Set it so only people you know can see you
Shut your page to strangers, including the four hundred things you wrote before today.
When an account is made, most of these services set your audience to the whole world. That is a business decision, not an accident, and it is a two‑minute job to undo.
There are three separate questions, and they are answered in three separate places. It is worth knowing that they are separate, because changing one and assuming you have changed all three is the commonest mistake there is.
Key points
- Find the audience setting whatever this month’s service calls it
- Set what you write from now on to people you know
- Reach backwards over years of old posts in a single press
- Shut the doors a stranger uses to find you — number, address and web search
What to remember
- The setting is called different things — Audience, Privacy, Who can see. It is always in Settings, and it is always a list of three.
- A privacy setting works forwards. Old posts need their own, separate press.
- The two jobs are: close the old posts, and shut the doors people find you through. Neither takes five minutes.
Try this
Type your own name into a search engine and look at what comes back. That is what a stranger sees. Whatever is on that first page is the thing worth changing first.
Practice: Set it so only people you know can see you. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.