Social media usage is constantly growing as people like to connect, share posts, videos, and photos, and engage with others. However, it's essential to be aware of the potential privacy risks and to know how to protect users’ personal information. People are becoming more careful about their privacy, what they share on social media, and what social platforms do with their social media data. Even with tough privacy laws, sensitive user information could be at risk.
Statistics shows that 87.94% of iOS apps (1,684,748 apps) track private user data.
Social media managers, content creators, and business owners need to manage data privacy across social media platforms. The first step towards solving social media privacy issues is identifying them. Then, adequate steps for ensuring privacy on social media should be implemented. In this guide, we’ll describe the most common social media privacy issues.
Why Are Social Media Privacy Concerns Important?
People often share personal and even sensitive information on social media platforms. Besides this, tracking cookies, cross-site tracking, tracking pixels, or other similar tracking technologies could track a user's online activity such as webpage views, social media sharing, or purchase history. All this data is gathered and sorted by user segments, which then data owners sell for marketing purposes.
Data breaches happen every day, compromising millions of user accounts and leaking personal data such as home addresses, usernames, passwords, and even bank account numbers.
There were 1,774 data breaches in 2022, that affected 422 million people.
In 2022, data breaches leaked the following data:
- Individuals’ names (1,560 breaches).
- Individuals’ social security numbers (1,143 breaches).
- Individuals’ home addresses (565 breaches).
- Individuals’ medical records (465 breaches).
- Individuals’ bank account numbers (443 breaches).
Scammers and fraudsters can also get access to this information and use it for their malicious purposes. Reports about fraud originating on social media have soared over five years. In 2020, 46,000 reported in losses to fraud, while in 2021, more than 95,000 became victims of fraud on social media, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
What Types of Data do Social Media Platforms Collect?
Social media platforms often collect personally identifiable information, together with interests, purchases, internet browsing activities, lists of friends, geo-locations, and others. Often, when users sign up for an account, they agree to the terms and conditions, including access to social media platforms to collect users’ personal data.
There are some examples of sensitive data:
- medical or health records;
- biometric data (e.g. fingerprints or DNA);
- education records;
- credit card data;
- financial records;
- personal identifiers, such as age, ethnicity, and race;
- photo of a face
- personally owned property;
- employment information and applications;
- status updates at work, life, and relationship events;
- religious beliefs;
- location data;
- shared content on social media;
- engagement on social media, such as likes, shares, or comments.
Common Social Media Privacy Issues
To be compliant with privacy laws, you need to understand the most common privacy concerns found on social media platforms. In addition to compliance, you also need to protect the data of your customers, retain the trust of customers in your company, and avoid penalties for breaches of data safety.
These are the most common social media privacy issues:
- Data mining. Scammers use data mining for identity theft. They do not need much data for that. Actually, publicly available information on social media can help them successfully target victims. Scammers can get email addresses, usernames, phone numbers, and physical addresses quite easily. With this data, they can send phishing scams or gather more information like leaked passwords or credit card numbers.
- Data breach. If a company is hacked, customers’ social media data is one of the first data to be stolen. People provide a lot of personal information on social media which could be used for malicious purposes. As in the case of data mining, scammers could use this information for phishing scams or could try to gather more information to perform more serious online crimes.
If you become the victim of a data breach, inform your customers immediately. They should change their passwords on social media accounts and be aware of phishing scams. When you are transparent with your customers, you could retain your reputation and keep your customers. - Third-party data sharing. Many social media platforms are in partnership with third-party services and share user data with them. While it allows the integration of different services, it also creates significant privacy risks. Users often grant permission to share or sell their data to these third parties even without knowing it. When signing the Terms of Services agreement or accepting cookies, read carefully what you are signing for.
- Privacy setting loopholes. Social media accounts often are less private than users think. For example, if you share something with a friend and they commented on it, the friends of your friend can also see the information you shared. Your friend could also repost the information you shared on social media, and it will also become available a completely different people. Even closed groups are not completely private since group members could repost your content, postings can be searchable, etc.
- Location settings. User location paired with personal information can provide detailed information to a user profile. Scammers can use this comprehensive data to physically find and target users or collect more digital data. Even if social media users turn off their location settings, scammers can get device's location by other means such as public Wi-Fi, cellphone towers, and others. If you care about your location settings being tracked, always turn off the GPS location services and browse through a VPN.
