TechRadar Urges Social Media Users to Tighten Privacy Settings Against Scams
TechRadar outlines privacy settings and security steps to cut social media scam risk.
The report said social media profiles can become a detailed dossier through birthday posts, family photos, pet names and tagged locations, and that even seemingly harmless details can help attackers impersonate users or guess security answers. It cited the UK National Cyber Security Centre's guidance that privacy settings should keep personal information inaccessible to anyone but the account holder and should control who can see posts, contact users or find their profiles.
TechRadar listed the most impactful settings on major platforms. On Facebook, it recommended limiting posts to friends only, restricting past post visibility, disabling search engine indexing and limiting lookups by email address or phone number. On Instagram, it advised switching to a private account, disabling activity status, restricting tag approvals and turning off location sharing on posts. On Snapchat, it recommended enabling Ghost Mode in Snap Map, setting contact and story visibility to friends only and reviewing Find Friends settings.
On TikTok, the guidance called for toggling Private Account, disabling account suggestions, restricting direct messages and setting duet and stitch permissions to friends or off. On YouTube, it suggested marking the channel and subscriptions as private in privacy settings, disabling recommendations that show watch history and turning off location data on uploaded videos.
The report also recommended two universal actions: enabling two-factor authentication everywhere, preferably with an authentication app, and auditing connected third-party apps to revoke access for unused or unfamiliar services. TechRadar said five minutes of adjustment can reduce visibility to bad actors without requiring users to delete accounts or leave social media.
Editor's Summary
TechRadar's October 19, 2026, guidance focuses on social media privacy settings as a defense against phishing, social engineering and identity theft. It recommends platform-specific changes on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube, plus two-factor authentication and reviews of connected apps. The report frames these steps as a quick way to limit exposure without abandoning social media.