Your social media privacy settings probably look nothing like the defaults you signed up with, and that is a good thing. Defaults are designed to make content visible, not to keep you private, and most people change very little of what the platform chose for them. The settings that matter take a few minutes to fix on most apps. Here are the ten changes worth making, starting with the ones that reduce who can see you the most.
Why default settings are rarely private
When you create an account, the platform picks the least restrictive options it can. Friends only sounds private, but it usually only controls who can see your posts. It does not control whether your profile picture is public, whether your friend list is visible, or whether people can find you by searching your phone number. Go through the settings assuming nothing is private until you change it.
Who can see your profile and your posts
Start with the audience settings, which control the widest exposure. Set each of these to the narrowest reasonable option:
- Post audience: restrict new posts to friends instead of public or followers.
- Profile visibility: limit who can see your profile picture, cover photo, bio, and email address.
- Search engine visibility: stop search engines from linking to your profile, so your page does not appear when someone searches your name.
- Friends and following list: rarely checked, but it can reveal your family, employer, and contacts to anyone, even with friends-only posts.
Stop people finding you by phone number or email
Most platforms let you choose whether people can search for you using your phone number or email address. If yours is set to everyone, anyone with your number can pull up your account. Change this to friends only or turn it off. While you are there, review contact synchronization. When you let an app upload your address book, it builds a picture of your social network and suggests people you never meant to connect with. Turning off contact sync stops that matching.
Turn off location tagging
Location is one of the easiest details to leak without noticing. Check whether your posts automatically include your city, your exact location, or the place you are checking into. Photo apps often add the location of your device to every upload. Turn off location tagging on new posts, and scrub location data from photos you already shared if the option exists.
Limit the data used for ad targeting
Every major platform collects data to target ads at you. You cannot stop that completely, but you can restrict some of it. In the ad preferences section, turn off interest-based personalization, activity across partner sites, and ad categories based on your activity. This will not remove ads. It just makes them less tailored to you. For more on what happens with that data, see our guide on how to stop targeted ads.
Review third-party apps connected to your account
Over the years you have probably used "log in with Facebook" or "continue with Google" on a few dozen sites and apps. Each keeps a connection to your account, and many keep access to your profile data long after you stopped using them. Go to the apps and websites section of your account, look at every entry, and revoke anything you do not recognize or use. If an app you still want needs access again, you can reapprove it later.
Change the audience of old posts
Changing your settings only affects new posts unless you update the old ones. Most platforms offer a way to limit past content in bulk, such as setting your entire timeline to friends only. One click covers years of posts you shared when you were less careful.
The honest limit: what settings cannot do
Privacy settings reduce your exposure to other people. They do not reduce what the platform itself collects, stores, and sells. Your browsing on the app, your reactions, your watch time, and even the topics you scroll past are recorded regardless of your audience settings. So treat your profile settings as one layer, not the whole defense. Pair them with a browser privacy guide for your regular browsing, and run a Google account privacy checkup to clear data tied to your most used online identity.
Make it a routine: a quick periodic checkup
Platforms change settings, add data-sharing options, and occasionally reset your choices. A quick checkup every few months catches those changes. Run through this short list:
- Check post and profile audience.
- Turn off search by phone number and email.
- Review connected apps and remove what you no longer use.
- Check ad personalization and disable it.
- Look for any new privacy toggles the platform added.
Ten minutes every few months is enough to keep the important settings the way you left them. For guidance on account security and identity theft, the FTC and the Electronic Frontier Foundation cover the common cases and reporting steps in detail.
FAQ
Does setting everything to friends only make my account fully private? No. Your profile picture, friend list, and some metadata can remain visible even with friends-only posts, and the platform itself still records your activity. It reduces exposure to strangers, but it is not total privacy.
Can people still find me if I turn off search by phone number? They cannot search using your number or email, but they can still find you by name, username, or a mutual friend. Turning off searchable contacts narrows who can discover you, it does not hide you entirely.
If I delete an app connected to my social account, does that remove the data it already has? Revoking access stops future collection, but it does not force the app to delete data collected earlier. Contact the app directly if you want that data removed.
How often should I review my social media privacy settings? Every few months is enough. Recheck sooner if a platform adds new data sharing options or changes its privacy policy, since some changes reset your previous choices.
Sources and further reading
---Written by Hassan Arshad, founder of UsefulOrbit. Last updated August 31, 2026.