How to lock down your privacy on Facebook, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram.
Why This Matters
Social media platforms make money from your data. That’s why they’re free to use. The default settings on most platforms lean toward sharing more, not less.
Quick test: Log out of your social media account and look at your profile as a stranger would see it. You might be surprised at what’s visible.
Pay special attention to location data. Many platforms track and display where you post from, creating a trail that points back to your home, office, or daily routine.
When to check your settings: Review your privacy settings on every platform at least every three months. Platforms regularly update their policies and interfaces, sometimes resetting your preferences or adding new sharing features that default to “on.”
Facebook
Adjust Post Visibility
- Click the down arrow (or your profile picture) in the top-right corner
- Go to Settings & Privacy > Settings > Privacy
- Under “Who can see your future posts,” choose Friends instead of Public
- Use the audience selector tool on individual posts to override the default when needed
Limit Old Posts
If you used to post publicly and want to lock down your history:
- Go to Settings > Privacy
- Click Limit Past Posts
- This changes all past public/friends-of-friends posts to Friends Only
Note: People who were tagged in or already engaged with those posts may still see them.
Control Friend Requests and Discoverability
- [ ] Set “Who can send you friend requests” to Friends of Friends (under Privacy settings)
- [ ] Under Timeline and Tagging, control who can find you by email address or phone number
- [ ] Consider setting search engine indexing to No so your profile doesn’t appear in Google results
- Go to your profile and click About
- Each category (work, education, contact info, relationships) has its own privacy setting
- Click the edit icon next to each section and choose: Public, Friends, or Only Me
- Keep contact information (phone, email, address) set to Only Me or Friends at most
Photo Privacy
- Albums: Click on the album, then the audience icon at the bottom right to change who can see it
- Individual photos: Open the photo and change the privacy setting directly
- Review and adjust regularly, especially older albums that may have been uploaded when your defaults were less restrictive
Protect Your Posts
By default, anyone (including search engines) can see your posts. To change this:
- Go to Settings > Privacy and safety > Audience and tagging
- Enable Protect your posts
- Only approved followers will be able to see your posts going forward
Turn Off Personalized Ads
- Go to Settings > Privacy and safety > Ads preferences
- Disable Personalized ads
- On the web, you can also opt out at optout.aboutads.info
On mobile devices:
- iOS (14+): Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking > disable “Allow Apps to Request to Track”
- Android: Settings > Google > Ads > Opt out of Ads Personalization
Manage Location Sharing
- X lets you tag posts with your location. Turn this off unless you specifically want to share where you are.
- Go to Settings > Privacy and safety > Location information and disable location tagging
- You can also delete all past location data from this screen
Control Profile Discoverability
- Under Settings > Privacy and safety > Discoverability and contacts
- Disable “Let people who have your email address find you”
- Disable “Let people who have your phone number find you”
Save your changes after making adjustments.
LinkedIn
Adjust Your Public Profile
- Click your profile picture > Settings & Privacy
- Go to Visibility > Edit your public profile
- Deselect any sections you don’t want visible to people outside your network
- Consider turning off public profile visibility entirely if you don’t need to be found by recruiters
Control Activity Visibility
Under Settings & Privacy > Visibility, you can control:
- [ ] Who sees your connections list
- [ ] Who sees your activity feed (likes, comments, shares)
- [ ] Whether your profile shows up when you view other profiles
- [ ] Who can see your email address
Manage Data Sharing
Under Settings & Privacy > Data privacy:
- [ ] Review and adjust ad-related data sharing
- [ ] Control whether LinkedIn partners can use your data
- [ ] Download your data archive to see what LinkedIn has stored about you
Pinterest
Adjust Search Privacy
- Click your profile picture > Settings
- Go to Account Settings > Privacy
- Toggle Search Privacy to hide your profile from search engines
Use Secret Boards
Secret boards are only visible to you and anyone you specifically invite.
- [ ] Create a secret board for any pins you want to keep private
- [ ] You can create as many secret boards as you want
- [ ] You can convert a public board to a secret board
Note: As of 2025, Pinterest allows converting boards between public and secret in both directions. Check the current settings when creating or editing a board, as this has changed over time.
Instagram
Switch to a Private Account
- Open the Instagram app (privacy settings are limited on desktop)
- Go to your profile > Settings and privacy > Account privacy
- Toggle Private account on
- Only approved followers will see your posts going forward
Important: Switching to private doesn’t remove current followers. Block anyone you don’t want following you.
- Go to Settings > Privacy > Tags
- Choose who can tag you: Everyone, People you follow, or No one
- You can also require manual approval before tags appear on your profile
Watch Out for Location Data
Even without tagging a location manually, photos can contain GPS metadata. Instagram strips most EXIF data on upload, but be aware of what you’re revealing in photo backgrounds (street signs, landmarks, your home).
Interactions on Public Posts
Even with a private account, if you like or comment on a public post, that interaction is visible to anyone who can see that post.
- [ ] Review settings every 3 months. Platforms change their privacy options frequently.
- [ ] Disable location sharing unless you have a specific reason to use it.
- [ ] Be careful with third-party apps. Revoke access for any apps you no longer use (usually found under Settings > Apps or Connected Apps).
- [ ] Use unique, strong passwords for each social media account.
- [ ] Enable MFA (multi-factor authentication) on every platform that offers it.
- [ ] Think before you post. Once something is online, screenshots make it permanent even if you delete it later.
- [ ] Watch for phishing messages. Social media platforms are common vectors for phishing. If you receive a suspicious DM or email claiming to be from a social media platform, don’t click the links. Forward suspicious emails to ForwardToSafety.com for safe verification.
Bottom Line
Privacy settings aren’t exciting, but spending 15 minutes locking them down on each platform protects you from data harvesting, stalking, identity theft, and targeted scams. Do it today, set a calendar reminder to review them quarterly, and you’re in good shape.