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.

News, deals and stuff the manuals don't tell you. Sign up for our Tech newsletter, it's free monthly

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 is worth bearing in mind when it comes to protecting 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, select your profile picture and head to Manage your Google Account. Choose Data & Privacy to see the available options.

Depending on your settings, you might see privacy suggestions available at the top of your screen. You can review the suggestions there if you're short on time - or manually check your account using the instructions below.

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.

From the Data and Privacy screen, you can also check the following:

• Under Personalized ads, head to My Ad Centre to toggle the button to disable the use of your data to show ads specific to you. 
• Click Search personalisation 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, consider enabling 2FA for your online accounts. See our advice on phone apps you need to secure right away.

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.

The tool 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. (See also: how to create secure passwords)

We reveal the best antivirus software – find out which free antivirus came out on top in our tough lab tests.

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 > Settings & Privacy > Privacy Checkup (or Privacy shortcuts on Android). 

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 settings you can customise, including:

• Privacy – lets you control who sees what you share on Facebook, plus lets you manage your location settings.
• Account security – Update your personal information, change your password and set up two-factor authentication. (See also: what is two-factor authentication?)
• Ad preferences – lets you select what information Meta will hand over to third-party companies, such as advertisers.

14 benefits for Which? members

Dodge Don't Buys, get personalised advice and shop smart with the Which? app – how many great perks could you make use of today?

Find out more

4. Secure Outlook

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

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.

It's also worth setting up 2FA while you're using your PC. Click your profile picture and select My Microsoft account > Security > Manage how I sign in to reach the Microsoft security dashboard. Under Additional security, see the Two-step verification heading.

If you're using the app, click your profile icon, then the bottom-left settings cog icon, and scroll down to Privacy settings.

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.

The Privacy page has a walk-through safety review called privacy check-up. If you're short on time, 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.

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.

From the mobile app, tap Menu (the three lines) and then Your profile. Choose Data and Privacy to check app permissions, download or correct your data, and manage ads and cookies.

Select Interest-based marketing to avoid personalised ads and check in with Permissions you've given to track data you're sharing with apps and sites you use.

Join Which? Tech Support

Get tech confident

Solve your tech issues and get expert buying advice by chatting to our support team as often as you need. From only £4.99 a month.

Join Which? Tech Support

Cancel anytime.

You can join Which? Tech Support to keep on top of your home tech. Our experts explain things clearly so that you can resolve issues and feel more confident using your devices.

Get unlimited 1-2-1 expert support:

• By phone – clear guidance in choosing, setting up, using and resolving issues with your home tech devices.
• By email – outline the issue and we’ll email you our answer.
• By remote fix – we connect securely from our office to your home computer and resolve issues while you watch.
• In print – Which? Tech magazine, six issues a year delivered to your door.

You can join Which? Tech Support.

Based on an article written by Nicole Kobie for Which? Tech Magazine. Additional reporting by Tom Morgan.