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The Complete Guide to Facebook Privacy Settings

by Suzanne Kantra on February 27, 2024

Updated on 2/27/2024. Removed privacy options for features no longer available, added new screenshots, and updated instructions on setting currently available privacy options.

Privacy issues and privacy controls on Facebook are ever-changing and confusing. I've read through hundreds of comments and emails from readers just like you who are frustrated and unsure about how to keep their information safe.

For example, when you post a picture of your kids at a family gathering, how can you control who has permission to share it? What private information are those Facebook game apps collecting, and who are these "third parties" they sell it to? How do you make sure that your live video stream is seen only by the people you choose?

Every action you take on Facebook has privacy and sharing implications you should understand before uploading that next selfie. Unfortunately, checking all of your Facebook settings takes a lot of time, and even then, the best choices for protecting your privacy aren't always obvious.

I just went through a complete review of every Facebook privacy setting currently available to determine what options we have for managing our privacy and what the best settings are for most people (and I'll continue to update this article as Facebook inevitably makes more changes). If you have a specific privacy concern, you can address it directly through your Facebook settings. Though for a broad check of all of your privacy settings, I recommend starting with Facebook's Privacy Checkup, which you can do through your computer browser or the Facebook app (go to Menu > Settings > Privacy Checkup).

Computer monitor with screenshot of Facebook Privacy Checkup main page with tiles for Who can see what you share, How to keep your account secure, How people can find you on Facebook, Your data settings on Facebook, Your ad preferences

Either way, I'll walk you through each setting below so you can confidently decide the right changes for you. For each section, I share my recommendations for each topic and what to consider when making your choices. I also have direct links to "hidden" Facebook settings that aren't part of the standard Privacy Checkup but have important privacy implications.


Table of Contents 

Who can see your profile information

Managing who can see your basic profile information

Managing who can see your connections

Control your audience for your Posts and Stories

Managing how you are tagged in posts

Managing who can comment on your public information

Managing old posts

Managing stories and reels

How to block people from seeing your content and interacting with you

How people can find you on Facebook

Your data settings on Facebook

Your ad preferences on Facebook

How to keep your account secure


Who can see your profile information

Here you can see the privacy settings – who can view your information – for your phone number, email addresses, birthday, hometown, relationship status, and other personal details about your life. 

See how other people view your Facebook profile page

Before you start adjusting your privacy settings, take a look at what your Facebook profile looks like to other people. You can go to your profile page and click on menu button (the triple dots under the "Edit Profile" button) and select "View As."

Screenshot of Facebook profile page. You see the person's profile picture pointed out. You also see three dots pointed out with a drop-down menu with View as (pointed out).

The phone numbers associated with your Facebook account

Strong recommendation: Only Me

Under phone number, you'll see the phone number(s) associated with your account and who can view it. Your number is very important because it can be used to reset your Facebook password. By revealing your phone number, you are making it more vulnerable to SIM swapping, where a hacker contacts your carrier (in-store or on the phone) and convinces them to get a new SIM card with your number or port your phone number to another phone. Once the hacker has control of your number, they can receive codes to break into accounts protected by two-factor authentication

To delete or add a phone number, go to your profile page > About > Contact and basic info.

Read more: Find out if you are a victim of SIM swapping

The email addresses associated with your Facebook account

My recommendation: Only Me

Under emails, it will show all email addresses associated with your account and who can view them. Email addresses are important because you can use any of them to log into your account with your Facebook password. Be careful to remove any old email addresses or ones where you're not using secure passwords, because if that email address is hacked, it could compromise your Facebook account, as well.

I recommend limiting your email to "Only Me." The people you know should have your email address and if you accidentally accept an invitation from a friend's spoofed Facebook account, that hacker will have access to your email address. 

To add or delete and email address, go to your profile page > About > Contact and basic info.

Your birthday

My recommendation: Friends

For your birthday, you can choose to share your whole birthday or just the month and day. That way, your Friends can wish you a happy birthday on Facebook on your special day without necessarily knowing your exact age. Birthdays are sometimes used as a security verification for various services, so you want to keep it protected.

To change this info, go to your profile page > About > Contact and basic info.

Your hometown and current city

My recommendation: Only Me

For your hometown and current city, you may want to limit it to "Only Me" so you hackers can't use that personal information for social engineering. Your friends know where you live and can ask you where you grew up if they don't know. 

To change this info, go to your profile page > About > Places lived.

Your relationship status

My recommendation: Personal choice

If you have set a relationship with another Facebook user, it will be shared unless you set it otherwise.