- Harassment and cyberbullying. Defrauders can send threatening messages, perform harassment, or cause emotional trouble even without getting into users’ social media accounts. Publicly visible inappropriate comments on social media accounts are one of the forms of harassment. Cyberbullying includes sharing negative or harmful content about persons on social media platforms.
Doxxing is a form of cyberbullying and involves sharing harmful content about persons like revealing a person's address, phone number, or personal photos to cause harm, embarrassment, or humiliation. They also encourage others to harass the person online. - Fake information. Social media can be used to spread false information or propaganda quickly. Trolls and bots often provoke social media users by manipulating emotions. They can also create a fake account or advocate for a person by posing as a person. It has also been used for harassment, or cyberbullying. Most social media platforms have content moderators or procedures for how other customers could report fake information, but it takes time for posts to be marked or deleted. You should always check information before resending it or making conclusions on social media.
- Malware and viruses. Malware and viruses can spread through social media platforms. They can steal sensitive data, infect, or slow down users’ computers. Cybercriminals can take over the social media account of a user and spread malware to the affected account of the user and all the user's friends.
- Identity theft. When users post much data on social media networks, it is a huge opportunity for cybercriminals to harvest information about individuals. This could lead to identity theft and financial scams, such as credit card fraud.
- Impact on job opportunities. The lack of privacy on social media can impact careers: many employers admit to checking candidates’ social media profiles as part of the hiring process.
The Netwrix Cloud Data Security Report shows that in 2022, hackers were the main threat to data privacy in cloud infrastructures (55%). Interestingly, the other main threats for data privacy concerns are individuals trusted by the company, including employees (39%) and contractors and partners (36%).
How to Protect Your Social Media Accounts?
Given so many possibilities for cybercriminals through social media platforms and the troubles they could cause, social media users should be more cautious performing any actions on social media platforms. You should consider the following actions on social media regarding your personal information safety to avoid privacy concerns with social media:
- Think twice when opening a new social media account, especially if it comes from another countries than USA or Europe since data privacy laws of these countries could be less strict. Each platform adds additional risk, so if you don’t really need it- don’t open and share your data. If you decided to join the platform- make sure it is safe and reliable, check the service provider and the testimonials about it.
- Post with care. Even though your post can be deleted, all photos, videos, and posts on social media leave a digital footprint. You may not want to have some of it public in the future.
- Ensure friends and acquaintances are aware of your preferences. Inform your friends about your social media usage and privacy concerns. If you, for example, do not want to publicly share images of your children, make these concerns known to your social media friends. Always ask for permission before posting, and always take down posts if asked.
- When leaving a social media platform, do not forget to delete the account and all your data.
- Use strong passwords. Don't use the same passwords across multiple social media platforms or websites. You can use a password manager to store your sign-on credentials.
- Avoid public devices. Don't connect your cell phone to a public computer at all costs since public computers are a prime source for viruses and Malware. Don't use your credit card or social media accounts on a shared computer. When using a shared computer, do not forget to log out when finished.
- Avoid public Wi-Fi. Try not to log into social media accounts using public and thus insecure Wi-Fi networks. Hackers often use this option to steal login credentials and take over the associated social media profile. If necessary, make sure to use a reliable virtual private network (VPN).
- Use paid services. Statistics shows that free apps are six times more likely to track user data than paid apps.
- Never share personal data on social media platforms. Avoid sharing sensitive personal data on social media platforms at all. Passport numbers, Social security numbers, driver’s licenses, bank account numbers, and any other unique identification numbers represent one of the biggest social media security issues because they can result in identity theft and financial fraud. You never know who can get it.
- Try to limit followers. If you are not a public figure or require a public profile, it is best not to accept connection requests from unknow people, especially if their social media account is quite empty. Only accept connection requests from people who are personally known or maintain a private account.
- Do not share trackable details. Do not share personal details or photos and videos that allow followers to see your live locations or daily routines. All this physical data could be used by criminals, especially if you also share your address.
- Disable geolocation data. Disable sharing geolocation data on apps. When you do not use navigation or similar apps, turn off geolocation data through security settings on your phone.
- Don't click on suspicious links. Even if your friend sent you a link, avoid clicking on suspicious links. Examine the link before you click by researching the web address. Run safety checks if you're still suspicious.
- Use two-factor authentication methods. Two-factor authentication adds another layer of security to the app, so it is advised to use it.
- Enable automatic logouts. Social networking sites usually have a setting that allows to automatic logout when accounts are accessed on unrecognized devices or unknown locations. Enable these settings.
