Your social media profiles are one of the biggest sources of personal information that data brokers use to build profiles about you. Your name, location, employer, birthday, phone number, family members, interests, and photos — data brokers scrape all of it and add it to the profiles they sell to advertisers, background check companies, and anyone else who’ll pay.
Even if you think your profiles are “private,” there’s a good chance more information is visible than you realize. Default settings on most platforms lean toward public, and third-party apps you’ve connected can access and share your data behind the scenes.
This guide walks you through locking down every major social media platform — step by step, setting by setting.
Before you lock down social media: Run a free Optery scan to see what data brokers already have about you. Your social media data has probably been scraped already — locking down your profiles prevents future harvesting, but you still need to clean up what’s out there.
Why Social Media Privacy Matters More Than You Think
You might think “I don’t post anything sensitive” — but social media leaks information in ways most people don’t consider:
Data brokers scrape your profiles. Even “private” information can be harvested through connected apps, data-sharing agreements, and API access. Your phone number, email, employer, location, and birthday feed directly into data broker databases.
Scammers use your social media for phishing. When a scammer knows your employer, recent vacation, and friend list (from your social media), they can craft phishing emails that are nearly impossible to distinguish from legitimate messages.
SIM swappers mine your profiles. SIM swapping criminals use security question answers they find on your social media — mother’s maiden name, first pet, high school — to impersonate you to your phone carrier.
Doxxers start with social media. A doxxing attack often begins with social media reconnaissance — connecting your username to your real name, then using data broker sites to find your address.
Employers and landlords check your profiles. Over 70% of employers and many landlords search candidates on social media. What’s visible can directly impact your job prospects and housing applications.
Facebook Privacy Settings (Step by Step)
Facebook is the biggest social media data leak for most people. Here’s how to lock it down:
Profile Privacy
Settings → Privacy:
- “Who can see your future posts?” → Friends
- “Who can see your friends list?” → Only me
- “Who can look you up using the email address you provided?” → Friends or Only me
- “Who can look you up using the phone number you provided?” → Friends or Only me
- “Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile?” → No
That last setting is critical — it’s what allows Google and data brokers to index your Facebook profile.
Personal Information
Go to your profile → About:
- Remove your phone number entirely
- Remove your email or set visibility to “Only me”
- Remove your home address/city or set to “Only me”
- Set your birthday visibility to “Only me” (or at minimum hide the year)
- Remove relationship status if you don’t need it public
Connected Apps
Settings → Apps and Websites: Review every app that has access to your Facebook account. Remove anything you don’t actively use. Each connected app is a potential data leak — some share your information with third parties including data brokers.
Location and Facial Recognition
Turn off Location History in your Facebook app settings. Disable any facial recognition or “tag suggestions” features. Review past posts for location tags and remove them if needed.
Instagram Privacy Settings (Step by Step)
Switch to a private account. Settings → Privacy → Account Privacy → toggle “Private Account” ON. This is the single most impactful change — it stops anyone who doesn’t follow you from seeing your posts, stories, and personal information.
Remove personal details from your bio. Don’t include your phone number, email, exact location, or workplace in your Instagram bio. Data brokers and scammers scrape bio information.
Turn off activity status. Settings → Privacy → Activity Status → toggle OFF. This prevents people from seeing when you’re online.
Restrict who can find you. Settings → Privacy → turn off “Similar Account Suggestions” so Instagram doesn’t recommend your profile to strangers.
Review tagged photos. Settings → Privacy → Tags → enable “Manually Approve Tags.” This prevents people from tagging you in photos that reveal your location or activities without your approval.
Connected apps. Settings → Security → Apps and Websites → revoke access for anything you don’t actively use.
LinkedIn Privacy Settings (Step by Step)
LinkedIn is unique among social media platforms because it’s designed to be professional and somewhat public. But that doesn’t mean everything needs to be visible:
Settings → Visibility:
- “Profile viewing options” → choose whether to browse others’ profiles anonymously
- “Who can see your email address” → Only me or 1st degree connections
- “Who can see your connections” → Only me
- “Profile visibility off LinkedIn” → No (this prevents search engines from indexing your profile)
- “Who can see your last name” → consider showing only your first name and last initial
Remove your phone number. Go to Settings → Sign in & security → Phone numbers. Remove your phone number from LinkedIn entirely. Data brokers actively scrape LinkedIn for phone numbers.
Limit contact info visibility. Settings → Visibility → Who can see or download your email address → restrict to connections only.
