What the default settings do
Reddit accounts are pseudonymous by default, meaning you choose a username rather than using your real name. However, your posts, comments, and upvote history are public by default and are shown on your profile page, which is visible to anyone and indexed by search engines. Reddit’s own “Content and activity” controls let you hide this history on a subreddit-by-subreddit basis, but hidden content still lives on in the community where you posted it and can still surface in on-platform and off-platform search results.
Ad personalization is on by default. Reddit has historically offered separate controls for ads based on your on-platform activity versus ads based on information shared by advertising partners, but in 2023 the company removed the ability to opt out of activity-based ad personalization for most users, folding it into a single setting alongside partner-based personalization. Depending on your region, you may see one combined toggle or more granular controls; users in the EU and EEA generally retain broader opt-out rights under local regulation. Category-level ad controls (for topics like alcohol or gambling) remain available everywhere.
Messaging has changed too. Over 2025 Reddit replaced its older private messages with Reddit Chat. Old private messages now sit in a read-only archive where you can view, copy, report, or delete them, but no longer reply, and since August 2025 new conversations happen in Chat.
Age checks now depend on where you live. In the UK, since July 2025, viewing mature content requires confirming your age through Persona, a third-party verification company, using either a selfie or a government ID; Reddit says Persona keeps those images for up to seven days and Reddit itself keeps only your verification status and birthdate. In Australia, since December 10, 2025, people under 16 cannot hold a Reddit account, and accounts Reddit’s systems flag as possibly under 16 are suspended unless the holder verifies their age. Reddit can still be browsed without an account there.
It’s also worth understanding a structural fact about the platform rather than a settings gap: Reddit’s User Agreement grants Reddit a broad, royalty-free, worldwide license to reproduce, distribute, and display anything you post publicly, including for uses like AI training. Reddit has active, paid data-licensing partnerships, including ones with Google and OpenAI dating to 2024, that let public posts and comments be used to train AI models and power AI search products. This applies to public content regardless of your account’s privacy settings, and there is no toggle that reverses it retroactively. The only way to fully prevent a given post or comment from being used this way is to not post it, or to delete it before it is scraped or licensed.
A reasonable privacy baseline
These settings are found primarily under Settings → Privacy & Security (sometimes labeled Safety and Privacy), Settings → Chat & Messaging, and your Profile settings on the Reddit website or app.
Ad personalization
Personalized Ads → Off (Settings → Privacy & Security → Advertising preferences)
Turning this off limits how much of your Reddit activity and advertiser-shared data is used to target ads. Since 2023, Reddit has not allowed most users to fully separate "based on your activity" from "based on advertising partner information," so this may appear as one combined toggle depending on your account region. Turning it off does not stop all ads, only the personalization behind them.
Ad Category Preferences → Opt out of sensitive categories (Settings → Privacy & Security → Advertising preferences → Ad topics)
Reddit lets you request fewer ads from specific categories, such as alcohol, dating, gambling, pregnancy and parenting, or weight loss. This does not eliminate ads in those categories but reduces their frequency.
Profile and content visibility
Content and Activity → Hide everything, or review per community (Profile → Curate your profile → Content and activity)
By default, all of your posts and comments are shown on your public profile. This setting lets you hide your history from your profile page entirely, or selectively by subreddit. It does not remove the underlying posts and comments from the communities where you made them, and they can still appear in search results, so treat it as tidying your public profile rather than deleting a record.
NSFW Content and Activity → Off (Profile → Curate your profile)
Controls whether NSFW content you have posted or interacted with is reflected on your public profile. Turning this off keeps that activity out of your visible profile.
Followers → Off (Profile → Curate your profile)
Reddit's follower feature lets other users follow your public posts. Disabling it removes your follower count and stops people from following your profile going forward.
Chat and messages
Who Can Send You Chat Requests → Accounts older than 30 days or Nobody (Settings → Chat & Messaging)
By default this is generally open to everyone on adult accounts. Restricting it to older accounts cuts down on spam and harassment from freshly created throwaway accounts, and setting it to Nobody blocks chat requests entirely. You can still allow specific usernames through even with restrictive settings, and moderators and Reddit admins can bypass this control.
Old private messages archive → Review and delete anything sensitive (the read-only archive Reddit provides for old private messages)
Reddit's older private messaging system has been retired in favor of Chat, so the chat request setting above is now the one that controls who can reach you. Your old private messages are still stored, though, and you can delete individual messages from the archive. If any contain personal details you no longer want sitting on Reddit's servers, this is the place to clear them out.
Account security
Two-factor authentication → On (in Settings, find Two-factor authentication; recent layouts list it under Account, older ones under Safety and privacy)
Two-factor authentication means a stolen or guessed password is not enough to get into your account. Reddit uses an authenticator app such as Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator rather than text message codes, which is the stronger approach. You need a verified email address first. Save the backup codes Reddit offers during setup somewhere safe, since they are your way back in if you lose your phone.
Age verification
Age verification prompt → Verify only if you need the restricted content or account
Outside the UK and Australia, most people will not be asked to verify. If you are, think about whether you need what sits behind the check: in the UK, skipping verification simply means mature content stays hidden. If you do verify, a selfie-based age estimate generally reveals less than a scan of your ID. For a fuller look at the trade-offs, see Should I upload my ID for age verification?
Location and personalization
Location Customization → No location specified (Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Customization)
Reddit infers an approximate location from your IP address (typically city, region, or country level) to personalize your feed, recommend communities, and target ads. Setting this to "no location specified" opts you out of location-based personalization. Reddit states it does not capture or store a precise device location, and this setting does not attach a visible location tag to individual posts, since Reddit does not have a public per-post geotagging feature comparable to some other platforms.
Trade-offs
- Hiding content from your profile only affects your profile page. It does not delete or de-index your posts and comments from the subreddits where you made them.
- Turning off ad personalization does not reduce the number of ads you see, and in most regions you can no longer fully separate activity-based from partner-based ad targeting.
- Restricting chat requests to older accounts or nobody means legitimate new users, event organizers, or people trying to reach you for the first time may not be able to contact you directly.
- Deleting old private messages from the archive is permanent, so copy anything you want to keep first.
- Two-factor authentication adds a step when you sign in on a new device, and losing both your phone and your backup codes can lock you out.
- Declining age verification in the UK means mature communities and posts stay hidden from you.
- Opting out of Location Customization means your feed and community recommendations will be less locally relevant.
- No account setting can remove already-public posts and comments from Reddit’s data-licensing partnerships with companies like Google and OpenAI, or from content that has already been scraped, licensed, or used for AI training. Deletion after the fact is not guaranteed to reach copies already licensed out.
Who should not change these settings
- If you use Reddit to build a public reputation, such as a niche hobby account, an AMA host, or a moderator identity, keeping your content visible on your profile serves that purpose.
- If you rely on chat requests from strangers, for example to coordinate trades, buys, or community events, restricting them to older accounts or nobody will get in the way.
- If you want a personalized, locally relevant feed and don’t mind approximate location being used for that, leaving Location Customization on is a reasonable choice.
- If you’re comfortable with how Reddit’s business model works, including its data-licensing deals, and your posting habits already reflect that, there is no setting that changes the underlying licensing terms, so there is little reason to worry about the ad and profile toggles beyond ordinary tidiness.