Secure social media accounts

To prevent your social media accounts being compromised and your data as well you should put as many security measures as possible on them. Please check our Authentification/Passwords.md and Authentification/2fa.md articles for more information on how to secure your accounts.

I secured my social media accounts easy

Use a VPN to bypass KYC restrictions

More and more countries are adding age restrictions to social media accounts and require you to provide a picture of your face or a government ID to prove your age. You can try to bypass this requirement by using a VPN to connect to a country that does not have those restrictions. Be aware that this is not a foolproof method and you could be locked out of your account at any time.

I use a VPN to bypass KYC restrictions on social media easy

Change privacy settings

Make sure to check and change the privacy settings on your social media accounts. You can usually make your profile more private from the public and limit how much data the social media company collects about you.

I changed the privacy settings on my social media accounts easy

Do not post non public information

Whereas it's the social media changing it's policies, training their ai on your content, a data breach or just one of the persons you trusted sharing your data, you should not post any information that you do not want to be public forever. For example do not post pictures during your vacations, it is a signal that you are not at home and your house can be robbed.

I do not post non public information on my social media accounts easy

Use alternative social medias

If you just want privacy from the big tech companies you can use alternatives like Mastodon or Bluesky. Be aware that those alternatives are not to be considered more secure or private, they are just alternatives to the big tech companies.

I use alternative social medias easy

Keep your accounts pseudonymous

By keeping your accounts pseudonymous you allow yourself to separate your real life from your online presence while also making it easier to abandon and recreate your accounts if you need to.

I keep my social media accounts pseudonymous medium

Do not post pictures and remove metadata

Posting pictures on social media can reveal a lot of information about you, especially if the pictures contain metadata such as GPS coordinates. If you must post pictures, make sure to remove any metadata before posting them. You can use apps on your phone or computer to do so.

I do not post pictures on my social media accounts medium

Dmitriy Smilianets arrest

Dmitriy Smilianets was convicted for one of the largest credit card data breach in the US in history. He was arrested after posting a picture of himself on a social media profile he thought was unknown to authorities. He posted a picture of himself in front of the "I amsterdam" sign. Authorities called hotels in the area to find out which hotel he was staying at and arrested him the same day.

Exif data reveal the location of a picture leading to an arrest

If you are old enough you might know of w0rmer, a hacker that breached many US government systems and was famous for posting a picture of his girlfriend breasts with a sign everytime he breached a company to taunt the authorities. He was arrested because of one of the pictures he posted on social medias of which he had forgot to remove the metadata that revealed the location of the shooting (his girlfriend home).

Private conversations should be had outside of social media

If you need to communicate with someone privately, you should do so on a secure and ecnrypted messaging app such as Signal even if the social media you are using has a private messaging feature. Social media private messaging is more often than not not e2e encrypted or could be middle manned by the social media company itself.

I use a secure messaging app to communicate privately medium

Use the browser version not the app

If you must use social media, prefer the browser version over the app. Mobile apps often have more tracking and data collection features than their web counterparts while providing more or less the same ammount of features.

I use the browser version of social media instead of the app medium

Use a privacy frontend

If you want to view social media content but do not want to be tracked by the big tech, you can use a privacy frontend such as Libreddit for Reddit or Invidious for YouTube. Those essentially act as a proxy between you and the social media, allowing you to view content without being tracked. Those do not provide most features and most of the time only allow viewing content.

I use a privacy frontend to view social media content medium

Stop using social medias

Social medias are inherently insecure and honeypots for data collection. If you are serious on fighting hard for your privacy (and some might even say wellbeing) you should absolutely stop using social medias altogether.

I stopped using social medias hard