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Remove personal contact details from your social media profiles
Review every social media profile and remove any personal information you do not need to share publicly — phone number, home address, birthday, and workplace. This information is routinely harvested for use in targeted scams and identity theft.
Why this matters
Personal information visible on social media profiles — phone number, home address, birthday, and workplace — is routinely harvested by scammers to make phishing calls and messages more convincing. Information shared across multiple platforms can be combined to build a complete profile that enables identity theft and targeted fraud.
How to do it
- Log in to each social media account: Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, and any others you use regularly.
- Go to Edit Profile or Account Information on each platform.
- Remove your phone number from your profile — it should not be visible to anyone, even Friends, unless you have a specific reason to share it.
- Remove or hide your home city, specific address, and birthday — especially the year of birth.
- On LinkedIn, consider whether your employer, job title, and work history need to be as specific as they currently are — this information is particularly useful for business email compromise attacks targeting your company.
Need a more detailed walkthrough?
Our step-by-step guide explains each action in full detail, with confirmation steps and related tasks.
View full step-by-step guide →Cyber Essentials framework
This task falls under the Secure Configcontrol, one of five areas assessed in the UK's Cyber Essentials scheme. Completing it counts toward your Cyber Essentials alignment. Create a free account to track your progress across all five areas.
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