The Privacy Settings You're Ignoring on Social Media
Platform-by-platform guide to the settings that actually matter for your privacy.
Social media companies don't make money when you're private. They make money when you share everything, publicly, with tracking enabled. So the privacy settings you actually want are buried, confusingly named, and reset whenever they update the app.
Here's a platform-by-platform guide to the settings that matter, where to find them, and what to actually set them to.
Facebook has the most settings, spread across multiple menus. Their privacy controls have improved over the years, but they've also added more ways to track you.
Where to find settings: Settings & Privacy → Settings → Privacy
The Important Ones
Who can see your future posts? Set to: Friends (or more restrictive) Default: Public Why: Every public post is indexed by search engines and scraped by data brokers.
Who can see your friends list? Set to: Only me Why: Your friends list reveals a lot about you and can be used to social engineer your friends.
Who can look you up using your email/phone? Set to: Friends (at minimum) Default: Everyone Why: Prevents strangers from finding your profile by searching your contact info.
Do you want search engines to link to your profile? Set to: No Why: Keep your profile out of Google results.
Off-Facebook Activity Find this in: Settings → Your Facebook Information → Off-Facebook Activity Do: Clear history, then turn off "Future Off-Facebook Activity" Why: This tracks what you do on other websites and apps. Creepy and unnecessary.
Ad Preferences Find this in: Settings → Ads → Ad Settings Do: Turn off all the tracking options Why: Limits how much Facebook profiles you for advertising.
Face Recognition Find this in: Settings → Face Recognition Set to: No Why: Unless you want Facebook automatically tagging you in photos.
App and Website Permissions Find this in: Settings → Apps and Websites Do: Review and remove apps you don't use Why: Each connected app has access to your data.
Instagram is owned by Meta, so many settings mirror Facebook. But it has its own quirks.
Where to find settings: Profile → Menu → Settings and Privacy
The Important Ones
Private Account Find this in: Settings → Account Privacy Set to: Private (if appropriate) Why: Only approved followers can see your posts. For personal accounts, this is usually the right call.
Activity Status Find this in: Settings → Activity Status Set to: Off Why: Prevents people from seeing when you're online or were last active.
Story Sharing Find this in: Settings → Privacy → Story Consider: Who can reply, who can share your stories Why: Prevent your stories from being forwarded everywhere.
Mentions Find this in: Settings → Privacy → Mentions Set to: People You Follow (or No One) Why: Prevents random accounts from mentioning you in spam or harassment.
Tags Find this in: Settings → Privacy → Posts Turn on: Manually Approve Tags Why: Control what you're tagged in before it appears on your profile.
Suggested Users Find this in: Settings → Privacy → Account Suggestions Set to: Off Why: Prevents Instagram from suggesting your account to others.
Third-Party Sharing Find this in: Settings → Privacy → Third-Party Content Review and limit as appropriate.
Twitter/X
Twitter's privacy options are more limited because the platform is designed around public posts.
Where to find settings: Settings and Support → Settings and Privacy → Privacy and Safety
The Important Ones
Protect Your Tweets What it does: Makes your account private, requiring follow approval Consider: Only if you want a private account Why: Public tweets are indexed, scraped, and permanent.
Photo Tagging Set to: Only people you follow (or Off) Why: Control who can tag you in photos.
Discoverability (email/phone) Find this in: Discoverability and Contacts Set to: Off for both Why: Prevents people from finding your account via your contact info.
Location Information Set to: Off Why: No reason to broadcast your location in tweets.
Data Sharing with Business Partners Find this in: Privacy → Data sharing Set to: Off Why: Limits third-party advertising data.
Personalization and Data Turn off: All the tracking options Why: Less data collection.
Direct Messages Consider: "Allow message requests from everyone" — turn off if you get spam Why: Controls who can DM you.
LinkedIn is tricky because privacy can conflict with its networking purpose.
Where to find settings: Me → Settings & Privacy
The Important Ones
Profile Visibility Find this in: Visibility → Profile viewing options Consider: "Private mode" shows you're anonymous when viewing others Why: Prevents people from seeing that you viewed their profile.
Who Can See Your Email Set to: Only visible to 1st-degree connections (or no one) Why: Recruiters don't need your email; they can message you on LinkedIn.
Who Can See Your Connections Set to: Only you Why: Your network is valuable info to competitors and spammers.
Microsoft Word Integration Find this in: Data Privacy → Microsoft applications Consider turning off if you don't use it Why: Limits cross-platform tracking.
Data Sharing for Research Set to: Off Why: Unless you want your data in studies.
Messaging Experience Review: What data is used for messaging suggestions Turn off what you don't need.
Profile Information Visibility Review: Each section of your profile and who can see it Why: Not everyone needs to see your birthday, phone number, etc.
TikTok
TikTok collects a lot of data. The app is essentially surveillance with a video feature.
Where to find settings: Profile → Menu → Settings and Privacy → Privacy
The Important Ones
Private Account Set to: On (for personal accounts) Why: Only approved followers see your content.
Suggest Your Account to Others Set to: Off Why: Prevents TikTok from promoting your profile.
Allow Your Videos to be Downloaded Set to: Off (unless you want this) Why: Prevents your videos from being saved and reshared without context.
Who Can Comment/Duet/Stitch Set to: Friends or No One Why: Limit unwanted interactions.
Ad Personalization Find this in: Privacy → Ads Turn off personalized ads Why: Reduces tracking.
Personalized Feeds You can't turn this off entirely, but you can periodically clear your watch history: Settings → Content Preferences → Refresh Your For You Feed
Snapchat
Where to find settings: Profile → Settings → Privacy Controls
The Important Ones
Who Can Contact Me Set to: My Friends Why: Prevents random contact requests.
Who Can View My Story Set to: My Friends (or Custom) Why: Stories are often more personal than feed posts.
See Me in Quick Add Set to: Off Why: Prevents Snapchat from suggesting you to others.
Location (Snap Map) Set to: Ghost Mode Why: Broadcasting your location is risky.
General Rules
Across all platforms:
- Turn off location sharing unless you specifically need it
- Disable contact syncing — you don't need the app accessing your address book
- Review connected apps periodically and remove unused ones
- Be skeptical of new features — they usually want more data
- Don't use social login — "Sign in with Facebook" shares data across services
- Use strong, unique passwords for each platform
- Enable 2FA everywhere
The Uncomfortable Truth
Even with every setting locked down, these platforms still collect vast amounts of data about you: what you view, how long you view it, what you scroll past, what you tap, what you search for.
Privacy settings limit what other users and third parties see. They don't limit what the platform itself collects.
If privacy really matters for certain communications, use end-to-end encrypted messaging (Signal) instead of social media DMs.
Do This Now
Pick one platform — the one you use most — and spend 15 minutes going through the settings. Then do one more platform tomorrow.
Spending an hour total reviewing these settings once a year is one of the highest-impact privacy improvements you can make. The companies counting on you not doing it.
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