With the rise of social media, it has become very common for people to create online profiles. People create profiles on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to showcase who they are and what they do.
With these profiles comes the need to protect your privacy. While it is great that people want to follow you and see what you are up to, not everyone is trustworthy.
People can follow you because they agree with your viewpoints, want to be supportive, or because they want to spy on you. It can be hard to tell the difference unless you know someone well.
On Twitter, there are several ways to change your privacy settings. You can limit who can see your tweets, who can follow you, and who can look up your account using different methods.
Log in to your account
Now that you have created a Twitter account, it is time to log in and start setting up your privacy and account settings.
To log in, simply go to twitter.com and enter your email address and password. If you have ever signed into Twitter on a different device before, your account will automatically sync.
Once you are logged into your account, you can start changing your privacy and security settings.
The first thing to do is go to Settings > Privacy and Safety and update your privacy settings here. These settings will be reflected across all of Twitter’s platforms, so be sure to check them all!
There are several options for privacy: you can choose to make your tweets private, choose which accounts can follow you, whether people can send you Direct Messages, whether or not you show who has retweeted or liked your tweets, and whether or not you include customized metadata in your tweets.
Click on your profile picture
Next, you will want to click on your profile picture. This will take you to your personal profile page. Here, you can see your bio, photos, and tweets!
If you have linked your account to a third-party app or service like TweetDeck or TwitterUriConnect, you can also manage these from your personal profile page.
Below your content is the button to edit your profile. Here you can edit your bio, link other accounts, and privacy settings.
Privacy settings can be edited by going to the Settings menu at the bottom of the page and then choosing Privacy and Safety. Here you can change who can see your content, whether it is only friends or friends plus followers, or if it is completely private.
Click on “Settings”
To access your Twitter settings, click on the gear icon in the top right corner of the screen and select Settings. You can also access Settings by going to twitter.com/settings.
Here you can edit your profile and privacy settings, manage accounts you manage, adjust email and phone notifications, and edit data usage.
First, go to the Privacy section and choose who can see your tweets by choosing between Private, Protected, and Public Account settings.
Private is what it sounds like- only you can see your tweets! Protected accounts allow anyone to follow you but only confirmed followers can see your tweets. Public accounts allow anyone to view your tweets.
Then go to Accounts tab and choose which accounts you would like to manage through Twitter by disconnecting or connecting them.
Go to Privacy > Medical > Edit
Next, go to your medical privacy settings. You can do this by going to the Settings section of your Twitter account, tapping Privacy, and then selecting Medical.
Here, you can choose to disable your medical information completely, let everyone see your information, or let only approved accounts see your information.
The last option is useful if you have a trusted health provider who has a Twitter account and they need access to some of your information for treatment.
Disabling all medical information means that no one can find out if you are ill or taking medication for anything. This is a good option if you do not want any further stigma from people who might see your profile.
If you choose to allow only approved accounts to see your medical information, then only people you approve as followers will be able to see it. Anyone who tries to go look at your profile won’t be able to see that info unless you allow them to.
Choose who can see your medical conditions
A very useful setting allows you to declare your status as well as which conditions people can know about. You can set it to allow people to know you have a medical condition, or to require them to ask before they are made aware.
If you choose the first option, anyone can ask you if you have a medical condition, and you can confirm it. If you choose the second option, only trusted followers can ask you and receive a confirmation.
Both of these options help protect your privacy if you do not want everyone to know about your condition. The second option also helps protect your mental health by allowing only those close to you to be aware.
If you are unsure whether to set this feature or not, try asking someone close to you who trusts themself and uses the feature whether they would like it or not.
Go to Privacy > Personal Info > Edit
To edit your personal information on Twitter, go to the Privacy tab in your settings and then click Personal Info.
Here you can edit your profile picture, description, and account creation date. You can also edit which accounts you follow and which accounts follow you.
If you want to hide your location, the account creation date will not allow you to do that. You have to select a location when you create the account, so this option is not available.
Under sensitive personal information, Twitter allows you to edit your gender and whether or not you are open about it. You can also choose whether or not to include a link to your email address.
Once you have made these changes, they will be effective immediately. There is no need to re-log in or restart your computer for these changes to take effect.
Choose which personal information to share
In your privacy settings, you can choose which personal information you share. You can choose to share your email address, phone number, or even physical address.
If you are quite concerned with online safety, then do not add any of these except for the optional email account. This way anyone can contact you via Twitter but cannot find your other personal information.
While it is nice to connect with people outside of the platform, it is also dangerous.
By not adding any of these, you limit the number of people who can locate and contact you on other platforms. You are also less likely to receive spam or junk emails or texts.
Twitter also offers the option to private tweet re tweets and likes. Choosing to do this will prevent people from seeing who has re tweeted or liked your tweets.
Go to Privacy > Retweeting> Edit
Next, you will want to make sure your Twitter account is set to private. This means that only people you approve can see your account and what you post.
By default, accounts are set to public. This makes it possible for anyone to find your account and follow you. Although this is not a big deal, it could be a problem if someone was trying to stalk or harass you.
You can change this in Settings > Privacy & Safety > Private Account. Click on Change to make your account private. It may take a while for your account to update as people try to find you, but it is worth it for the safety!
Another feature in Settings is protected accounts. This makes it so that people have to log in to Twitter before seeing your profile page and what you post. It is a good security measure if you are being targeted or threatened by someone.
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