Protect your privacy: 7 ways to secure your social media and email accounts

Scam emails that know personal details about your family. Advertisers that stalk you across the web. Social-savvy burglars who know when you're away. These threats are real, but there are plenty of ways to keep yourself protected.

Online privacy shouldn't be such a burden. It's dull and onerous to delete old, forgotten accounts and methodically work through privacy settings. But it's worth it when data breaches continue to hit organisations.

Below, we've rounded up our top tips to secure your online data. You don't need to go through all of them at once, so consider bookmarking this page and revisiting it when you have time.

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1. Run a privacy checkup for your Google account

⏱️ How long does it take? Around 10 minutes to check settings for an existing account.

For many people, Google is the web – using Chrome to access Gmail, relying on Maps to get around, watching YouTube videos and so on. But Google is also one of the world's largest online advertising companies, which potentially impacts your privacy.

Setting up a new Google account

If you're creating a new account, you'll be offered an Express setup or a Manual one – choose the latter, as it walks you through the various privacy settings. That includes Web & App Activity, where Google collects data for personalisation.

Revisiting an existing Google account

If you already have a Google profile, log in and head to Manage your Google Account. Choose Data & Privacy to see the available options.

Under History settings, click on Web & App Activity to disable Google's personalisation across its own services. Entirely disable this service, or delete specific activity such as ad interactions, wider collection of data from Google-affiliated services, and the use of voice and audio activity.

In Data and Privacy: 

• Under Personalized ads, head to My Ad Center to toggle the button to disable the use of your data to show ads specific to you. 
• Click Personal results in Search to turn off personalisation such as autocomplete and recommendations - although these handy tools may be worth keeping enabled as they can be real time savers.

While we're talking privacy, remember that VPN software can keep some parts of your online web activity hidden. See our VPN software reviews for more details.

2. Try Google's Password Manager

⏱️ How long does it take? Around 10-20 minutes to open the tool, sort through your saved passwords and update compromised ones.

If you're already putting your trust in the Google ecosystem, it's logical to also rely on the company's wider safety tools. Its Password Manager (passwords.google) makes strong, unique passwords easier to use and warns if any are spotted in a data breach.

Selecting Manage passwords will show you a list of stored passwords for your online accounts – shopping websites, social media accounts and gaming services, for example. Expanding one will display your username and password, plus associated URLs.

Visit the Checkup screen to see if Password Manager has identified any weak passwords, reused passwords or compromised passwords. Compromised passwords should be updated immediately.

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3. Check your privacy settings on Facebook

⏱️ How long does it take? Around 5 minutes per category in the Privacy Checkup tool.

From the mobile app, you can select Menu then Settings & Privacy. From the desktop version of Facebook, select your profile image in the top right and, from the dropdown menu, select Settings & Privacy > Privacy Checkup. 

Here, you'll see a list of categories with customisable settings, including:

• How people can find you on Facebook – lets you limit friend requests and ban people from finding you using your phone number and email, and from listing your profile in Google search.
• How to keep your account secure – will walk you through setting up a stronger password, enabling two-factor authentication and linking recovery accounts. This does require handing over your phone number to Facebook, but it's worth it as it helps prevent hackers from taking over your account.
• Your ad preferences on Facebook – lets you select what information Meta will hand over to third-party companies such as advertisers.

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4. Secure Outlook

⏱️ How long does it take? Around 5 minutes to explore the privacy tab on desktop and mobile.

When setting up an Outlook email account, you'll be shown a pop-up that promises 'privacy is our priority', but clicking the Continue button merely closes the pop-up rather than opening a privacy settings dashboard.

• To find the privacy section when using a computer, click on the top-right cog icon to open Settings, then choose General. Select Privacy and data. This screen lets you download your data or delete your search history.
• If you're using the app, click your profile icon, then the bottom-left settings cog icon, and scroll down to Privacy settings. While there's little here of use in the desktop settings, you can manage Advertising preferences and Search history in the app.

5. Explore the Microsoft Privacy Dashboard

⏱️ How long does it take? Around 10-20 minutes to fully explore and make changes.

Head to your Microsoft account online (account.microsoft.com) for a wider range of tools under the Privacy heading. Make sure you have two-factor authentication set up (in Security info) to minimise the chance of your account being hacked.

The Privacy Dashboard has a walk-through safety review, but its questions are designed first to give over more personal data for account recovery, and second to entice users to download the Edge browser. If this bothers you, perhaps skip it and go straight to the full settings menu, where you can enable (or not) location activity tracking, browsing and search personalisation, and performance data.

Under More privacy settings, it's worth reviewing Personalised ad settings and Apps and services, to opt out of personalised ads and monitor which apps have access to your account.

6. Manage your Amazon browsing history

⏱️ How long does it take? Less than 5 minutes to clear history and adjust preferences.

From a computer, head to amazon.co.uk/gp/history) and then, to the right of Your Browsing History, select the cog icon. This opens a window to delete searched items and pause the data collection for a set period or indefinitely.

To avoid wider advertising, on your account page, click on Cookie Preferences to disable advertising trackers and click on Advertising preferences to ask the company to remove your personal information from its ad systems.

7. Check your PayPal permissions

⏱️ How long does it take? Around 10 minutes to explore all of the Data and Privacy categories.

In your account, head to Data & Privacy to check app permissions, download or correct your data, and manage ads and cookies.

Click Manage your cookies and deselect Marketing to avoid personalised ads; you must accept Essential cookies, but PayPal also asks permission for analytics trackers and to customise your experience, such as language. Select Interest-based marketing to toggle off personalised ads.

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Based on an article written by Nicole Kobie for the June 2024 issue of Which? Tech Magazine. Additional reporting by Tom Morgan.