Resources to create safer spaces online
Women also inhabit digital spaces, such as social media, on a daily basis. Given the constant digital violence and online attacks that take place in these environments, platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter/X have been making efforts to strengthen their privacy and security policies, as well as to provide resources and tools to help create safer spaces that promote autonomy and privacy through user control and user experience features. Let’s take a look.
Instagram and Twitter
Review the following resources:
Username
- Use a pseudonym if you don’t want to be easily identified.
- Be aware that you can change your username at any time on the platform.
- If you have accounts on other social media platforms,use different usernames and contact information to reduce the risk of someone linking your accounts and gathering more information about you.
Use of Photos
On both platforms, your profile photo and header image remain public even if your account is protected.
- Choose photos that don’t easily identify you, and change them at any time in your profile settings.
- Keep in mind that using the same photo across platforms makes it easier for others to identify you. Reverse image searches can reveal information about you that isn’t visible on Twitter.
- Use different photos for different platforms to prevent cross-linking.
- Update photo-tagging settings so that only people you follow can tag you—or disable tagging altogether.
Location Privacy
- Make sure the feature that allows your account to share location data is turned off.
- Consider removing location information from all social media and apps, if applicable, through your privacy settings by selecting “Remove location information”.
- Be aware that the content of a tweet itself can reveal your location, regardless of your privacy settings.
Post Privacy
- Update your privacy settings to protect your social media and to control who can follow you by approving follow requests.
- Keep in mind that third-party applications with access to your account may be able to see protected tweets.
- On Instagram, set your account to private.
Communication Privacy
- Use direct messaging to communicate privately with others.
- Configure your settings to receive messages only from people you follow and who follow you back.
- Note that people added to an existing direct message group won’t be able to see the conversation history from before they joined.
Login Verification
- This is an additional layer of security recommended before allowing access to your account.
- You can enable this feature by providing a phone number to receive login verification requests.
- Once activated, in addition to entering a password, you’ll receive a notification to approve the login attempt, preventing hacks.
Notification Settings
- Configure email notification settings and choose whether you want to receive emails about activity on your account or prefer not to.
- These emails may include changes to account settings, password updates, and new login alerts.
Review Facebook’s security information here.
Privacy Settings
- You can adjust the following:
- Who can see your future posts? → Friends
- Do you want to limit the audience for posts you’ve shared with friends of friends or made public? → Yes
- Who can send you friend requests? → Friends of friends
- Who can see your friends list? → Only me
- Who can look you up using the email address or phone number you provided? → Friends
- Do you want search engines outside Facebook to link to your profile? → No
- Facial Recognition: Disable facial recognition.
Location Settings
You can adjust:
- View location history → (three vertical dots) → Delete all location history
- Settings → Turn off location history → Disable location services
Timeline and Tagging
You can adjust:
- Who can post on your timeline? → Friends / Only me
- Who can see what others post on your timeline? → Friends / Only me
- Who can see posts you’re tagged in on your timeline? → Friends / Only me
- Review posts you’re tagged in before they appear on your timeline? → Enabled
- Review tags people add to your posts before they appear? → Enabled
Security and Login
You can adjust:
- Where you’re logged in → Remove any devices you don’t recognise or no longer use.
- Disable photo-based login.
- Enable two-factor authentication.
- Get alerts about unrecognised logins → Enable
- Choose 3 to 5 trusted contacts to help you regain access to your account → Optional, depending on whether you want Facebook to know who they are.
Apps and Websites
You can adjust:
- Who can see connected apps and websites? → Only me
- Remove apps you no longer use, and review or edit the ones you still use.
- Disable optional permissions.
Public Posts
You can adjust:
- Who can follow me → Friends, so only they can see your posts.
