Controlling your Twitter privacy settings

Accessing the Settings and privacy menu

The Settings and privacy menu can be accessed from any screen on the Twitter app, via the menu icon. The icon is always visible in the top-left corner of the screen, and looks like three stacked horizontal lines.

Tap the menu icon to access your settings.

Privacy and safety

Once the menu opens, you’ll see a range of information on the screen. Towards the bottom, you’ll see a menu item called Settings and privacy. This is where you can control some of the features on Twitter that can help to protect your personal information.

Tap Settings and privacy and then tap Privacy and safety.

Protect your Tweets

The Protect your Tweets option appears at the top of the screen, with a switch that is set to Off. Tapping the switch so that it changes colour and turns On helps ensure that your tweets are visible only to Twitter users who follow you.

It also gives you the ability to approve or deny each new user who wants to follow you. This is a great way to control who can see your details and the content that you post on Twitter.

Photo tagging

The Photo tagging option also appears at the top of the page. Tap it now to explore the different settings you can apply to users who tag you in their content.

Tagging is the name given when another user mentions you in the content that they post. If someone tags you, you will see the @ symbol followed by your Twitter username. For example, @BeConnected.

With the Photo tagging option, you can:

• Turn photo tagging off altogether
• Allow anyone on Twitter to tag you in their content
• Allow only people you follow to tag you in their content.

How Twitter users find you

The Discoverability and contacts option in the Privacy and safety menu allows you to determine how other Twitter users find you on Twitter. There are two options that are set to On by default. These options are:

• Let others find you by your email. Users can find your account by searching for your email address. For example, if a friend joins Twitter, they’ll be able to find your Twitter account via your email address.
• Let others find you by your phone. Users can find you on Twitter by searching for your phone number.

If you don’t want other Twitter users to find your account by these methods, tap the switch or checkbox next to each option so that it changes colour and turns off.

Muting and blocking accounts

Since Twitter is an open social media platform, you may come across content that offends you. You may also come across recommended content that doesn’t interest you. If this happens, you can Mute or Block a user.

• Muting another Twitter user means that you will no longer see their content.
• Blocking another Twitter user means that you will no longer see the content they post and they won’t be able to view your profile or content.

If you decide to mute or block another user, they won’t be notified that you have done so.

Location services

The Precise location option is disabled by default but can be turned on if you wish to share your location with Twitter. Twitter can use your whereabouts to target you with advertising, so it’s a good idea to leave this option as Disabled.

Personalisation and data

Twitter has the ability to track your search history and target you with advertising based on your location, profile and the type of content you view. If you’d prefer that Twitter doesn’t have this information about you, you can tap the switch or checkbox next to each of the following options to turn them Off.

• Personalised ads. Twitter will show you ads based on your Twitter activity and other web-based activity that they track, such as your internet search history.
• Personalise based on your inferred identity. The information you used to create your Twitter account can be used to target you with content.
• Personalise based on places you’ve been. If you share your location services with Twitter, they can target ads and content based on your current whereabouts.

eSafety Tip

To protect your privacy, it is recommended that you turn each of the Personalisation and data options off by tapping the switch or checkbox next to each so that it changes colour and turns off.

Twitter Help Center

From time to time, you may find that you need help while using Twitter. The good news is that Twitter has its own help centre that can be accessed by tapping the menu in the top-left corner of your screen. Remember, Twitter is a US company, so it uses the US spelling for centre.

The Help Center has information on:

• Using Twitter
• Managing your Twitter account
• Safety and security
• Rules and policies of using Twitter.

There are also some helpful videos, pro tips and articles on how you get the most from using Twitter.

Congratulations

Congratulations, you’ve just completed the Controlling your Twitter privacy settings activity. You should now know how you can protect yourself and your personal information while using Twitter. Importantly, you’ve also learned how to block and mute offensive or irrelevant content.

Next up, you can learn how to use Twitter in the Posting a tweet activity.