Can I tell who’s been viewing my social media profile?

You might be interested in who’s been viewing your Facebook, Instagram or Twitter profile. Unfortunately, the only way of knowing is if someone interacts with your page – reacting to something you’ve shared or adding you as a friend.

There are many fraudulent Facebook apps or plug-ins claiming to allow you to see who’s been viewing your profile, but these are scams. If you register on one of these, the app creator may download your personal data and sell it, or infect your computer or mobile with malware, which we discussed in another post.

It’s the same on Twitter. There’s no way of knowing if someone’s viewed your profile unless they interact with your tweets or follow you.

Some other social sites do allow you to see who’s viewed you. On LinkedIn, you can see people if they’ve selected the relevant option in their privacy settings (although not everybody does). Some dating sites also give you the chance to see who’s been looking at your page.

In summary, remember to take security seriously when you’re on social media sites and always be suspicious of apps claiming to tell you information about your profile.

Social media platforms are always evolving, though, so you never know what might happen in future. To check out some of the key social media trends for this year, read our post here.