- Monitor security alert emails. Most social networks automatically send out security alerts by email when logins are attempted from unknown devices or locations. Check these emails seriously to make sure it was your login. Be aware that some security alert emails can be phishing scams, so avoid clicking links or attachments.
- Keep software up to date. Ensure all software and apps, including browsers and social network apps, are up to date and deploy the latest security instruments.
Free iOS apps are six times more likely to track user data than paid apps: 53.54% of free apps track user private data compared to 13.73% of paid apps.
Social Media Privacy Policy Issues for Businesses
Businesses have a few additional privacy concerns with social media, so it is essential to understand how to work with social media platforms.
Most importantly, it is crucial to create a professional Social Media Privacy Policy that protects the company, employees, and customers. A Social Media Privacy Policy for businesses outlines how a company collects, uses, stores, and protects user data on its social media platforms.
Here are a few best practices for handling organizational social media privacy issues:
- Create a right Social Media Privacy Policy. The Privacy Policy should clearly define what personal information is gathered, and specify how it is used for marketing, customer service, or analytics. It must also disclose whether third parties, like advertisers or analytics providers, have access to this data. Businesses should also inform users about their rights regarding data collection and management.
- Get user consent. Always ask for consent before posting and get consent before posting.
- Set rules for comments. Develop a set of community rules and guidelines on how to handle comments and posts on your business’ social media posts.
- Inform users. Explicitly inform your customers on how and where their information may be used on social media networks.
- Respect the user right to data retention. Delete data and posts on request.
- Train employees. Introduce Social Media Privacy Policy to your business’ employees and provide training.
- Inform influencers. If working with influencers, familiarize them with your Social Media Privacy Policy and make sure they understand all the pertinent social media privacy concerns.
- Create a crisis management plan. Implement a system for dealing with data breaches and hacks on social media.
Get a GDPR-compliance checklist:
Consent Management Platforms (CMP) and Social Media Privacy Issues
Consent Management Platforms help to deal with social media privacy issues and mitigate these risks. By offering gradual consent management solutions, CMPs allow users to make informed decisions about what data to share with third parties. Users can review, grant, and later revoke their consent for the processing of personal data, ensuring that their information is only shared with trusted partners or not shared at all. CMPs also use advanced security measures, encryption techniques, and other security protocols which help to protect social media accounts against unauthorized access, minimizing the risk of data breaches and infection with malware or viruses.
Use CookieScript CMP which has the following functionalities:
- Blocks cookies until users agree to the Cookie Consent and the Privacy Policy.
- Scans your website for cookies and auto-updates your cookie list and Cookie Policy.
- Categorizes cookies and provides a cookie declaration table that includes a cookie provider and information about third parties.
- Maintains a full history of user consent for proof of compliance.
- Allows users to withdraw consent at any time.
- Creates a unique and professional Privacy Policy for your business or website.
- Integrates your cookie banner with the most popular CMS platforms like WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Kajabi, Joomla, and others.
- Integrates your Cookie Banner with IAB TCF 2.0.
In 2024, users on G2 ranked CookieScript CMP as the best CMP for small and medium-sized companies.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the most common social media privacy issues?
These are the most common data privacy issues on social media: data mining, data breach, third-party data sharing, privacy setting loopholes, location settings, harassment and cyberbullying, fake information, and malware and viruses. Use CookieScript CMP to protect your social media accounts against unauthorized access, minimizing the risk of data breaches.
How to protect my social media accounts?
Consider the following actions on social media regarding your personal information safety: think twice when opening a new social media account, do not forget to delete the account and all your data, use strong passwords, avoid public devices, don't overshare your data on social media platforms, disable geolocation data, don't click on suspicious links, and use two-factor authentication methods. CookieScript can help you to protect your social media accounts.
What types of data do social media platforms collect?
Social media platforms can collect personally identifiable information and users’ sensitive data, including medical or health records, biometric data, education records, credit card data, financial records, personal identifiers, such as age, ethnicity, and race, photo of a face, personally owned property, employment information and applications, status updates at work, life and relationship events, religious beliefs, shared content on social media, engagement on social media, and other data. Use CookieScript CMP to protect your social media accounts.
Is it safe to use social networks in 2025?
You should use your common sense when using social media in 2025. If you implement the social media privacy protection tips, it is ok to use social media. However, think twice before creating a new social media account, and delete all your data from the internet when leaving a social media platform. Use CookieScript CMP to protect your website and social media accounts against unauthorized access and data breaches.
