How to lock down your social media profiles
Lock down your social media by working through each app's privacy settings: set posts to friends or followers only, review who can tag you and require approval, hide your phone number, email and birthday, turn off being found by phone number, and remove location from posts. Then review your follower list and old public posts. Use the app's privacy checkup tool if it has one.
Why it matters: A few settings decide who sees your posts, photos and phone number.
Steps
- Open each social app's privacy settings or privacy checkup.
- Set future posts to friends or followers only, and limit past posts if offered.
- Require approval before tags appear on your profile.
- Hide your phone number, email, birthday and workplace from your public profile.
- Turn off letting people find you by phone number or email.
- Turn off location on posts and remove it from old ones where you can.
- Review followers and friends, and remove anyone you do not know.
- View your profile as the public to check what a stranger sees.
Common mistakes
- Changing one app and forgetting the others.
- Leaving old public posts that show your address, school or routine.
- Accepting friend requests from strangers with mutual friends you do not know well.
Teach this to someone
A one page sheet for showing a friend, a teenager or a parent: what to say, what to show, and one question to check it landed.
Teach: How to lock down your social media profiles
What to say
Lock down your social media by working through each app's privacy settings: set posts to friends or followers only, review who can tag you and require approval, hide your phone number, email and birthday, turn off being found by phone number, and remove location from posts. Then review your follower list and old public posts. Use the app's privacy checkup tool if it has one.
What to show
- Open each social app's privacy settings or privacy checkup.
- Set future posts to friends or followers only, and limit past posts if offered.
- Require approval before tags appear on your profile.
- Hide your phone number, email, birthday and workplace from your public profile.
- Turn off letting people find you by phone number or email.
- Turn off location on posts and remove it from old ones where you can.
- Review followers and friends, and remove anyone you do not know.
- View your profile as the public to check what a stranger sees.
Check question
How can you check what strangers see on your profile?
Answer: Use the view as public option. Most apps let you preview your profile as the public sees it.
Your checklist
Saved only in this browser.
Quick quiz
Three questions. Your score is saved only in this browser.
Related skills
Sources
- US national cybersecurity guidance for individuals, 2026. Reviewed September 28, 2026.
Written in our own words from the sources above. It is general information, not advice for your situation; where a professional, your doctor or your lease says something different, follow them.
Last reviewed . First published .