Social Media Privacy Settings Guide (2026)
Every major platform defaults to maximum data collection. Here's how to lock each one down.
Last verified: February 2026
Why Social Media Feeds Data Brokers
Social platforms are among data brokers' richest sources. Your public profile, posts, friend connections, employer, hometown, and interests are harvested and cross-referenced with other sources to build detailed profiles sold to advertisers, insurers, and background check companies. LinkedIn is especially high-risk — it's the primary source for professional data sold without your knowledge.
Facebook / Meta
Settings → Privacy / Settings → Your Facebook Information
Facebook has the most granular privacy controls — and the most ways to expose your data. The most important setting is your profile audience. Every piece of publicly accessible information can be harvested by data brokers.
Profile Visibility
Settings → Privacy → Who can see your future posts? → Friends. Then review old posts: "Limit the audience for old posts on your timeline."
Profile Search Visibility
Settings → Privacy → Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile? → No. Also set "Who can look you up using your email?" and "using your phone number?" → Friends.
Ad Settings
Settings → Ads → Ad preferences. Disable "Ads based on data from partners," "Ads based on your activity on Facebook Company Products," and "Social interactions." Also review Categories and remove what you find.
Off-Facebook Activity
Settings → Your Facebook Information → Off-Facebook Activity. This shows what websites and apps have sent Facebook data about you. Click "Disconnect Future Activity" to stop third-party data feeding your Facebook profile.
Location History
Settings → Location → Location History → Turn off. Also disable "Location Access" in your phone's app settings for the Facebook app.
Face Recognition
Settings → Face Recognition → No. (Note: Meta announced phasing this out in 2021, but the underlying photo-matching technology persists in different forms. Still disable if available.)
App Permissions
Settings → Apps and Websites → Remove any apps you don't actively use. Each connected app can access your data. Review permissions on ones you keep.
Profile → Menu (☰) → Settings → Privacy
Instagram is owned by Meta and shares data infrastructure with Facebook. Public accounts are fully indexed by data brokers and scraped for profile-building. If you don't need a public profile, set it to private.
Private Account
Settings → Privacy → Account Privacy → Private Account. This prevents anyone who doesn't follow you from seeing your posts, stories, or reels. Content won't appear in search or hashtag pages.
Activity Status
Settings → Privacy → Activity Status → Turn off "Show Activity Status." This prevents followers from seeing when you were last active.
Story Sharing and Resharing
Settings → Privacy → Stories → "Allow Sharing" → Off. Prevents others from resharing your stories to their feeds or DMs beyond your intended audience.
Ad Data Sharing
Settings → Ads → Data about your activity from partners → "Use cross-app activity" → Off. This limits how Instagram uses data from other websites and apps to target you.
Remove Profile Contact Info
Edit Profile → Remove your phone number and real email if they're visible. Your public profile contact info is a direct feed to data broker databases.
Settings → Data Privacy / Visibility
LinkedIn is the highest-priority platform for data broker exposure
LinkedIn is uniquely dangerous because it's designed to be findable. Your real name, employer, job title, location, education, and connections are all on one public page — exactly what background check and data broker companies need to build profiles. LinkedIn explicitly allows data partners to use your public data, and many background check services pull from LinkedIn directly.
LinkedIn Priority Warning
LinkedIn is the most common source for professional data broker profiles. Your profile may be feeding background check services, recruiters, and data brokers without your knowledge. The settings below are the most critical on any platform.
Profile Visibility to Non-Members
Settings → Visibility → Profile viewing options → Set your public profile visibility. Click "Edit your public profile" and toggle off sections you don't need public: connections count, recommendations, skills, interests. Keep name and headline if you need to be found professionally.
Search Engine Indexing
Settings → Visibility → Edit your public profile → Profile discovery using search engines → Off. This prevents your LinkedIn profile from appearing in Google searches for your name.
Profile Viewing Mode
Settings → Visibility → Profile viewing options → Private mode or Anonymous. This prevents people you view from seeing that you visited their profile — useful when researching without being tracked.
Who Can See Your Connections
Settings → Visibility → Connections → Only you. Your connections list reveals your professional network — useful for competitors, stalkers, and data brokers mapping relationships.
Data Sharing with Third Parties
Settings → Data Privacy → Social, Economic, and Workplace Research → Off. Settings → Data Privacy → Third-party data sharing → Review all categories and disable. LinkedIn has multiple separate toggles for research partnerships.
Salary and Job Seeking Visibility
Settings → Visibility → Career interests and job-seeking preferences → Turn off "Let recruiters know you're open" if not actively job searching. This prevents LinkedIn from flagging you to a wider audience of recruiters (and data collectors).
Limit Profile to Current Employer Info Only
Review your profile directly. Remove your personal phone, home city (keep metro area if needed), personal email, and any specific work addresses. Data brokers combine LinkedIn employer + address data with other sources to find your home address.
TikTok
Profile → Menu (☰) → Settings → Privacy
TikTok collects extensive device and behavioral data. It also has broad data sharing practices. If you use TikTok, the privacy controls below limit what other users can see — but TikTok's internal data collection is harder to restrict. Consider limiting usage to a secondary device or browser if privacy is a concern.
Private Account
Settings → Privacy → Private Account → On. Only your approved followers see your videos. Your profile won't appear in search for non-followers.
Suggest Your Account to Others
Settings → Privacy → Suggest your account to others → Off. Disables TikTok from recommending your account based on contacts, Facebook friends, or phone number matches.
Sync Contacts and Facebook Friends
Settings → Privacy → Sync contacts and Facebook friends → Off. Prevents TikTok from accessing your phone contacts to map your social network.
Personalized Ads
Settings → Privacy → Ads → Personalized ads based on off-TikTok activity → Off. Also disable "Interest-based ads" if available in your region.
Remove Phone Number and Email from Profile
Profile → Edit Profile → Remove personal contact info from your bio and account settings. Your linked phone number is used for account matching across platforms by data brokers.
Twitter / X
Settings → Privacy and Safety
Twitter/X's data sharing practices have become more aggressive since 2022. Public tweets are indexed by search engines and archived by third parties. If you post under your real name, assume all public tweets are permanent and discoverable.
Protect Your Posts (Private Account)
Settings → Privacy and Safety → Audience and Tagging → "Protect your posts." Only your followers see tweets. Note: this does not retroactively protect old tweets, and you cannot have a protected account verified.
Discoverability
Settings → Privacy and Safety → Discoverability → Uncheck "Let people who have your email address find you on X" and "Let people who have your phone number find you on X." This prevents cross-platform identity matching.
Location Information
Settings → Privacy and Safety → Location information → "Add location information to your posts" → Off. Also: "See your precise location" → Off in your phone's app settings for X.
Data Sharing with Business Partners
Settings → Privacy and Safety → Data sharing and personalization → "Allow additional information sharing with business partners" → Off. Also disable "Personalize based on your inferred identity."
Connected Apps
Settings → Security and account access → Apps and sessions → Connected apps. Revoke access for any apps you no longer use or don't recognize. Each connected app can read your data and post on your behalf.
Google Account
myaccount.google.com → Data & Privacy
Google isn't a social network, but it's the most comprehensive data collector you interact with daily. Your Google account links your search history, location, YouTube viewing, purchases, email, and more. Google also provides data to advertisers through its ad network — the largest in the world.
Web & App Activity
myaccount.google.com → Data & Privacy → Web & App Activity → Pause. This stops Google from storing your search and browsing history. You can also delete existing history and set auto-delete to 3 months.
Location History
myaccount.google.com → Data & Privacy → Location History → Pause. Delete existing history. This stops Google Maps from tracking everywhere you've been. Note: Timeline data is now stored on-device in newer Android versions.
YouTube Watch History
myaccount.google.com → Data & Privacy → YouTube History → Pause. Delete existing history. YouTube viewing habits reveal interests, health concerns, political views, and more — all used for advertising profiling.