To change this info, go to your profile page > About > Family and relationships.

Your work history and where you went to school

My recommendation: Personal choice

You can choose to share your work history and where you went to high school, college, and graduate school. This setting may help old friends find you or for networking purposes. 

To change this info, go to your profile page > About > Work and education.

Your friends list on your profile page

Strong recommendation: Friends or Only Me

I highly recommend setting this to Friends only or even "Only Me." Keeping your Friends list public puts your friends at risk for account cloning scams. The scam only works when the person behind it can contact your friends pretending to be you to request money or send phishing messages, such as the classic "Is this you?" video scam.

To change this setting, go to the Facebook Settings page for How People Find and Contact You.

Read more: What is Facebook Account Cloning & What Can You do about It?

The people and Pages you follow

My recommendation: Personal choice

Facebook lumps people and Pages you follow together. Consider whether there are any sensitive Pages you follow that you wouldn't want the world or your Friends to know about.

To change this setting, go to your profile page > Friends > menu (the triple dots next to "Find Friends") > Edit privacy.

Choose your audience for Posts and Stories

In this section, you can select who can read your future posts and stories, as well as read your prior posts on Facebook.

Choose your default audience

My recommendation: Friends or Custom

"Default audience" is where you set who will see your regular posts, including text posts, photos, and videos. My advice is to keep it to Friends unless you are trying to promote yourself to everyone or you have a specific need for a Custom setting (e.g., to exclude a toxic friend or relative).

You can choose who can see your future posts by going directly to the Facebook Settings page for Posts.

You can always override your default setting for a specific post at the time you create it by clicking on the downward caret next to the audience and selecting a new one.

Read more: How to Create and Use Facebook Custom Friends Lists

When you are tagged in a post created by someone else, choose who can see the post (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

Strong recommendation: Only Me

If you are tagged in a post by someone on Facebook, your Facebook friends may see the post in their feeds even if they aren't friends with the original poster. This is a huge privacy and scam risk because someone can tag you in a photo that you do not want to be associated with, whether it's an embarrassing photo from last night's drink fest or a pure spam post (which I have seen tons of in my feed). So I strongly recommend setting this to "Only Me".

You can choose who can see posts you're tagged in by going directly to the Facebook Settings page for Profile and Tagging, and you'll find the option in the "Tagging" section.

Choose who can post on your profile (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

My recommendation: Friends

My advice is to keep it to Friends, unless you enjoy random comments from strangers.

If you want to check or change this setting, go to the Facebook Settings page for Profile and Tagging, and you'll find the option in the "Viewing and sharing" section.

Choose who can see what others post on your profile page (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

My recommendation: Personal choice

You may not want everyone to see what other people are posting on your profile page. If you want to check or change this setting, go to the Facebook Settings page for Profile and Tagging, and you'll find the option in the "Viewing and sharing" section.

Choose to hide comments with specific words on your profile page (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

My recommendation: Personal choice

If you're concerned about crude language appearing on your profile page, you can add up to 1,000 keywords that will cause a post to be hidden. The post will still remain visible to the people who posted and their Facebook Friends.

If you want to check or change this setting, go to the Facebook Settings page for Profile and Tagging, and you'll find the option in the "Viewing and sharing" section. Though you're probably better off just limiting who can post to your profile to Friends (unless your friends are the problem!)

Choose to review posts you're tagged in before they appear on your profile (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

My recommendation: Turn this on

If you are tagged in a post, the post defaults to automatically showing up on your Timeline. I recommend you choose the setting to review the posts before they appear to avoid embarrassing or spam posts appearing in your timeline. Go to the Facebook Settings page for Profile and Tagging, and you'll find the option in the Reviewing section.

Choose to review tags people add to your posts before they appear on Facebook (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

My recommendation: Turn this on

Posting an old photo from a school or work outing? Once you share it, your Facebook Friends may want to tag more people in the photo. By default, your Facebook Friends can add tags. However, you can choose to review these tags before they appear on your post. Go to the Facebook Settings page for Profile and Tagging, and you'll find the option in the Reviewing section.

Choose who can comment on your public posts (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

My recommendation: Personal choice

When you create a public post, everyone on Facebook can see it. However, you can limit who gets to comment on your public posts. You can choose this setting based on your posting objectives.

If you want to check or change this setting, the Facebook Settings page for Followers and public content

Choose who can comment on your public profile pictures and other public profile information (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

My recommendation: Friends

When you post a new profile picture or change other Public profile information, the default setting is that only Friends (and Frends of anyone tagged) can like or comment. I recommend leaving this setting as is. 

