Ah, social media—the place to check in on old friends without the awkward small talk. But have you ever tried changing a privacy setting? It’s like trying to navigate a labyrinth of menus and submenus. What if I told you that this is intentional?
Privacy is both a necessity and a mystery the moment you start sharing your life online. Most of us are glued to our phones, whether we’re posting or just browsing. Almost everything we do—whether it’s posting vacation photos or something as mundane as liking a post—leaves behind a digital footprint. That footprint can be collected, analyzed, and used in ways most of us don’t even realize.
If you’re serious about your online privacy, you can even delete your digital footprint.
In today’s world, we have the ability to connect with pretty much anyone across the globe and in an instant (thanks to fiber optics!). Though we’re digitally connected as a society, maintaining online privacy has never been more challenging.
If you go into any of your social media accounts right now and try to adjust your privacy settings, you might be stuck there for a while. Specific settings are often buried in multiple submenus, a lot of technical jargon, and explanations are generally vague.
Some features can mislead you into thinking that you have a sense of privacy. For instance, the “Off-Facebook Activity” on Facebook is a setting found in Facebook settings that allows you to have a summary of your activity on other websites. This means that you can see which businesses share your activity data with Facebook.
If you turn off this feature, Facebook doesn’t magically delete this data. The company still receives this information from businesses, but it’s just not linked to your specific profile. Your data is still used, just in a more anonymized form. However, this information isn’t entirely clear when you go into your settings to turn it off.
Data collected can be anything from engagement activity on sites related to Facebook. It also includes shopping habits and interests, news content, health-related searches, entertainment preferences, and a ton more used to build a profile on you.
This also applies to other social media platforms. With TikTok, for example, you can turn off “Personalized Ads,” which might lead you to believe that the company has stopped collecting your data. But this is further from the truth. Turning this off only prevents TikTok from using your in-app activity to personalize your ads; it doesn’t save you from the app collecting your data or using third-party tracking. Sure, some of this data is anonymized, but the data shared with third parties means that your activity could still contribute to targeted advertising outside of TikTok.
Default Settings Don’t Favor Your Privacy
When it comes to default settings on social media, it is often designed to favor data collection rather than user privacy. For example, many social media apps set new accounts (especially for adults) to public by default. So, if you create a new account on Instagram, all your posts are automatically publicized for the world to see. There are no prompts that you receive after creating an account to remind you to look at your privacy and security settings. You have to go find it yourself. So all the work is put on you.
The reason social media is designed to auto-publicize is that the more content that is publicly available, the more data that these companies can use to enhance ad targeting and increase engagement. Social media websites are businesses, after all. They make money from selling ad space and allowing companies to advertise to us directly. The more accounts and public content they have, the more money they can potentially make.
Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Threads all auto-enable ad personalization by default. When you sign up, it’s automatically set to use your data to tailor ads to your interests unless you manually opt out. You can tweak these settings in your account if you’d rather not have targeted ads.
However, some platforms have taken some steps to improve privacy, especially for minors. Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, for example, automatically set accounts for users under 18 to private. For adults, the burden of securing personal information is placed entirely on the user.
TikTok places restrictions on direct messaging for users who are under 16. These accounts aren’t usually able to send or receive direct messages. However, there’s no actual age verification when it comes to setting your age during account creation. TikTok relies on the user’s self-reported age, which is the same for other social media platforms as well.
The Silent Updates That Change Everything
Another reason why social media privacy is difficult to maintain is how frequently these companies update their privacy policies—sometimes it’s subtle but can impact your privacy quite a bit. These changes often happen without any real notification until it has happened, and you may not even realize the changes until you stumble upon a menu or setting that looks different—or worse when your data has already been shared.
In some regions, companies are legally required to notify their users of major changes to privacy, which social media companies usually do. Sometimes, they can be vague and easy to dismiss, leading most people to access them without reading them.
It’s important to note that many privacy settings also default to the option that allows for the most data sharing after an update. This means that even if you previously opted out, a new update could potentially reset your preferences, requiring you to take a look at them again to disable them. There are also some signs you can look out for that a company’s privacy policy is bad.
How to Take Back Control of Your Data
Though social media platforms may not always make this easy, it’s worth taking the time to review your privacy and security settings from time to time. Data is currency, after all. It’s best to make a combination of changes rather than just one so you aren’t at the mercy of default settings.
Adjust App Settings on Your Device
If you want better privacy when using social media on your phone, start by checking your app permissions. A lot of apps ask for access to things they don’t really need, like your contacts, location, microphone, or camera.
Take a minute to go into your settings and turn off anything unnecessary—on iPhone, head to “Settings” and “Privacy,” and on Android, go to “Settings” and “Security & Privacy.”
I also recommend enabling multi-factor authentication on all your devices and accounts. This adds another layer of protection in case someone tries to get into your account (or device). That being said, there’s a lot more you can do to stay safe online.
Turn Off Personalized Ads
To turn off personalized ads, log in to your Facebook account and navigate to Accounts Center. Next, go to “Ad preferences” and “Manage info.” From here, you can go through all the options to manage your ad preferences. You can also learn how to make your Facebook account more private.
If you’re focused on privacy, there are other settings you can change for other social media accounts, including Instagram and TikTok.
Be Mindful of What You Share Online
You should never give away too much of your personally identifiable information online. This is any information that can be used to identify you, from phone number to email. Did you know you don’t even have to use your real name on social media?
Nothing on the internet truly gets deleted. Many social media platforms keep deleted data for a period of time, and some data may even exist in backups or caches. This doesn’t even include if you have someone taking a screenshot of it or sharing it before you have a chance to delete it.
Use Alternative Social Media Platforms
If you can’t imagine life without social media but still care about your privacy, there are some platforms that prioritize user privacy over engagement. This includes apps like MeWe and Mastodon.
If you prefer privacy-focused messenger apps, there’s always Telegram and Signal, which encrypt your messages and are just as intuitive as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.
Protecting your privacy online isn’t always easy, especially when companies profit off your data. But small, consistent steps can make a real difference. The first step is knowing what’s happening—once you understand how social media tracks you, you can start limiting how much access they have or just stop using it altogether. These platforms are designed to keep you engaged, not to protect your privacy—that part’s up to you.
