Somewhere in your Facebook settings right now, there’s a toggle that lets search engines link to your profile. It’s probably on. You’ve never touched it — and neither has almost anyone else. That’s kind of the point.

Social media privacy settings aren’t just about keeping your posts away from your boss. They control what gets handed to advertisers, data brokers, strangers, and that quiz app you logged into once in 2018. Here’s what actually matters — and a checklist you can run through in under 20 minutes.

The Privacy Audit Most People Skip

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Most accounts were created years ago, defaults were accepted, and settings have never been revisited since. Those defaults were designed for maximum sharing — that’s good for the platform’s ad business, less great for yours.

A Pew Research Center survey found that a large majority of Americans feel they have little control over how companies collect and use their personal information online.…