Learn About Privacy and Safety Settings Online

Understanding Privacy Settings Across Social Media Platforms

Social media platforms collect a large amount of personal information about their users. According to Pew Research Center data from 2023, about 72% of American adults use at least one social media platform. Each of these platforms—including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and LinkedIn—has its own privacy controls that determine who can see your posts, profile information, and activity.

Facebook, which has over 3 billion monthly active users worldwide, offers privacy settings organized into several categories. You can control who sees your profile picture, cover photo, and basic information like your birthday and relationship status. Facebook also lets you manage who can contact you, who can see your friend list, and who can post on your profile. In 2022, Meta (Facebook's parent company) paid $5 billion in a privacy settlement, highlighting the importance of understanding these controls.

Instagram, owned by Meta, allows users to switch between a public and private account. With a private account, only approved followers can see your posts, stories, and profile information. Instagram also provides options to control who can comment on your posts, who can message you, and who can tag you in photos. More recently, Instagram added features allowing users to filter out certain words or phrases in comments.

TikTok's privacy settings let you control who can view your videos, who can duet or stitch your content, and who can see your liked videos. You can also restrict direct messages to friends only. Given that TikTok has over 150 million monthly active users in the United States alone, understanding these settings is important for younger users especially.

LinkedIn, used by over 930 million professionals worldwide, offers privacy controls for your profile visibility, who can see your connections, and what activity notifications others receive when you engage with content. You can also control your public profile URL and what information appears in search results.

Practical Takeaway: Each platform stores privacy settings in different locations within their menus. Spend 15 minutes on each social media account you use to locate and review the privacy settings. Start by searching "privacy settings" in the platform's settings menu, then review who can see your profile, posts, and personal information. Write down what you find so you remember your choices.

Protecting Your Personal Information Online

Personal information online includes your name, address, phone number, email, financial information, health data, and biometric data like fingerprints or facial recognition images. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, there were over 1,800 data breaches in 2023 affecting more than 300 million individuals. This means protecting your personal information is not theoretical—it affects real people every day.

One fundamental practice is limiting what personal information you share on websites and social media. Many websites ask for more information than they actually need. For example, a website that sells clothing might ask for your phone number when your email address would be sufficient. Before entering information into any form, ask yourself whether the website genuinely needs that data to provide its service.

Email addresses deserve special attention because they are often used to reset passwords on other accounts. If someone gains access to your email, they may be able to reset passwords on your banking, social media, and shopping accounts. For this reason, consider using a separate email address specifically for creating online accounts, keeping your primary email more private.

Your home address should be shared cautiously. Websites like Google Maps, real estate sites, and public records databases can reveal your home location. Criminals sometimes use this information to commit identity theft or even physical crimes. When creating profiles on local services like restaurants or gyms, consider using a P.O. box or your city and zip code without a specific street address if the website allows it.

Phone numbers are increasingly valuable to criminals. A phone number can be used to reset passwords through text message verification, a process called SIM swapping. For protection, consider using a virtual phone number for less trusted websites. Services exist that provide temporary or secondary phone numbers specifically for this purpose.

Financial information such as credit card numbers, bank account details, and Social Security numbers should almost never be entered into websites unless you initiated the transaction and verified the website is legitimate. The Better Business Bureau reports that romance scams, shopping scams, and phishing attempts frequently try to obtain financial information through deceptive websites.

Practical Takeaway: Create a personal information audit. List all the websites where you have accounts and what information you provided (name, address, phone, email, payment information). For each account, decide if that information is still necessary. If not, contact the website's customer service and request they delete your personal information. Keep this list and update it every six months.

Creating and Managing Strong Passwords

A password is typically your first line of defense against unauthorized access to your online accounts. According to Verizon's 2023 Data Breach Investigations Report, 74% of breaches involved a human element, including weak or stolen passwords. This statistic shows that password strength directly impacts your security.

A strong password has several characteristics. It should be at least 12 characters long—research from the National Institute of Standards and Technology shows that 12-character passwords are significantly harder to crack than shorter ones. It should include uppercase letters (A-Z), lowercase letters (a-z), numbers (0-9), and special characters (!@#$%^&*). For example, "BlueMoon$2024Jazz!" is stronger than "password123" because it uses varied character types and length.

Avoid using information that can be found about you online or is easy to guess. Passwords based on your birthday, pet's name, child's name, or favorite sports team are vulnerable because this information appears in social media, public records, and conversations. According to SplashData's annual list of worst passwords, "password," "123456," and "admin" remain among the most commonly used passwords worldwide, making them extremely vulnerable.

Each online account should have a unique password. If one website is breached and your password is stolen, criminals will try that same password on your email, banking, and shopping accounts. A 2023 study by Dashlane found that the average person has 100 password-protected accounts, but most people reuse passwords across multiple sites. This creates a domino effect where one breach compromises many accounts.

Password managers are tools that store your passwords in an encrypted format, allowing you to use unique, strong passwords without having to memorize them. Examples include Bitwarden, 1Password, LastPass, and Dashlane. These services use encryption technology to protect your passwords so that even if the password manager company is breached, criminals cannot read your actual passwords. Most password managers cost between $2-$5 per month or offer free versions with basic features.

Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds a second verification step beyond your password. After entering your password, you receive a code via text message, email, or an authentication app like Google Authenticator or Authy. You must enter this code to log in. Even if someone steals your password, they cannot access your account without this second code. According to Microsoft, 2FA blocks 99.9% of automated cyberattacks.

Practical Takeaway: Change passwords for your most important accounts (email, banking, shopping) this week using the strong password format described above. If you use the same password on multiple sites, start replacing them with unique passwords using a password manager. Enable two-factor authentication on at least your email and banking accounts today, as these are the most vulnerable to attack.

Understanding Data Collection and Tracking Online

Websites and apps collect data about your online behavior constantly. This data includes which websites you visit, what you search for, what you buy, how long you spend on pages, what you click, and even your location. According to a 2023 Pew Research Center study, 81% of Americans say the data companies collect about them is a concern. Understanding what data is collected and why helps you make informed choices.

Cookies are small files that websites store on your computer or phone. They remember information about your visits, like items in your shopping cart or your login information. While some cookies are helpful, others track you across the internet to build a profile of your interests and behavior. Advertising networks use this profile to show you targeted advertisements. For example, if you visit a shoe website and then visit a news site, you might see shoe advertisements on that news site. This happens because advertising networks have tracked your activity across both sites.

Third-party trackers are companies that monitor your online behavior across many different websites