How to Change Privacy Settings on Twitter (X): A Complete Step-by-Step Guide

Twitter (X) privacy is not controlled by a single switch. It’s a collection of settings that decide who can see your posts, who can interact with you, how people can find your account, and what data X uses to personalize your experience.

This guide explains how to change every important privacy setting on Twitter, step by step, and what each setting actually does.

How to Access Privacy Settings on Twitter (X)

Protecting your posts is the strongest privacy option Twitter offers. When this setting is enabled, your tweets are no longer publicly visible, and only people you approve as followers can see your content.

This setting is commonly used by users who want to:

• Keep tweets visible only to a trusted audience
• Prevent strangers from monitoring their activity
• Reduce spam replies and random interactions

Once enabled, new users must send a follow request, and you decide whether to approve or deny it. This gives you full control over who can see your tweets going forward.

On mobile (iOS / Android)

1. Open the X app
2. Tap your profile icon
3. Tap Settings and privacy
4. Tap Privacy and safety

On desktop (web)

1. Log in to X
2. Click More in the left menu
3. Click Settings and privacy
4. Click Privacy and safety

All privacy controls are managed from this section.

How to Make Your Twitter Account Private

Protect Your Posts on Twitter (X)

Protecting your posts is the strongest privacy option Twitter offers. When this setting is enabled, your tweets are no longer publicly visible, and only people you approve as followers can see your content.

This setting is commonly used by users who want to:

• Keep tweets visible only to a trusted audience
• Prevent strangers from monitoring their activity
• Reduce spam replies and random interactions

Once enabled, new users must send a follow request, and you decide whether to approve or deny it. This gives you full control over who can see your tweets going forward.

How to turn on a private account

1. Go to Settings and privacy
2. Open Privacy and safety
3. Click Audience and tagging
4. Enable Protect your posts

After enabling this:

• New followers must request approval
• Your posts stop appearing publicly
• Existing followers can still see your activity

What Happens When You Make Your Twitter Account Private

When your account is private:

• Only approved followers can see your tweets
• Non-followers cannot view your posts or media
• Your profile basics (name, bio, photo) remain visible

Important limitation:
Your followers can still see who you follow. A private account does not fully hide your following list.

Is There a Way to Prevent People from Seeing Your Following List on X?

By moving everyone into a private List and unfollowing them, you maintain your privacy while keeping your feed intact.

Circleboom Blog - Social Media MarketingArif Akdogan

How to Control Who Can Reply to Your Tweets

Reply controls allow you to limit conversations without hiding your tweets entirely.

Instead of making your account private, you can restrict replies on individual tweets. This is especially useful when posting announcements, informational threads, or content that tends to attract spam or low-quality responses.

Reply controls don’t affect who sees the tweet. They only affect who can respond, which makes them ideal for keeping discussions focused while staying public.

How to change reply settings

1. Start writing a tweet
2. Tap the reply control (for example: “Everyone can reply”)
3. Choose:
   • Everyone
   • Accounts you follow
   • Only accounts you mention
4. Publish the tweet

This helps reduce spam and low-quality replies without making your account private.

How to Control Photo Tagging on Twitter

Photo tagging is often overlooked, but it can expose your account to unwanted visibility.

How do you tag people in Twitter (X) photos?

Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you tag people in your Twitter photos and find the right people to tag.

Circleboom Blog - Social Media MarketingArif Akdogan

When photo tagging is enabled for everyone, other users can tag your username in images you have no control over. Limiting photo tagging to people you follow, or disabling it entirely, helps prevent misuse while still allowing tagging from trusted accounts.

This setting is especially important if you value profile cleanliness and privacy.

How to change photo tagging settings

1. Go to Settings and privacy
2. Open Privacy and safety
3. Tap Audience and tagging
4. Open Photo tagging
5. Choose who can tag you or disable tagging completely

How to Control Direct Messages and Message Requests on Twitter

Direct messages are a common entry point for spam, scams, and unwanted promotions.

How to Delete Multiple Twitter DMs at Once

With Circleboom, you can choose to delete all your messages, remove only the last 30 days’ worth, or even keep specific conversations intact.

Circleboom Blog - Social Media MarketingArif Akdogan

Twitter allows you to control who can message you, whether message requests are allowed, and whether low-quality messages are filtered automatically. Restricting DMs to followers only significantly reduces noise while keeping communication open with people you already trust.

For many users, adjusting DM settings is the fastest way to improve their experience on the platform.

How to change DM privacy settings

1. Go to Settings and privacy
2. Open Privacy and safety
3. Tap Chat
4. Adjust:
   • Message requests
   • Message filtering
   • Read receipts

Restricting message requests is often enough to reduce spam significantly.