Review connected apps. Settings → Data privacy → Permitted services → remove anything unnecessary.
Twitter/X Privacy Settings (Step by Step)
Protect your tweets. Settings → Privacy and Safety → Audience and tagging → toggle “Protect your tweets” ON. This makes your tweets visible only to approved followers. Not ideal for growing an audience, but essential if privacy is your priority.
Remove personal details:
- Remove your phone number from your account settings
- Don’t include your real location in your bio
- Consider using a pseudonym instead of your real name
Disable discoverability:
- Settings → Privacy → Discoverability → uncheck “Let people who have your email address find you” and “Let people who have your phone number find you”
Location data: Settings → Privacy → Location → turn off “Add location information to your posts.” Review and delete location data from past tweets.
Connected apps: Settings → Security and account access → Connected apps → revoke access for unused apps.
General Social Media Privacy Rules
Beyond platform-specific settings, follow these rules across all social media:
Never share your phone number on any platform. Your phone number is the master key that links to your home address on data broker sites. Use Google Voice if a platform requires a phone number.
Don’t post your birthday with the year. Your date of birth is a key piece of information for identity theft and SIM swapping. If you must share your birthday, hide the year.
Don’t share your location in real time. Posting where you are right now tells criminals you’re not home — and data brokers already have your home address. Wait until you’ve left a location before posting about it.
Use different usernames across platforms. If your Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, and gaming accounts all use the same username, it’s easy to connect them and doxx you. Use unique usernames for platforms where you want privacy.
Review privacy settings quarterly. Platforms change their privacy settings and defaults regularly — often making things more public without notifying you. Set a calendar reminder to review your settings every 3 months.
Audit connected apps regularly. Third-party apps connected to your social media accounts can access and share your data. Revoke access for anything you don’t actively use.
Social Media Lockdown + Data Broker Removal = Real Privacy
Locking down your social media prevents future data harvesting. But data brokers already have years of information scraped from your profiles. You need to clean up what’s already out there too.
Here’s the complete approach:
Step 1: Lock down all social media platforms using the settings above.
Step 2: Run a free Optery scan to see what data brokers already have about you from past social media exposure and other sources.
Step 3: Remove your data from broker sites.
Optery — Our top recommendation. Free scan to see your exposure. Paid plans ($39-$249/year) automate removal from 350+ data broker sites. Read our full Optery review →
Incogni — Best budget option. Covers 180+ data brokers for $6.49/month billed annually. Read our full Incogni review →
Step 4: Set up ongoing monitoring — Google Alerts for your name plus continuous data broker monitoring through Optery or Incogni.
For the complete privacy strategy: How to Protect Your Personal Information Online.
Lock Down Your Social Media Today
Your social media profiles are feeding data brokers, scammers, and anyone who Googles you with more personal information than you realize. Every day those settings stay open is another day your data is being harvested.
- Lock down Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter using the step-by-step settings above (15-20 minutes total)
- Run a free Optery scan to see what data brokers already have from your social media profiles
- Remove your data from broker sites using Optery or Incogni
- Set a calendar reminder to review privacy settings every 3 months
Your social media should connect you with friends — not expose you to the world.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can data brokers scrape my social media even if my profile is private?
Private profiles are significantly harder to scrape, but not impossible. Connected third-party apps can still access and share your data. That’s why revoking app access is just as important as setting your profile to private. For data already scraped, run a free Optery scan to see what’s on broker sites.
Which social media platform leaks the most data?
Facebook is the biggest source of data leakage for most people, due to its extensive personal information fields, connected apps ecosystem, and default privacy settings that lean toward public. Lock it down first.
Should I delete my social media to protect my privacy?
Deleting accounts is the most effective approach, but not practical for most people. Locking down privacy settings and removing personal details achieves 90% of the privacy benefit without losing your social connections.
How do data brokers get my social media data?
Through web scraping (harvesting publicly visible profiles), third-party app data sharing, data partnerships, and purchasing data from other data brokers who have already scraped your profiles. Locking down privacy settings and revoking app access cuts off these channels.
Will locking down social media stop spam calls?
It helps prevent future exposure, but your phone number is likely already on data broker sites from past exposure. To reduce spam calls, you also need to remove your number from data broker sites using Optery or Incogni. Full guide: How to Stop Robocalls.
How often do social media platforms change their privacy settings?
Multiple times per year. Platforms regularly update their privacy interfaces and sometimes reset defaults to be more public. Set a calendar reminder to review your settings every 3 months.
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