Many people want to keep their birthdate private on social media for various reasons. Perhaps you don’t want the attention on your special day, or you’re concerned about identity theft. Luckily, most major social platforms allow you to hide or limit access to your birthday information. In this article, we’ll walk through how to hide your birthday from friends on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and more. We’ll also discuss some precautions to take if you want to keep your birthday completely private online.
Why Hide Your Birthday?
Here are some common reasons people want to hide or limit access to their birthday information on social media:
- Avoid unwanted attention on your birthday. Some people don’t like all the notifications and messages on their special day.
- Prevent identity theft. Your birthdate is a key piece of personal information that can help scammers steal your identity.
- Cut down on marketing emails or ads. Companies often use birthday data to target promotions.
- Keep your information private in general. You may not want acquaintances or strangers to have access to your birthdate.
- Personal or safety reasons. For example, hiding your child’s birthdate from strangers online.
Whatever your reasons, you can take steps to hide or limit access to your birthday on most major social platforms.
How to Hide Your Birthday on Facebook
Facebook makes it easy to hide your birthdate from friends and the public. Here’s how:
- Go to your Facebook profile and click on the About section.
- Click the Contact and Basic Info link.
- In the Basic Information section, click the Edit button next to Birthday.
- Change the audience selector from Public to Only Me.
- Be sure to also change the audience selector for Birthday Language and Birthday Pronounciation too.
- Click Save Changes.
This will make your birthday visible only to you. Other users will no longer be able to see your birthday at all.
A few things to note:
- Facebook may still use your birthday for ad targeting even if it’s not publicly visible.
- Some apps and games require your birthday to function. Hiding it may break features.
- You can also hide your age or year you were born instead of your full birthdate.
So in summary, adjusting the audience selector in your Facebook profile is the easiest way to hide your birthday from friends and strangers.
How to Hide Your Birthday on Instagram
Instagram also allows you to hide your birthday from your profile. Here’s how to do it on the mobile app:
- Go to your profile and tap Edit Profile.
- Tap the date below Birthday.
- Select Only You from the dropdown menu.
- Tap Done in the top right.
This will remove your birthday from your public profile. Other Instagram users will no longer see your birthdate or age.
A few notes:
- Instagram will still have access to your birthday even if it’s hidden.
- You may need to verify your birthday periodically even though it’s hidden.
- Some features like birthday stickers in Stories may not work properly if you hide your birthday.
So in summary, you can easily hide your Instagram birthday by changing it to Only You in your profile edit menu.
How to Hide Your Birthday on Twitter
Twitter doesn’t have a dedicated birthday field in profiles. However, you can remove your birthdate by:
- Going to your Twitter profile settings.
- Deleting your birthday from the Bio section.
Without a birthdate in your bio, there will be no visible way for people to see your birthday on your Twitter profile.
A few notes:
- You will still have to enter your birthday when creating a new Twitter account.
- Twitter may continue using your birthday for ad targeting even if it’s not public.
- You can also choose not to display your birthday while creating your account.
So in summary, you can hide your birthday on Twitter by removing it from your bio. Twitter doesn’t have separate birthday fields like Facebook or Instagram.
How to Hide Your Birthday on LinkedIn
LinkedIn has dedicated birthday fields you can edit. Here’s how to hide your birthday on LinkedIn:
- Go to your profile and click View profile.
- Click the pencil Edit icon next to your name.
- Scroll down and click Contact info.
- Delete the dates next to Birthday.
- Click Save.
This will remove your birthday from your public LinkedIn profile. Other users will no longer see your birthdate.
Some things to note:
- Even if hidden, LinkedIn may still use your birthday for ad targeting purposes.
- You’ll need to re-enter your birthday occasionally for verification.
- Premium Career features require your birthday even if it’s not public.
So in summary, you can easily hide your birthday on LinkedIn but the platform may still have access behind the scenes.
Other Social Platforms
Here’s a quick rundown of how to hide your birthday on some other popular social platforms:
YouTube
YouTube doesn’t ask for or display birthdays. No action needed.
TikTok
TikTok has no public birthday field. Use a fake birthday when creating your account.
Snapchat
Snapchat friends see your birthday if you add it, but you can create your account without one.
Twitch
Twitch doesn’t show your birthday publicly. No need to remove it.
WhatsApp lets you delete your birthday in Settings > Account > Privacy.
So in summary, many other social platforms either don’t ask for your birthday or have ways to hide it from your profile and friends.
Hide Your Birthday More Extensively
The steps above will remove your birthday from your social media profiles. However, the platforms themselves will still have your birthday stored in their databases even if it’s “hidden.”
If you want to go to greater lengths to scrub your birthdate from the internet, here are some more steps to take:
- Use a fake birthday when creating new accounts.
- Periodically change your listed birthday on current accounts.
- Google yourself and scour for any published birthdates.
- Use MyDataRequest.com to submit removal requests.
- Signal search engines not to show your birthday in results.
Ultimately, removing yourselves from data broker lists can help eliminate your birthdate from being bought and sold online. But it takes rigorous monitoring and removal requests.
Conclusion
Hiding your birthday on social media takes just a few clicks in most cases. Look for the audience selectors in profile settings on platforms like Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Removing it from your bio works on sites like Twitter as well.
Take extra steps like using fake birthdays and removal requests if you want to scrub your birthdate from data brokers and people search sites. But in general, adjusting your privacy settings on major social media sites will cover the basics.
Just remember that the platforms themselves likely still have access to your birthday even if it’s not public. But you can regain some control over who else sees that personal information.
Key Takeaways
Here are some key points to remember about hiding your birthday on social media:
- Use audience selectors in privacy settings to limit birthday visibility.
- Delete your birthdate from bio sections if there’s no dedicated birthday field.
- Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn allow you to hide your birthday with profile edits.
- Use fake birthdays and removal requests to scrub dates from data brokers.
- The platforms still store your birthday internally even if hidden.
- Hidden birthdates may affect certain app features or ads.
With a few quick privacy adjustments, you can hide your special day from friends and strangers online. Just be aware it likely doesn’t remove your birthdate from the platforms entirely.