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Secure ConfigMedium priority

About 30 minutes to complete

Review your social media privacy settings

Check who can see your posts, your location, and your personal information on each social media account. Fully public profiles give scammers and identity thieves easy access to information they can use against you.

Why this matters

Fully public social media profiles give scammers and identity thieves easy access to your full name, location, employer, birthday, and contact details — everything needed to impersonate you or target you with a convincing phishing attack. Most people set up profiles years ago and have never reviewed what is publicly visible.

How to do it

  1. Log in to each social media account you use: Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, and TikTok if applicable.
  2. Go to Privacy or Security Settings on each platform.
  3. Set 'Who can see your posts' to Friends or Followers only — not Public, unless you are intentionally running a public account.
  4. Remove or hide your phone number, home location, and date of birth from your public profile.
  5. Review your tagged photos and posts — untag yourself from anything that reveals your home address or regular patterns such as 'just got back from holiday' posts.

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.

Worth repeating. This is not a one-and-done task. Revisit it every 3–6 months to keep your protection current.

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