Privacy settings are the part of a social networking website, web browser, or other piece of software, that allows a user to control who sees information about the user. With the growing prevalence of social networking services, opportunities for privacy exposures also grow. Privacy settings allow a person to control what information is shared on these platforms.

Many social networking services (SNS) such as Facebook, have default privacy settings that leave users more prone to sharing personal information. Privacy settings are contributed to by users, companies, and external forces. Contributing factors that influence user activity in privacy settings include the privacy paradox and the third person effect. The third person effect explains why privacy settings can remain unchanged throughout time. Companies can enforce a principle of reciprocity (PoR) where users have to decide what information they are willing to share in exchange for others’ information.

With the growing focus on internet privacy, there are technologies and programs designed to enhance and encourage more privacy setting activity. Applications such as the Personal Data Manager (PDM) are used to improve the efficiency of privacy setting management. Privacy by design can enhance privacy settings through incorporating privacy notifications or prompting users to occasionally manage their privacy settings.

SNS are designed to connect people together online. Users share information and build relationships online. Privacy leaks can still occur even with privacy settings intact. Users’ connections on SNS can reveal personal information such as having friends from the same university can lead to an inference that a person attends that university. Furthermore, even if a person has strict privacy settings enabled, their privacy can still be leaked through their connections who may not have as many privacy settings in place. This calls for enhanced privacy settings that can tolerate different privacy settings while allowing online connections.

The ability to control who views their content influences users’ decision to share or not share images on SNS such as WeChat or Qzone. Different communities call for different levels of privacy. For example, an individual is more likely to share a photo of themselves and a close friend with their close friend circle and family than strangers. This reveals a need for fine privacy settings that allow users more flexibility in their SNS sharing ability. Hu Xiaoxu et al. suggests privacy settings should encourage social networking on SNS while simultaneously protecting user privacy.

Privacy settings for SNS have default settings that set up users to automatically share personal information the user has inputted. For example, Twitter users are automatically prone to a public profile when an account is first made. Furthermore, SNS privacy policies have shown to be too complex for consumers to fully understand, leading to personal information being shared regardless of user awareness. Even after a user deletes their Facebook profile, Facebook can still use and sell user information according to their privacy policy. Facebook's default settings allow friends to view a person's profile and anyone to search for one's profile. Default settings can be chosen due to their convenience; users do not have to exert as much effort to choose default settings compared to personalizing privacy settings.

Privacy settings are situated in the framework of the communication privacy management theory. This theory states that privacy management involves setting boundaries and agreements with individuals, highlighting that once information is shared, it is now their information as well. In a study about teenagers and their privacy, it was revealed that privacy concerns was the biggest contributor to management both personal and interpersonal privacy (see Privacy concerns with social networking services). Privacy settings can be inaccessible or effortful to implement. Teenagers that feel fatalistic toward their personal privacy are more likely to depend on interpersonal privacy techniques. De Wolf's study revealed that teenagers used more personal privacy techniques than interpersonal privacy management, which emphasizes the need for accessible, clear privacy settings.

Voluntary servitude is an idea that states people knowingly give their support to authoritative figures by subjecting themselves to servitude. In the sense of social media, voluntary servitude is how users expose their information to companies and perpetuate data collection and monetization. Romele et al. offers a possible explanation to voluntary servitude through the System Justification Theory. This theory states that people learn to internalize societal hierarchies and perpetuate their existence. Users are complying to the power hierarchy by allowing their information to be extracted from these companies, through methods such as sharing personal information with close family and friends which can be harvested by companies and third parties.