We spend so much time on our mobile phones and on social media, yet often we don’t think of how these tools are broadcasting our lives as we work and play. With just a few steps, you can limit what you are digitally telling the world.

• Lock out the hackers
  • Add two-factor authentication to your social media accounts. It only takes a few minutes to activate, and it is one of the best ways to keep hackers out of your accounts.
  • Use a passcode on your phone that is six to eight characters long. Use fingerprint sign-in as well to stop a criminal from watching you type your passcode.
  • A long password is a strong password. Each account should have a unique password that is at least 15 characters long.

• Review your settings and visibility
  • Social media accounts, phone apps, and mobile phones have multiple settings that determine your security and privacy. Understand what each setting does and how it affects your security and privacy. Changing even a few settings can mean the difference between disclosing your location and activities to everyone or limiting it to friends.
  • Consider limiting or turning off location settings. Most social media accounts, phone apps, and mobile phones track and store your location—they could potentially know where you are at all times. Decide how often you want your location tracked and change the settings if necessary. You can also turn off the location setting entirely if you wish, but be aware that certain functions, such as phone finders, may not work if you do so.
  • Think before giving social media accounts and phone apps access to your contacts. Any information about that contact—home address, email address, notes—can now be read and stored by the account or app that requested it.
  • Consider limiting how many posts include your location, regardless of whether your account is private.
  • In your social media accounts, think about who can access your posts and comments. Do you want anyone to read your comments or just your friends? Change the visibility settings to match how much you want your network to see. Using the broadest choice could also mean that your posts, comments, and photos can be found using your name or email address in an internet search.
  • Check the settings on your children’s social media accounts, phone apps, and mobile phones. Confirm that their settings are age-appropriate and are not disclosing too much personal information.

• Know your network
  • Don’t use unknown, free, or public wi-fi. Each time you connect to a wi-fi network, that network operator or even any user connected to that wi-fi can store and record your internet surfing, even if you connect just for a few minutes. Certain malware can infect your phone and allow the wi-fi to access your whole mobile phone.
  • Only connect wi-fi that you know and trust to protect your security and privacy, such as your home or work network.
• Consider friend requests before accepting
  • Don’t accept requests to connect on social media if you don’t know the person. Think twice if that person has no connection to your life. Review profiles before accepting requests.
  • Once you connect with someone, that person has access to more about your online life than you might want.
• Read the privacy policy
  • Understand how social media accounts and phone apps are using your information.
  • Read each privacy policy to learn what data is collected and how it is managed. Find out if your information is being sold to marketing firms and other vendors.
  • If you want to close an account, refer to the privacy policy to learn what steps you should take and what will happen to your information. Contact the company if the privacy policy does not give details.