You must adjust these 7 privacy settings immediately

What about your privacy on Twitter? Do you know what privacy settings Twitter offers on its platform? If you couldn’t help but answer the previous questions with no, get ready for a steam workshop in privacy on Twitter. We will explain step by step which privacy settings you can adjust and what the benefits are for you.

Twitter Privacy Settings

Twitter is widely used to discuss, share exactly what you are doing, or to share frustrations about a situation you have (just) experienced. Unlike a platform like Instagram, such data is easy to find through search engines. Don’t want everyone to find that data on Google? Perhaps it is wise to opt for a closed Twitter account. This can also come in handy in the event that a Twitter discussion gets out of hand and fellow Twitterers reach for your profile for whataboutism tweets.

Depending on the situation that has arisen, it may also be that you do not want the twitterers to be able to access personal data such as your place of residence. These are of course extremes: it is of course not the case that danger is lurking on Twitter. However, it is still important to pay attention to your privacy. The fact that Twitter is so open also means that you may give faster access to privacy-sensitive data. On Androidworld we previously took you through the seven privacy settings that can be adjusted on Facebook. Below you can read step by step about the 7 privacy settings that you should adjust on Twitter.

1. Protect your tweets

Twitter is used by many as an open platform: the tweets they post are visible to everyone, including people who do not follow or know them. Depending on the ‘type of tweets’ you post, that may not matter. If you only share some news items or use Twitter as your personal news feed, your Twitter account will contain very little sensitive data. As soon as you start posting photos of friends, family or yourself, things are a bit different and it is wise to think about whether you do not want a closed account. Others can then not nose through your tweets and reactions to tweets from others are not visible to other twitterers.

1. Open the Twitter app on Android
2. Click on you at the top left profile picture
3. Then navigate to Settings and privacy
4. Below you user name then click Privacy and security
5. Finally put the switch at the back Protect your Tweets

2. Determine how people can find you

Even if you’re hidden behind a meaningless username, if people know your email address, they can still find you on Twitter. At least that is the case if your findability on Twitter is not turned off in the privacy settings. In some cases it may be ‘undesirable’ that people can find you via your e-mail address or telephone number, for example during job applications. You also don’t want evil people – or your ex – to be able to easily find you on Twitter because they happen to have your phone number and they are trying to reach you that way. Below I explain how you can check whether your findability on Twitter is turned off.

1. Open the Twitter app on Android
2. Click on you at the top left profile picture
3. Then navigate to Settings and privacy
4. Below you user name then click Privacy and security
5. In this menu go to Findability and contacts
6. Make sure there are no check marks behind Others can (…) email address and Others can (…) phone number

3. Change access to your Direct Messages (DMs)

The strangest things sometimes happen in secluded (digital) spaces. Sometimes it’s just a spam message, but if you get involved in a fiery Twitter discussion, sometimes it doesn’t end with spam. Of course those are extremes, but it is possible. After all, opening up your Twitter DM, or your private messages, makes it possible to receive messages from unwanted people, even if your tweets are protected. Below you can read how to disable receiving DMs from anyone.

1. Open the Twitter app on Android
2. Click on you at the top left profile picture
3. Then navigate to Settings and privacy
4. Below you user name then click Privacy and security
5. Go to private messages
6. Now put the switch out behind Receive private messages

This ensures that you can no longer receive private messages. On the one hand it is important to protect your privacy and your own security, but on the other hand it also creates limitations that limit the platform in terms of functionality.

4. Select who can tag you on Twitter

One privacy setting that returns with every platform is the ability to be tagged. It can be useful for others – after all they know that you are in the image – and you can respond to the message faster yourself. At the same time, it can also draw unwanted attention to your Twitter profile, and Twitter doesn’t currently offer the ability to check messages you’ve been tagged in before activating your tag in the message. Before you change the setting, anyone can tag you, and with that there is a chance that you will be tagged in spam or sexual messages, something you obviously don’t want. It is also possible that your employer likes to tag people in messages, while you would rather not have this happen.

1. Open the Twitter app on Android
2. Click on you at the top left profile picture
3. Then navigate to Settings and privacy
4. Below you user name then click Privacy and security
5. Click on the setting Tag photos
6. Select the option Only people (…), can tag you or from

If tagging is turned off, no one can tag you anymore. With the other option, only people you follow can still tag you. In either case, there is little chance that you will be tagged in spam messages.

5. Add words you want to ‘mute’

If you regularly encounter words on your timeline or your notifications that you would rather not see, you can hide certain words, hashtags and usernames via Twitter’s privacy settings. This way you don’t hide the entire account of the user, but you do hide the messages from that user on your timeline. For example, if you regularly receive comments or see posts on your timeline with words you’d rather not read, it might be helpful to mute them in the settings. This also applies to messages from accounts that you do not want to block, but that you have had enough of by now. The setting generally helps to see fewer unwanted messages.

For this setting, entering a word, such as Summer Holiday, is sufficient to hide the word and the hashtag (#Zomervakantie). You can mute one word or username at a time. If you would like to read more about the setting to mute words or usernames, please visit Twitter’s support page.

1. Open the Twitter app on Android
2. Click on you at the top left profile picture
3. Then navigate to Settings and privacy
4. Below you user name then click Privacy and security
5. Continue to Ignored words below Safety
6. Click the at the bottom right ‘+’ button to hide a new item
7. Fill in the top word/phrase or the user name (of @) in
8. Choose under ignore where it should be hidden
9. Select below (How long?) the hiding must last, like All the time
10. Finally, click on the top right Save

6. Change the location on your Twitter profile

Do you want everyone, including your ex, colleagues and unknown twitterers to know where you live? Many twitterers have filled in their place of residence for their Twitter profile, even though this raises various privacy concerns. As already indicated, your ex could retrieve this information to find out where you live. In addition, Twitter users can easily find out who you are with your name and place of residence. If you’re not very active on Twitter or if you’re mainly active talking to people you know, there’s little to worry about. If you talk a lot with people you don’t know, then things are a bit different and you may want to be a little more careful with them.

1. Open the Twitter app on Android
2. Click on you at the top left profile picture
3. Then navigate to Profile
4. Go to on your profile Edit profile
5. Submit Location for example The Netherlands if you province in

7. Set up this extra password protection

This option has little to do with privacy, but it does provide an extra line of defense to protect your Twitter account from malicious people who want to take over your Twitter account. You can normally already send a recovery message on Twitter by knowing the username of a Twitter account. Without the malicious person in possession of your email address or telephone number, you don’t have to worry about that much. After all, they cannot access the data necessary to reset your password. At the same time, others can get hold of your account if they’ve stolen your phone – or you’ve lost it – and get the data from there to reset the password. This can be prevented with an additional Twitter setting, which requires people to know your number or email address.

Before the Twitter password reset email is sent, Twitter will ask the person requesting the reset for the phone number or email address associated with the account. If they don’t know that, they won’t be able to complete the reset request.

1. Open the Twitter app on Android
2. Click on you at the top left profile picture
3. Then navigate to Settings and privacy
4. Below you user name then click Account
5. go under Login and account now to Safety
6. put a Finch behind the option Security reset password

Which privacy settings for your Twitter profile have we not covered that we should cover in this article? Please also let us know whether you are going to get started with these settings, or whether you actually think the basic settings are fine.