To change this setting, go to the Facebook Settings page for Followers and public content.

Find and remove old posts from your Timeline that you were tagged in (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

Ever been tagged in an embarrassing photo from two decades ago uploaded by that old college classmate? You can remove these tagged items by going to your profile page (you can access it by clicking on your profile photo in the side menu bar) and click on Manage Posts.

Screenshot of Facebook profile page. On the right side, you see from the top: Edit cover Photo, Edit Profile, Life Event and then Manage Posts, which is pointed out.

In the box that pops up, click on "Filters." In the Post Filters box, you can select "only show posts I'm tagged in." You can choose to hide the posts or remove the posts. First, go through and select the posts where you want to remove yourself (untag yourself), click "Next," and select "Remove Tags." Then go through and select the posts that you want to be able to view but don't want others to see in your Timeline, click Next, and then select "Hide Posts."

Choose who can view old posts

My recommendation: Turn on Limit Past Posts

When you limit your past posts here, it will apply to ALL of your posts, including Public posts those share with "Friends of Friends," to only Friends. Unless you're a celebrity or running a page that is used to generate interest in a business that you run, you will likely want to keep your activity restricted to those you have Friended. Keep in mind that anyone who is tagged in your posts and their Facebook friends may still be able to view these posts.

You can choose who can view old posts by going directly the Facebook Settings page for Posts and clicking on "Limit Past Posts" in the "Your Activity" section.

Choosing an audience for a single old post (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

If you want to change the audience for specific posts, you'll have to go into each post individually to change it. You can change the sharing settings of any individual Facebook update by clicking on the triple dots, then selecting "Edit audience."

Choose who can view your Stories

My recommendation: Personal choice

For "Stories," which are visible for 24 hours, you can limit your audience to your Facebook Friends or create a custom list of people with whom you want to share your stories. You can only set your default story audience within the Privacy Checkup.

For individual stories, click on the cog next to "Your Story" when you create a story, and you'll find the option to change your story audience for that story.

Choose whether you will allow others to share your Stories if you mention them (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

My recommendation: Personal choice

If you tag someone in a Story, that person can share it to their Story, along with your full name and a link to your post.

You can disable this feature by going to Facebook Setting page for Stories.

Choose whether you will allow others to share your public Stories to their own Story (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

My recommendation Personal choice

If your Story is public, you can allow others to share your Story to their own Story, along with your full name and a link to your original Story. Go to the Facebook Settings page for Stories to make your choice.

Choose whether you will allow others to share your public Reels to their own Story (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

My recommendation Personal choice

If your Story is public, you can allow others to share your Story to their own Story, along with your full name and a link to your original Story. Go to the Facebook Settings page for Reels to make your choice.

Choose whether other people will see the total number of reactions to posts you share (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

My recommendation: Personal choice

If you don't want other people to see the number of reactions to your posts, you can turn off showing post reactions.

Go to the Facebook Settings page for Reaction preferences and toggle off "On your posts."

How to block people from seeing your content and interacting with you

Block a person from interacting with you on Facebook

Blocking a person means that you are invisible to that person on Facebook. So if a mutual Friend tags you in a post, that person won't see the post. If you comment on a mutual Friend's post, that person won't see the comment. There are a few exceptions. If you both use a Facebook app or game or if you've both joined a group, the blocked person could see you. And, the person you block won't disappear entirely from your view. If a mutual Friend posts a photo and tags the blocked person, you may still see it on your Friend's timeline.

To block someone, go directly to the Facebook Settings page for Blocking and select the Edit button next to "Block users." If you just want to prevent a person from seeing posts that you share with Friends, you can add them to your Restricted list (also on the Blocking page). Click on the "Edit" button next to "Restricted list" to add them. 

Block just messages and video calls (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

If you just want to stop a person from sending you messages or attempting to connect via a video call in Messenger, you can go to the Facebook Settings page for Blocking and select the "Edit" button next to "Block messages" to add their name.

Block just app invites (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

If you just want to stop a person from sending invitations to try an app (occurs when one of your friends is trying to get free stuff in a game), you can go to the Facebook Settings page for Blocking and select the "Edit" button next to "Block app invites." 

Block just event invites (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

If you just want to stop a person from sending event invitations, you can go to the Facebook Settings page for Blocking and select the "Edit" button next to "Block event invites."

Block apps (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

If you want an app to stop contacting you and prevent the app from obtaining non-public information about you through Facebook, you can go the Facebook Settings page for Blocking and select the "Edit" button next to "Block apps" to add the name of the app. 