Ad Personalization
myaccount.google.com → Data & Privacy → My Ad Center → Turn off "Personalized ads." This reduces targeted advertising but doesn't stop Google from collecting data — it just stops using it for ad targeting specifically.
Results About You
myaccount.google.com → Data & Privacy → Results about you. This lets you request removal of personal information (phone numbers, home addresses, email addresses, login credentials) from Google Search results. Use this to de-index your data from search.
Third-Party App Access
myaccount.google.com → Security → Third-party apps with Google account access → Review and remove unused apps. Apps with full Gmail access can read your entire email history.
Common Mistakes That Expose Your Data
Using "Sign in with Facebook" or "Sign in with Google"
Social logins are convenient but link your accounts together. Every app you log into via Facebook receives your profile data. Facebook also learns what apps you use. Create separate accounts with an email alias instead.
Public birthday, hometown, and employer on Facebook
These three data points combined with your name are enough to find your public records, verify your identity, and answer most security questions. Data brokers harvest them constantly. Edit your Facebook profile and restrict these to Friends or Only Me.
Check-ins and location-tagged posts
Tagging your location reveals your home neighborhood, workplace, doctor's office, and daily routine. Even "innocent" check-ins at restaurants and gyms build a precise picture of your movements. Disable automatic location tagging in all apps.
Leaving old unused accounts active
Old MySpace, Tumblr, Foursquare, and forum accounts still have your data — and still get breached. Deactivate or delete accounts you no longer use. Google yourself to find old profiles you've forgotten about.
Sharing contact lists with apps
When apps request contact access to "find your friends," they upload your entire contact list to their servers — including people who never consented to this. Deny contact access to social apps in your phone's app permissions settings.
Assuming private posts are truly private
"Friends only" posts can still be shared by your friends, and platforms themselves retain access to all content for ad analysis. Don't post anything you wouldn't want made public — especially medical situations, financial details, or location patterns.
Frequently Asked Questions
If I set my account to private, do data brokers still have my old data?
Yes. Making an account private prevents future scraping but doesn't undo past collection. Data brokers who already harvested your data before you made the change still have it. To remove existing records, you need to opt out of data brokers directly — see our Data Broker Guide.
Do these privacy settings affect my reach as a content creator?
Yes, significantly. Private accounts cannot grow an audience beyond manually approved followers. Content won't appear in search or hashtag feeds. If you need public reach for professional reasons, the tradeoff is reduced privacy. Consider maintaining separate personal (private) and professional (public) accounts.
Does deleting the app protect my privacy?
Partially. Deleting the app stops the app from accessing your phone's sensors and running background processes. But your account and data remain on the platform's servers. To truly stop data collection, you need to deactivate or delete the account itself — not just the app.
Can I request a copy of all my data from social platforms?
Yes. All major platforms offer data export under privacy regulations. In Facebook: Settings → Your Facebook Information → Download Your Information. In Google: myaccount.google.com → Data & Privacy → Download your data (Google Takeout). LinkedIn: Settings → Data Privacy → Get a copy of your data. This can be illuminating — you'll see exactly what they've collected.
Is it worth deleting my social media accounts entirely?
For maximum privacy, yes. But this is a significant personal choice. A more practical approach: use privacy settings to minimize exposure, use an email alias for each platform, avoid posting identifying information, and regularly audit connected apps. This reduces most of the risk while keeping the accounts functional.
Do I need to redo these settings periodically?
Yes. Social platforms frequently update their settings menus and introduce new data collection options that default to "on." Check your privacy settings every 3-6 months, especially after major platform updates or news stories about privacy changes. This guide is verified for 2026, but settings will shift.
Privacy Audit Tool
Get a personalized privacy action plan beyond just social media settings.
Take the Audit →Data Broker Opt-Out
Privacy settings stop future collection. Remove your existing data from brokers.
Remove Your Data →