, you are not alone. The menus are long on purpose.

Here is a simple priority order that works for most people:

1. Turn on 2FA everywhere and change any repeated passwords.
2. On Facebook and Instagram:
   • Set posts to “Friends” and limit past posts.
   • Turn on tag review.
   • Disable search engine indexing of your profile.
3. On TikTok and X:
   • Decide if your account should be private or public.
   • Turn off contact syncing and “find me by phone/email”.
   • Disable location features.
4. On LinkedIn:
   • Stop sharing every minor profile edit.
   • Hide your connections list.
5. On your phone:
   • Disable cross-app tracking where you can.
   • Limit location to “While using” for social apps or turn it off.

If you can only do one platform today, start with the one that has the most personal information and photos. For most people, that is Facebook or Instagram.

Once you go through this process once, repeating it feels much less intimidating. And you gain a clear sense of what you are actually sharing, instead of assuming the defaults are on your side.