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Internet privacy risks arise when services collect more information than people expect, track activity across sites, share data with other companies, or use personal details in automated systems. Social-media posts and profiles can also give scammers material to tailor convincing pitches. You can limit some exposure through privacy settings, careful sharing, and account security, but no single setting can prevent a service’s broader data practices.
What counts as an internet privacy issue?
Internet privacy is not one threat or one setting. It concerns what information online services collect, how long they keep it, who receives it, how it is used, and what meaningful choices people have about those uses. A person’s exposure can include information they never deliberately posted: data inferred from activity, details supplied by other companies, and information obtained from data brokers.
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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) provides a useful U.S. evidence base, but its findings do not describe every online service or establish privacy rights around the world. Its 2024 staff report examined social-media and video-streaming companies’ responses to orders issued in 2020. It is evidence about the services studied and their practices during that period, not a privacy scorecard for every platform today.
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How do online services collect and retain personal information?
Information can come from activity inside a service, tracking technologies used elsewhere, and outside sources such as data brokers. The FTC staff report found that the examined social-media and video-streaming services collected large amounts of information about users and non-users and could retain it indefinitely. That finding does not mean every service keeps every data point forever; it does mean that a user’s expectation that information disappears quickly may not match the practices described in the report.
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Before sharing information, consider whether it identifies you, reveals routines or location, or could help someone impersonate you or make a pitch feel personal. A public profile is only one source of exposure, but information posted in different places can become more revealing when combined.
How do tracking, sharing, and automated systems affect privacy?
Tracking and targeted advertising
Pixels and similar tracking technologies can record activity and support advertising based on interests or preferences. The FTC report described tracking and broad data sharing among the services it examined. Depending on the service and its settings, information may be used to select ads or shared with outside parties.
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Sharing and algorithmic use
Companies may use or share information for analytics, algorithms, and other automated systems. The FTC report described limited or no user ability to opt out of some data uses in automated systems. A privacy setting may therefore control one audience or use without stopping every form of collection, sharing, or automated processing. Check a service’s privacy notice and controls for the specific data use you want to limit.
What harms can follow from weak privacy controls?
Privacy risks can become personal-safety and financial risks. Information exposed through a profile, account, or data-sharing practice may contribute to identity theft, stalking, account compromise, or image-based abuse. These are possible harms, not outcomes that follow from every instance of data collection. In describing its 2024 staff report, then-FTC Chair Lina M. Khan warned that surveillance practices could “expose people to a host of harms, from identity theft to stalking.”
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Social media is also a channel scammers use to find and persuade victims. In April 2026, the FTC said consumers who reported losing money to scams in 2025 reported $2.1 billion in social-media scam losses, an eightfold increase from 2020. Nearly 30% of people who reported losing money to a scam in 2025 said it began on social media. These are reported losses and reports, not estimates of every incident or total losses across all consumers.
- People reported $1.1 billion in 2025 losses to investment scams that originated on social media.
- More than 40% of people who lost money to a social-media scam in 2025 said they ordered something they saw in a social-media ad.
- Nearly 60% of people who reported losing money to a romance scam in 2025 said it started on a social-media platform.
Public details can help a scammer make a message sound credible, while advertising tools can target people by factors such as age, interests, or shopping habits. Treat investment directions from someone known only online with particular caution, and independently check a seller or business before paying.
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Why do children and teens need separate privacy protections?
Children and teenagers may face risks that ordinary adult settings do not adequately address. The FTC staff report found inadequate safeguards for children and teens among the examined services; it said many services allowed teens to use accounts without restrictions and often treated teens like adults.
In the United States, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) governs certain online collection of personal information from children under 13. The FTC’s COPPA materials describe a December 2025 court-approved order requiring Disney to pay $10 million to settle allegations that it collected children’s data from kid-directed YouTube videos without the parental notice or consent required by COPPA. This is a U.S. enforcement example, not a universal rule or a finding about every service.
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How can you reduce common internet privacy risks?
- Limit who can see your posts and contacts. Review your social account’s audience and contact-visibility settings. Use the most restrictive audience that still works for you, and check settings again if the service changes its controls.
- Share less identifying information publicly. Avoid posting sensitive details or combinations of facts—such as routines, travel plans, or personal circumstances—that could help someone impersonate you or tailor a scam.
- Review app permissions. Check which apps can access information such as contacts, photos, or location, and remove access that is not needed for the app’s purpose. Limiting access can reduce exposure through that permission; it does not erase information a service already collected.
- Secure your accounts. Use strong, unique passwords and turn on two-factor authentication where available. A compatible security key can serve as one physical way to add a second authentication factor, but it does not stop tracking or data collection by a service.
- Verify requests and purchases independently. Do not send money or make investment decisions based on an online-only relationship. Check a seller or business through independent information rather than relying only on an ad, profile, or message.
- Report suspected fraud. If you believe you encountered a scam, report it to the FTC. If an intimate photo or video was shared or threatened to be shared without your permission, seek help through an appropriate reporting or support channel.
How should you compare privacy settings or services?
A setting label such as “private” does not explain every data practice. When comparing services or deciding whether a control addresses your concern, check these dimensions individually:
- Data collected: What information comes from your activity, device permissions, other companies, or data brokers?
- Retention and deletion: How long is information kept, and what does deletion remove—or leave behind?
- Sharing: Which third parties receive information, and for what purposes?
- Tracking and advertising: Are pixels or similar technologies used, and can you limit targeted advertising?
- Automated use: Is information used in algorithms or other automated systems, and is there an opt-out?
- User control: Can you access, correct, delete, or restrict use of your information in practice?
- Child and teen safeguards: Are protections meaningfully different for younger users?
This is a way to ask more precise questions, not an agency rating system. The FTC report’s findings cover the examined services, so they should not be treated as comparative scores for platforms it did not assess.
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