Mass person migrations between social media companies have grow to be a extra frequent phenomenon lately. More often than not, this occurs not as a result of customers are drawn to a cool new social media web site, however as a result of those which were round for some time all of a sudden grow to be a a lot worse place to be. Customers are pushed away by adjustments in possession, post-sorting algorithms, and aggressive knowledge processing insurance policies, reminiscent of utilizing content material for AI coaching.
In the event you’re occupied with migrating, you’ll want to contemplate how social media, video internet hosting companies like YouTube and Twitch, and community-based websites like Reddit and Quora are dealing with person data in 2025. The specialists at Incogni, of their Social Media Privateness Rating 2025, performed an in depth evaluation of the present state of affairs.
Fifteen main platforms had been in contrast throughout a number of standards: from knowledge assortment and resale to the readability of their privateness insurance policies and the variety of fines they’ve been hit with for privateness violations. In brief, Pinterest and Quora stood out for his or her sturdy concern for customers’ privateness, whereas TikTok and Fb ranked on the backside. However let’s be trustworthy, we hardly ever select which social media to put up images or focus on stamp accumulating on based mostly on what number of fines it has been handed. In addition to, that is hardly an apples-to-apples comparability, as we don’t sometimes count on to have totally non-public conversations on social media, in contrast to on chat apps. That’s why we’ve devoted a separate put up to the privateness of fashionable messaging apps. At present, we determined to overview a abstract of the Incogni examine that focuses completely on social media, video internet hosting companies, and neighborhood websites. We’ll solely contemplate sensible, on a regular basis standards. And for simplicity, we’ll seek advice from all these companies as “social media” from right here on out.
General privateness danger rankings
Within the total rating that accounts for all standards, the leaders outperform the laggards by greater than a two-fold margin in factors, with fewer factors indicating greater privateness.
- Pinterest 12.38
- Quora 12.96
- Twitch 13.51
- LinkedIn 14.89
- Reddit 15.19
- X/Twitter 17.04
- YouTube 18.52
- Instagram 22.41
- TikTok 23.01
- Fb 28.72
It’s value noting that as much as 10 factors may very well be misplaced on account of fines for violating numerous jurisdictions’ private knowledge and storage location rules, reminiscent of GDPR and CCPA. The examine accounted for fines not solely in Europe and the U.S., but in addition in different main nations, spanning from Brazil to Turkey. Information breaches throughout every social media service’s complete historical past had been additionally factored in.
Fb amassed a hefty 9.6 penalty factors, a key issue behind its backside rating. The second-to-last spot went to X, with six penalty factors; nobody else exceeded 4.4.
Sensible privateness
If we solely contemplate standards like knowledge assortment on the web site and within the app, the usage of data for AI coaching, the variety of privateness settings, and the visibility of private knowledge to different customers, the highest and backside of the rankings change considerably:
- Twitch 5.85
- Quora 7.54
- Pinterest 9.01
- LinkedIn 9.36
- Reddit 9.43
- X 9.68
- Instagram 11.92
- YouTube 12.85
- Fb 12.94
- TikTok 13.00
Apparently, the rating stored intact three distinct teams — leaders, laggards, and a center pack — although some reshuffling occurred inside these tiers. The underside placements for TikTok and Fb come as no shock to anybody following cybersecurity information, however LinkedIn’s comparatively excessive rating was sudden. Nonetheless, it’s higher to not restrict ourselves to rating numbers, and to take a look at the platforms’ specifics in key classes.
AI coaching
In recent times, one of the contentious points has been the usage of person content material to coach neural networks. Many individuals don’t wish to simply hand over their texts and images to Huge Tech corporations, so the power to choose out of this coaching is necessary to them.
Of the social media reviewed, solely Twitch makes no declare in any respect about coaching AI on person content material. All of the others plan to both practice their very own in-house AI or present coaching companies to companions. Fb and YouTube plan to do each. You possibly can choose out of this within the settings on Pinterest, X, Quora, and LinkedIn. On YouTube, the opt-out is partial: it’s solely accessible for video creators and solely applies to the coaching of third-party AI not owned by Google.
Information assortment for promoting
All platforms mixture person knowledge for numerous functions, from product enchancment to displaying adverts. Some even explicitly state that they could promote this knowledge. Data is collected via web sites and cellular apps, and contains not solely what customers write of their posts or profiles, but in addition IDs, geolocation knowledge, knowledge about exercise in apps and on web sites (each the corporate’s personal and exterior pages), and far more.
After reviewing the info processing insurance policies, the researchers concluded that Twitch, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, Fb, and Instagram all acquire and course of delicate private data for promoting. Solely Pinterest “sells” data (as outlined by the CCPA). Nonetheless, much more social media platforms “share” data with companions: LinkedIn, Pinterest, Quora, Twitch, X, and YouTube all do that. Pinterest, Reddit, and Quora additionally share knowledge on customers’ in-app search queries with third events.
The social media rankings within the knowledge assortment class differ from the general placement: Quora, Reddit, and X are the least data-hungry. They’re adopted by TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitch, Fb, and Instagram. The laggards on this class are YouTube and Pinterest. On the similar time, the cellular apps “greediest” for numerous person knowledge are Fb and Instagram, which acquire 37 out of 38 potential varieties of knowledge on person units. They’re adopted by LinkedIn with 31 knowledge sorts, and YouTube and Pinterest with 27 every.
Privateness settings
The researchers in contrast the variety of privateness settings throughout social media and checked whether or not probably the most safe possibility was chosen by default. Right here, Pinterest is absolutely the chief, providing a excessive degree of privateness in its settings by default and accumulating little knowledge throughout account creation. Shut behind are Quora, Reddit, and Twitch, which present the same profile.
Surprisingly, Fb, YouTube, and LinkedIn rank mid-list, every offering a considerable array of privateness settings. Instagram, X, and TikTok have the fewest privateness choices and the worst default settings.
Virtually all platforms allow you to configure your account to indicate a minimal of information to others. Public publicity may be minimized most successfully on Pinterest, Fb, and TikTok, whereas LinkedIn and X are the worst on this regard.
Takeaways
No social media platform reviewed achieved a super ranking. Privateness leaders reminiscent of Twitch and Quora concentrate on particular content material sorts and aren’t general-purpose social media companies, whereas the preferred social networks fortunately acquire and make the most of person knowledge. LinkedIn has managed to strike a steadiness between privateness settings and knowledge assortment. Nonetheless, its picture as an expert social community and the shortcoming to partially conceal private knowledge limit its broader utility.
We suggest double-checking the privateness settings for all of the social media you employ. Our free Privateness Checker service might help you with that.
What different privateness considerations may come up on social media? Examine them in our different posts:
