Most social platforms default to sharing more than people realize, and the privacy controls that would change that are usually scattered across several menus rather than one obvious screen. Here's the short list that covers most of the actual exposure.

Step 1: Check who can see your posts and profile

Look for "Audience," "Who can see my posts," or similar in each platform's privacy settings. Setting this to a specific audience (friends, followers you approve) instead of public is the single biggest lever — it applies to future posts and, on most platforms, has a separate option to apply retroactively to past posts as well.

Step 2: Review what's visible on your profile even to non-followers

Separately from post visibility, check what shows on your profile page itself to people who aren't connected to you — profile photo, bio, friend/follower lists, and sometimes tagged photos can be visible by default regardless of your post privacy settings. Each of these usually has its own toggle, often under a "Profile" or "About" privacy section rather than the main privacy menu.

Step 3: Control who can tag you and see tags

Tagging settings let you require approval before a tag of you appears on your profile, or hide tagged content from your profile even if you don't remove the tag itself. This matters because a friend's public post tagging you can expose your presence somewhere even if your own account is fully private.

Step 4: Check third-party app access

Over time, most people accumulate a long list of third-party apps and quizzes that were granted access to their account years ago and are still connected, often to data most people forgot they'd shared. Check the "Apps and websites" or "Connected apps" section of each platform and remove anything you don't recognize or actively use.

Step 5: Location data — separate from post visibility

Location tagging on posts, and background location access granted to the platform's app on your phone, are controlled separately from who can see your posts. Turning off automatic location tagging, and restricting the app's location permission on your phone (see our guide on managing app permissions), prevents your location from being embedded in content even when the post itself is otherwise private.

Step 6: Ad personalization and data-sharing settings

Most platforms have a section specifically for ad personalization, often separate from general privacy settings, that controls how much of your activity is used to target ads and, on some platforms, whether your data is shared with advertising partners. This doesn't affect who can see your posts, but it's a real privacy lever worth checking if you want to limit how your activity is used.

Do this review for each platform separately — privacy settings, terminology, and default visibility all vary meaningfully between platforms, so a setting you locked down on one doesn't carry over to another, even for accounts linked to the same identity.

Quick checklist per platform