Ever get the feeling your phone is a little too smart? You like a single video of a beach in Greece, and suddenly TikTok serves you flight deals, hotel tours, and “day in Mykonos” vlogs. It is not magic; it is data. Platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and even LinkedIn are constantly learning from what you do, say, and watch. But here is the catch: you do not have to delete your accounts to reclaim a bit of control.

You can reduce how much personal information these platforms collect without wiping your profiles or quitting cold turkey. It is not about paranoia, but is about awareness. These apps are designed to collect, learn, and adapt. But with some intentional steps, you can disrupt that process without changing how you use them on the surface. Four simple areas where you can reduce what social media learns about you while still scrolling, posting, and enjoying the ride.

Start with what data you have already shared

Over the years, you have likely given away more than you remember: your birthday on Instagram, your old schools on LinkedIn, and your favourite cafés through location tags on TikTok. Each bit helps paint a detailed portrait, one that platforms use to personalise your experience and advertisers use to target you.

Begin by auditing your profile information. Check your bio, linked websites, tagged locations, and even saved highlights on Instagram. On TikTok, review which videos you’ve liked or commented on; these influence the algorithm far more than you think. Clean up anything outdated, overly specific, or just unnecessarily public.

Most platforms let you manage the visibility of old content. You do not have to delete photos or videos, but consider changing older posts to “private” or limiting their audience. You are not hiding from your friends; you are reducing how much third parties and algorithms can observe, sort, and analyse.

Do not feed the algorithm more data than you mean to

Every time you double-tap, comment, or even linger on a post, the platform learns. TikTok is especially sharp at picking up what you watch, even if you do not interact. Instagram, too, builds a profile based on what you pause on, share in DMs, or search for. If you want to limit what they learn, start by breaking some habits.

Avoid engaging with content you don’t want more of. That 30-second video about conspiracy theories might be funny, but watching it to the end can pull you into a rabbit hole. Be deliberate with your clicks. Actively mark content as “Not Interested” or mute topics and creators that do not reflect your actual preferences.

Curate your following list because the accounts you follow help define what the platform thinks you like. Unfollowing what no longer serves you, even silently muting, is enough. The more curated your feed, the less unpredictable data you are unknowingly sharing. And a pro tip: if you are serious about resetting your algorithm, take a few days to stop engaging entirely: no likes, no searches, no watch time. Then, start interacting only with the content you actually want to see. It is one of the few ways to retrain the machine without starting from scratch.

Cut off silent data streams: apps and permissions

Most conversations around data privacy tend to focus on breaches, surveillance, or ad tracking, but there is a more persistent risk that slips by unnoticed: third-party apps quietly siphoning your data through connections you probably forgot you authorised. Over the years, we have logged in to games, job boards, productivity tools, and even throwaway quizzes using our social accounts. Those integrations often still exist, still pulling data, long after we have moved on.

These connections usually rely on OAuth or similar authorisation frameworks. When you click “Continue with Facebook” or “Sign in with TikTok,” the service receives a token with access to your account. What most users do not realise is that these tokens can remain active indefinitely unless explicitly revoked. That means your profile, contact list, and possibly even your messages are being read by services you haven’t interacted with in years, and you wouldn’t know it. If one of those third-party platforms is compromised or changes ownership, your data could go with it. This is why regular audits are not optional. Platforms like Instagram and Snapchat have a section in settings, usually under “Connected Apps” or “Apps and Websites”, where you can review what still has access. Disconnect anything you don’t use. If you can’t identify it, that’s already a red flag.

And while you are at it, check your phone’s app permissions. Many apps are granted access to your location, mic, or camera, not because they need it to function but because the OS asked once, and you tapped “Allow.” If an app doesn’t need to track you in the background, don’t let it. Most apps work just fine with “only while using,” and anything more than that increases your exposure for no good reason. This isn’t about best practices. It is about shutting down unnecessary attack surfaces because, in today’s ecosystem, quiet data leaks aren’t a glitch. They’re the default.

Mind the background noise: voice, location, and metadata

You might not be actively posting, but your device still is through background permissions, GPS, and even microphone access. Many social apps quietly gather data even when they are not in use, especially if location or mic access is enabled by default. Go into your device settings and disable microphone access for platforms where you do not use voice features. You are probably not going live on TikTok every day or using voice notes on Instagram DMs constantly, so why let the app listen?

Cutting off mic access can prevent “accidental” ad targeting based on ambient sound, which gives away more than you would expect. When your posts are auto-tagged with exact coordinates or your stories show where you are in real-time, you’re handing over a live feed of your movements without meaning to. If you really want to tag a place, just do it manually; your content still makes sense, and it still connects, but you are not giving up your location every time you share something.

You do not have to vanish from the internet to get some privacy back. Social media can still be fun, useful, and even empowering, but you get to choose how much you give away. Small tweaks in what you share, how you interact, and which doors you leave open can make a big difference. You are not deleting your online life. You are just turning down the volume on how loudly it speaks behind your back.