Your social media accounts can help you share your daily life with friends. But platforms can do more than that: it automatically notifies everyone when you're online, reading a message, or even visiting a place.

In general, if you don't want your neighbor and loved one to know what you're doing every minute of each day, you can try adding posts less often. Your photos, logins and text updates can provide more information than you intended. To continue posting, there are certain key settings that you need to adjust in your applications to leave a small digital footprint. Disable the status of your activity

Many social apps show your friends notifications when you're active, and even when you're offline, they'll see your last visit. If you do not want to broadcast your presence, many social networks may disable this view.

In WhatsApp, go to the Settings menu, then go to Account and select Privacy. On this screen, tap Last Seen and then tap No one to let anyone know when you last used Meta-owned Messenger.

Instagram also has an indication of when you were last active. To deactivate it, tap your avatar to open your profile, then press the menu button (looks like three dots on Android and has three lines on iOS) at the top right. From there go to Settings and check activity status. Activate the radio button next to Show activity status to see if you're active together. This will hide your own activity for everyone, but it will also prevent you from seeing when someone else was last active.

You can also hide your current status in Facebook Messenger, but this will prevent you from seeing who else is online. Click your avatar and then Active Status. Like Instagram, there are two options controlled by a toggle link: Show when you are active and Show when you are active together. Turn it off. All your messages will still be coming, but no one will know if you are active in the application.

Disable proof of read

When you are trying to maintain your privacy, one-on-one messaging options can keep you on the social media radar while you are in touch with people. So the next time you're ready to post an update, consider pinging some friends in a WhatsApp group chat, for example, instead of sending your activities to everyone you know. To protect your privacy even more, turn off proofreading - notifications that let your friends know you've read their posts.

For example, in WhatsApp, go to Settings, then Account, and then Privacy. Here you can turn off reading checking. When it's over, no one will know if you've seen their posts, but you won't know if your friends have seen them. Twitter also allows you to disable read receipts in your instant messages, so contacts won't know if you've read their notes. Click on your avatar icon at the top left, select Settings and Privacy, go to Privacy and Security and finally to Instant Messaging. Turn off the Show Read Receipts button. The usual menu is also here: once you turn it off, you won't see when other people have picked up their instant messages.

You can't delete read receipts with Facebook Messenger and Snapchat. However, if you stick to individual conversations in apps like this, you will keep your status better than posting on public social networks.

Stay on the map

Social media applications can use your current location to show your relevant ads and notify you of upcoming events. But they can also broadcast your location - a feature you want to turn off.

For example, on Snapchat, click the Silhouette or icon at the top left. Then tap the gear icon at the top right, scroll down to see My Location, and make sure ghost mode is enabled. To disable this feature, tap the menu button (three horizontal lines) on the right side of the screen. Go to settings, tap Location, select Nearby Friends, and turn off the main switch. This will prevent your friends from finding your current location or receiving notifications when you are in the area. These networks may also include your location in your status updates. On the other hand, Facebook and Twitter make it easier to avoid judgment: they only reveal your location if you specifically click the location button when writing a post. However, it's a good idea to double-check your post before submitting to make sure you're not adding too much by mistake.

Restrict your audience

If you want to use social media networks without sending your presence, we recommend sending instant messages to specific contacts instead of publishing updates for everyone. In addition to this approach, Facebook allows you to restrict the public for your post-by-post updates. Each time you update, click the audience selection button below your name - it may be written Friends, but it may have a different label depending on the default audience for your posts. Once you click it, you can restrict who can see this update: Just select More and then Specific friends. It allows you to hide the update from most people on Facebook and at the same time add a news channel to some selected contacts.

No other social media application gives you the same level of control. However, Twitter and Instagram allow you to choose between public posting and restricting your audience to your confirmed followers. Improving your privacy in this way means that you must explicitly approve all new followers before they can see your posts, but this will not affect your list of existing followers.

On Twitter, you can switch to a protected account by clicking on your avatar in the upper left corner and then selecting Settings and Privacy, Privacy and Security, Public and Tagging and Protecting Your Tweets.