The Twitter concept is all about simplicity and brevity. For this reason, you won’t find too many privacy settings in this social network. Perhaps something will change later, but the core principles are likely to remain the same.
Your avatar and bio
This information can be seen by everyone, regardless of the settings. So if you’re not an extrovert, don’t reveal too much. Use an anonymous avatar picture, and avoid telling your life story — there’s no need. Your friends are likely to rate a witty (but inoffensive) joke far more highly.
Access to your tweets
This setting is conciseness itself. Your tweets can be seen either by anyone or your Twitter followers. There are no in-between options.
If you don’t post anything, but only comment on others’ tweets or, say, upload company news, public is the way to go. But if you share personal stuff with followers, private is better.
Private messages
Spam is quite often sent in private messages. You can block random people from sending you messages — in this case, only accounts you follow will be able to do so.
Your location
You already know that this information may be of interest not only to friends, but potential burglars. So your current location is best kept secret from everyone. In the settings you can disable the option that adds your location to all your tweets.
Photos
Photos are often excessively informative, even without location tags. A selfie with the Eiffel Tower or on the beach speaks for itself.
To stop such photos from entering the public domain without your consent, block tagging of you in photos. If such a measure seems too drastic, make an exception only for users you read yourself — this will at least cut out spam.
Search by contact details
Twitter allows others to find you by email address or phone number. This means that dossier compilers can access your tweets and learn more about you. Don’t make their life easier — disable these options in the settings.
Your data
Twitter makes no bones about the fact that it uses data on your online activities and information from partners to display personalized ads. Such honesty is commendable. Better still is that the social network lets you choose what you want to share and what not.
For example, you can ban personalization based on places you visited or things related to your personality. You can also prevent the social network from tracking where you see Twitter content across the web and from sharing your data with business partners.
Two-factor authentication
If your Twitter account is of any value to you at all, secure it with two-factor authentication. And even if it’s not, protect it anyway to prevent it from being hijacked and used to swindle your friends.
Twitter uses its users’ data for personalized advertising. Fact or fiction?