How to Stop People from Finding You by Email or Phone Number

Discoverability settings affect how easily people can find your account using contact information.

If email or phone discoverability is enabled, Twitter may recommend your account to people who have your contact details saved. Disabling these options reduces unintended exposure and is especially useful for users who want to separate their social presence from personal contact information.

Turning off both options is a strong step toward increased privacy.

How to disable email and phone number discoverability

1. Go to Settings and privacy
2. Open Privacy and safety
3. Tap Discoverability and contacts
4. Turn off Let people who have your email address find you
5. Turn off Let people who have your phone number find you

Disabling both increases account privacy.

How to Turn Off Location Sharing on Twitter

Location sharing adds geographic data to your tweets, which many users do not need.

Map your Twitter followers! Find the location of the accounts!

What would be the advantages if you could map your Twitter followers and find their location and languages?

Circleboom Blog - Social Media MarketingAltug Altug

Even if you rarely use it, disabling location sharing ensures that no future tweets include location metadata. This is a simple but important step for protecting personal privacy, especially for users who post regularly.

How to disable location information

1. Go to Settings and privacy
2. Open Privacy and safety
3. Tap Location information
4. Disable location sharing

If available, also remove previously shared location data.

How to Control Ads and Content Personalization on Twitter

Twitter uses activity data to personalize ads, trends, and recommendations.

Ad personalization settings control whether your interests and behavior influence the ads you see. Content personalization settings affect trends, suggested accounts, and recommended posts.

Adjusting these options won’t remove ads entirely, but it does reduce how much personal data is used to tailor what you see.

How to change ads personalization

1. Go to Settings and privacy
2. Open Privacy and safety
3. Go to Ads preferences
4. Disable interest-based ad options as needed

How to change content personalization

1. Go to Settings and privacy
2. Open Privacy and safety
3. Tap Content you see or Personalization and data
4. Disable personalized trends and recommendations if desired

How to Manage Muted Accounts on Twitter

Muting allows you to remove noise without confrontation.

Muted accounts can still follow you and see your posts, but their tweets, replies, and notifications are hidden from your timeline. This is useful for managing content overload or avoiding unnecessary interactions without blocking someone.

Muted accounts can be reviewed and adjusted at any time.

How to manage muted accounts

1. Go to Settings and privacy
2. Open Privacy and safety
3. Tap Muted and blocked accounts
4. Open Muted accounts

How to Manage Blocked Accounts on Twitter

Blocking is the strongest interaction control on Twitter.

How to Block Someone on Twitter (X) — And the Easiest Way to Block Multiple Accounts at Once!

Let’s first go through how to block someone on Twitter the regular way, then I’ll show you how I manage mass blocking safely.

Circleboom Blog - Social Media MarketingArif Akdogan

When you block someone, they cannot follow you, message you, or interact with your tweets in normal ways. Blocking is best used for harassment, repeated spam, or accounts that consistently disrupt your experience.

Blocked accounts are fully isolated from your activity.

How to manage blocked accounts

1. Go to Settings and privacy
2. Open Privacy and safety
3. Tap Muted and blocked accounts
4. Open Blocked accounts

Blocked users cannot follow, message, or interact normally with your account.

How to Control Sensitive Content on Twitter

Sensitive content settings determine how Twitter displays media that may include graphic or NSFW adult material.

You can choose whether to display sensitive media in your timeline and whether such content appears in search results. These settings only affect what you see, not what others see from your account.

They are especially useful for keeping your timeline aligned with your preferences.

How to change sensitive content settings

1. Go to Settings and privacy
2. Open Privacy and safety
3. Tap Content you see
4. Adjust:
   • Display sensitive media
   • Hide sensitive content in search

What Twitter Privacy Settings Cannot Hide

Even with all privacy options enabled, some things remain visible or possible.

Approved followers can still see your activity, screenshots can still be taken, and profile-level information remains public.

Privacy settings control visibility within Twitter’s system, but they cannot fully prevent content from being shared externally.

Understanding these limits helps set realistic expectations.

How to Choose the Right Twitter Privacy Setup

For maximum privacy:

• Protect your posts
• Disable email and phone discoverability
• Restrict mentions
• Limit DMs
• Disable location sharing

For public creators:

• Keep account public
• Restrict mentions
• Filter message requests
• Adjust discoverability carefully

Final Thoughts

Twitter privacy works best when you understand each setting and apply it intentionally.

Rather than locking everything down by default, adjusting specific controls gives you protection without sacrificing reach or usability. Revisiting these settings occasionally is important, as Twitter updates features and defaults over time.

A well-configured privacy setup makes Twitter feel less chaotic and far more manageable.