Who doesn’t use Social Media nowadays? It’s a great way to keep in touch with your family and friends, no matter the geographical distance between you. However, more often than not, users tend to overshare their information to strangers online.

Case in point, we explored several fun alternatives to the popular photo-sharing app Snapchat, which has been used in the past to spread incriminating photos and videos. In this post I will share how to achieve social media privacy. However, even if you believe you’re being careful, there’s a multitude of ways in which social media can be misused.

For instance, social media apps similar to Instagram can actually capture and store data on users’ faces and their locations. HP's Tech Takes post on social media and data security claims that as more and more of these types of information becomes available online, the possibilities of undermining your personal privacy becomes endless.

Just last year for instance, Forbes reported on a massive Instagram data breach, which accidentally revealed millions of users’ names and phone numbers. To help you achieve social media privacy, here are some tips you should keep in mind:

Tip 1: Keep Personal Information Off of the Internet

Limit what you store on public computers and on public storage systems. For instance, a simple is to make sure the “Remember Me” option is not ticked when you log into your social media accounts on a computer that’s not your own.

This way, strangers can’t access your personal data and lock you out. Also, sharing any password information or important documents using public channels should be avoided at all costs.

Tip 2: Be More Aware About Posting Your Thoughts, Photos, and Videos

When you’re on vacation, it can be extremely tempting to post a beach selfie or that gorgeous family portrait. However, TMJ 4 cautions against posting about your vacation until you’re back home because you can leave yourself vulnerable to burglaries in your area.

If your Instagram profile is public and you have a habit of sharing stories in real-time, this can lead to negative consequences. Also, refrain from posting anything when you're on a night out, because someone can always take a screenshot of your post before you delete it the next day.

Tip 3: Adjust the Social Media Platform’s Privacy Settings

If you’re an avid user of Facebook, you’re most likely aware that it collects a large amount of data about your online interactions. This data is often used to direct ads that are more relevant to you, boosting their profits.

To avoid this, Wired suggests limiting how Facebook tracks you by opening up Facebook settings and going to "Ads" to toggle certain ads settings. However, you should also note this won’t reduce the number of ads you see or delete previous data collected. What it does is prevent advertisers from targeting you using new data.

Do remember that despite doing these tips, total social media privacy is almost impossible to achieve, unless you want to delete all your apps together, search through the Internet and remove any data about you. On the other hand, taking certain measures and being conscious about how you use social media can keep you relatively safe from harm.