Social Media Privacy Lockdown

Five minutes per platform. The settings every user should change but almost no one does.

Pick a platform

0 of 8 done

Future posts → Friends only

Settings & Privacy → Settings → Privacy → "Who can see your future posts?" → Friends.

Why: Stops strangers from seeing what you post going forward.

Limit past posts to Friends

Same Privacy menu → "Limit Past Posts" → confirm. Sweeps everything you ever posted publicly down to Friends-only.

Why: Old posts that were public stay public until you do this. One-click fix.

Profile lookup by phone or email → Friends only

Privacy → "How people find and contact you" → both phone and email → "Friends".

Why: Strangers cannot search you by phone number or email — common scam-targeting tactic.

Friend request privacy → Friends of Friends

Privacy → "Who can send you friend requests?" → Friends of Friends.

Why: Cuts off most spam friend requests from scammer accounts.

Turn off face recognition

Settings → Profile and Tagging → Face Recognition → No.

Why: Stops Facebook from auto-tagging you in any photo it thinks is you.

Review tags before they go on your profile

Profile and Tagging → "Review tags people add..." → ON.

Why: No more being tagged in embarrassing or political posts without review.

Turn on Login Alerts

Settings → Security and Login → "Get alerts about unrecognised logins" → Email + Notification.

Why: You hear immediately if someone logs in from a new device.

Review who has access

Apps and Websites → review every "Logged in with Facebook" app. Remove ones you do not use.

Why: Old apps you forgot about can still see your Facebook data.

A quarterly habit

Privacy settings get reset by app updates and product launches. Set a calendar reminder once a quarter — review your privacy settings on the platforms you use most. 10 minutes, four times a year, keeps the lockdown holding.

Data Broker Removal

Remove yourself from people-search.

Cookie Consent Decoder

Reject tracking on every site.

Account Deletion

Or close it entirely.

Quick Tip: privacy lockdown does not break any of these apps. Friends still see your posts. Strangers stop being able to.