How do I protect my social media accounts from being hacked?

Enable multi-factor authentication on every social account, use unique passwords via a password manager, review and restrict privacy settings, be cautious of friend requests from strangers, never click suspicious links in DMs, and regularly audit which third-party apps have access to your accounts.

What personal information should I never share on social media?

Never share your full birthday, home address, phone number, travel plans while away, photos of IDs or documents, children's school names, answers to common security questions (pet names, mother's maiden name), or your daily routine and schedule.

Social Media Privacy — You're Already a Target

📱 The goal is not to disappear. It is to know the difference between sharing on purpose and handing over the answers to your own security questions.

📱 Lock Down the Settings

Start here, because it is the part you can finish tonight. Every platform ships configured for maximum reach, not maximum safety.

Tighten privacy settings on FacebookSet profile to Friends Only, limit who can see posts and photos, disable location tagging. Audit and lock down Instagram privacyMake the account private, disable location data, limit story viewers, and check where you have been tagged in other people's photos. Review LinkedIn visibility settingsCheck whether your profile is searchable, and limit who can see your connections and your activity. Remove your birthdate, phone number, and address from profilesThese are security question answers and identity verification points. Do not make them public. Disable location history on all social appsTurn off location tracking in the app settings. Even "Always" location sharing is more than these apps need.

🔑 Stop Publishing Your Security Answers

First pet. High school mascot. First car. The street you grew up on. Your mother's maiden name. Those questions were written in a world where the answers were private, and that world is gone.

Replace every security question answer with a fictional oneGenerate them like passwords and store them in your password manager. The answer does not have to be true, it only has to be something you can retrieve. Go back and delete the posts that already answer themThe pet photo with the name attached. The throwback post with the team mascot. The first car you rebuilt. The Mother's Day tribute where a relative used her maiden name in the comments. Treat any account that still recovers by security question as weakIf that is the only way back in, the account is protected by things you have been broadcasting for years. Add a real second step where the option exists.

✈ Share on a Delay

Most oversharing is not about what you said. It is about when you said it.

Stop posting real-time location updatesCheck-ins, live stories and geotags tell anyone watching when your house is empty. Post travel afterwards, and never post the itinerary in advance"Monday in New Orleans, then two days in D.C." reads as professional and accessible. It also tells a stranger exactly where you will be and exactly when your family is home without you. Think twice before announcing a new jobA new starter was targeted within two weeks because he updated his profile. The announcement tells a criminal who to impersonate, and that you are new enough not to know what is normal yet.

🧒 What You Post About Your Children

Sharenting is the word for it, and the risk is not only predators. It is also the starter kit for identity theft, and a digital footprint your child never agreed to.

Review what photos of your children are already publicly visibleGo and look, rather than assuming. Make them private or limited to people you actually know. Never post the combination of name, age and school"My daughter, age twelve, just started at Sunshine Elementary" with a photo and the school tagged gives a stranger her name, her face, her age and where to find her on a weekday. Agree your family's rule before the next milestone, not during itFirst day of school, birthdays, graduations. Decide now what gets posted and what does not, because the decision is much harder in the moment with the photo already taken. Remember they cannot consent to any of itThe bath photo, the learning difficulty you wrote about, the behavior you vented about. All of it is still searchable when they apply for a job in twenty years. They inherit the digital identity you create for them.

📸 When Other People Post Your Children

Schools, clubs, teams and other parents. This is the harder half, because the decision is not entirely yours.

Answer the photo consent forms deliberately instead of signing them allA useful line: a group photo with no names attached is a risk worth accepting, an individual photo captioned with your child's name is not. Your line may sit somewhere else, as long as you actually drew one. Ask family and friends not to tag your children by nameGrandparents and other parents are usually glad to be asked, and have never once been told why it matters. Give them the reason, not just the rule.

🧹 Clean Up What Is Already There

If you have been posting freely for years, this is the section that matters most, and the news is better than you think.

Go back through old posts and delete what you would not post todayOld photos, outdated addresses and workplaces, anything answering a security question. Set aside an hour per platform. Do not decide it is too late to botherNobody is archiving an ordinary person's posts. Unless you are a public figure being screenshotted, what you delete from your own profile really does mostly go away. You cannot control what was already shared, and you can control what is still up.

⚖ Decide What Risk You Accept

The goal was never silence. Plenty of people need an audience to earn a living. The difference that matters is whether the risk was chosen or simply not noticed.

Before you post, ask one question: how can this be used against me?Not whether someone would. Whether they could. If it helps a stranger answer a security question, know your address, work out when the house is empty, or impersonate you to your family, think again before posting. Decide which platforms you are public on, and behave differently therePublic for work and private for family is a workable split. What breaks is treating every account the same way and hoping the audience stays professional. Know which risks you have actually acceptedA creator who shares personal content has made a trade and knows it. Posting a travel schedule, a child's school and a security question answer without realizing what they are is not accepted risk, it is just exposure.

This checklist is from You're Already a Target by Corey White.

This is the full list. Most of it will not apply to you. Remi™ finds which of these actually matter for your social accounts, puts them in order, and walks you through them one at a time.

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Social Media Privacy Checklist