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Last Updated:
28-May-2023
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Facebook has organized its privacy settings into four different categories, each containing a variety of privacy options. In this guide, we will explore each category in detail to help you understand and manage your privacy on the platform.
If you are using the PC browser, then you can browse these privacy settings by following the below path:
Click on your profile photo on the top right corner -> then click on Settings & Privacy -> then Privacy -> Privacy
If you are using the Facebook App on the mobile phone, then follow the below path:
Tap on the burger menu icon or profile photo and scroll down, then tap on -> Settings & Privacy -> Profile Settings -> Privacy -> Privacy
1. How people find and contact you
1.1 Hide your Facebook friends list
Friends are an essential part of our lives after our parents, but sometimes sharing this information with the world can be uncomfortable and may not be a good practice. Fortunately, Facebook allows you to keep your friends' information confidential, which is very cool. You can set this privilege based on your preferences. There are four main options in this setting.- Public: If this is selected, anyone on the Facebook can see your friends list
- Friends: This will only allow your friends to see your friends list.
- Friends except: Don’t show to these selected friends
- Only me: Only you can see your friends list
1.2 Who can send you friend requests?
It can be frustrating to receive too many friend requests from people you don't know. To limit this, you can set the privacy setting to 'Friends of Friends'. This means that only the friends of your friends will be able to send you friend requests. If a person is not in the list of your friends, they won’t be able to send you a friend request. By default, this setting is set to "Everyone," which means anyone, including those who are not in your friends circle, can send you a friend request.1.3 Who can look you up using the email address you provided? AND 1.4 Who can look you up using the phone number you provided?
These two privacy settings are quite similar. You can control who can access your email address and phone number information on Facebook. You have the option to share it with Everyone, Friends, Friends Except (which allows you to choose specific friends who won't be able to see your information), or Only me (meaning only you can see it). You can choose the level of privacy that suits your needs.1.5 Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile?
Enabling this setting allows search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo to link to your Facebook profile in their search results. However, if you disable this setting, search engines will not be able to link to your profile, but it may take some time for the search engines to stop displaying your information. Keep in mind that even if you disable this setting, your profile can still be found on Facebook if people search for your name.2. Your Activity
You can focus on the main 3 settings under this category.
2.1 Who can see your future posts?
When creating a new post on Facebook, you have the ability to choose who can see it. Facebook will remember your chosen audience for future posts unless you change it. There are four options to choose from:- Public: Anyone on or off Facebook can see your post.
- Friends: Only your Facebook friends can see your post.
- Friends except...: You can exclude certain friends from seeing your post.
- Only me: Your post will only be visible to you.
2.2 Review all your posts and things you're tagged in
Most of the time your friends are tagging in the posts which they create. You can keep an eye on all those posts by clicking on the “Use Activity Log”. This will bring you all the posts where your friends tagged you. You can either keep it or remove yourself from the tagged posts.Note: The setting can be found in the Facebook App under Settings & Privacy -> Settings -> Privacy Settings -> Profile and tagging.
2.3 Limit The Audience for Old Posts on Your Timeline
When you choose to limit your past posts, any post that you have shared on your timeline with "Friends of friends" or "Public" will be restricted to only your "Friends" list. However, people who were tagged in these posts, as well as their friends, will still be able to see these posts. If you want to change the audience for a specific post, you can do so by going to that post and selecting a different audience from the dropdown menu.3. Privacy Shortcuts
3.1 Check a few important Settings
Facebook is offering you an opportunity to review a few essential privacy settings that you may need to assess to keep your account secure. You can change the privacy level if it is weak or if there is a possibility of leaking your personal data that you do not wish to share with anyone, including specific individuals. The critical settings in this section are listed below:- Who can see what you share (Including Profile information, Posts & Stories and Blocking)
- How to keep your account secure (Including Password check, Two-factor authentication & Login alers)
- How People can Find You on Facebook (Including Friend Requests, Phone or email details & Search Engines)
- Your Data Settings on Facebook (Including Apps and Websites)
- Your ad preferences on Facebook (Including the information of what kind of ads do you prefer to see on Facebook)
3.2 Manage your profile
This section of privacy settings will guide you to review your profile data, including your birthday, relationships, work information, marital status, pages you follow, and other basic information. You can choose to share this information with everyone, friends, friends of friends, or only with yourself. If you choose "only me," then no one except you should be able to view it.4. How You Get Message Requests
From here, you can manage the messages of people who are not your friends on Facebook. You have the option to choose whether their message requests will go to your Chats list, Message requests folder, or whether you want to receive them at all. You can control your preferences in this section.