Block Pages (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

If you want a Page to stop interacting with your posts or be able to like or reply to your comments, you can go to the Facebook Settings page for Blocking and select the "Edit" button next to "Block Pages" to add the name of the Page. You will be unable to post to the Page's Timeline or message the Page. And, if you currently like the Page, blocking the Page will automatically unlike and unfollow the Page.

How people can find you on Facebook.

This section walks you through the ways that you can limit how people can find you through search engines (like Google), or with your phone number, email or name on through Facebook.

Choose who can send you a Friend request

My recommendation: Personal choice

You have two options for limiting who can send you a Friend request: Everyone or Friends of friends. Unless you're being inundated with requests or don't want to be found, I recommend leaving the setting on Everyone so legitimate people who want to connect can.

You can access this directly by going to the Facebook Settings page for How people find and contact you.

Choose whether people can use your phone number or email to find you

My recommendation: Personal choice

People can look you up on Facebook with your phone number or email address, even if you have them hidden on your profile. This method makes it easy for people you know to find you, especially if you have a common name on Facebook, like Jane Smith. Have the settings option set to "Everyone" or "Friends of Friends" if you want people to find you using your email address or phone number. Or, you can also choose to fully hide your email addresses or phone numbers by selecting "Only me" as the audience. The settings you choose apply to all of your phone numbers or all of your email addresses.

You can access this directly by going to the Facebook Settings page for How people find and contact you.

Choose whether your Facebook profile appears on search engines

My recommendation: Personal choice

You can find your public Facebook profile page on search engines like Google. If you don't want your Facebook profile coming up in search, you can toggle this setting off in the privacy checkup or you can access it directly by going to You can access this directly by going to the Facebook Settings page for How people find and contact you.

Choose how message requests are delivered (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

My recommendation: Personal choice

When your Facebook Friends message you, you'll see them appear in the Messenger Chats window. However, other people may try to contact you via Messenger as well: "people with your phone number," "Friends of friends," and "others on Facebook." If you don't want strangers contacting you, send messages requests to "Don't receive requests." If you want to see the request before approving them to chat with you, select "Message requests."

You can set your preferences by going to the Facebook Settings page for How people find and contact you.

Your data settings on Facebook

Facebook makes it easy to log into other websites and apps with your Facebook account. If these conveniences are too invasive for you, here's where to turn them off.

Using Facebook to log into apps and websites

My recommendation: Remove connections

Instead of creating a new username and password for an app or website, you may have used your Facebook account. If you no longer use the app or website, it's a good idea to remove the connection. However, some apps and websites may hold valuable information about your account. Note that when you remove the connection to your Facebook account, you will lose access to your third-party account.

Remove login with Facebook for specific apps and websites

My recommendation: Personal choice

In the Facebook Privacy Checkup, you'll see a list of all websites and apps that you've connected to your Facebook account. To remove connection, click the 'Remove" button next to the app or site. In the pop-up window, you'll be given the option to "delete all of the posts, photos, and videos that the site or app has posted on your Timeline" and/or "Allow Facebook to notify [app name] the login was removed." This second option may enable you to recover data in the account you created with your Facebook login.

Screenshot of removing app from Facebook. Shows removing Grubhub

Turn off login with Facebook for apps, websites, and games (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

My recommendation: Personal choice

You can turn off the ability to use Facebook to log into apps, websites, and games.

Go to the Facebook Setting page for Apps and Websites and click on the "Turn off" button next to "Apps, websites and games." 

Turn off game and app notifications (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

My recommendation: Personal choice

You can turn off annoying notifications for game requests from friends, game status updates, and app notifications.

Go to the Facebook Setting page for Apps and Websites and click on the "Turn off" button next to "Game and app notifications."

Your ad preferences on Facebook

Meta will show you ads on Facebook – that's how they make their money. It's just a question of whether those ads will be targeted to your demographics and interests or non-targeted (and, perhaps, less relevant to you). 

Choose the profile information to share with marketers

My recommendation: Personal choice

Here, you can choose whether to share your marital status, employer, job title, and level of education with advertisers. This doesn't remove the information from your Facebook profile; it just impacts the ads you see.

You can also go directly to Meta Settings page for Ad Preferences and clicking on "Manage info" and then "Profile information." There you can toggle off any data you don't want to share.

Choose which interests to share with marketers (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

My recommendation: Personal choice

In addition to basic profile information, Facebook uses other information you've shared with it to serve you ads. You can remove interest categories, by going to Meta Settings page for Ad Preferences and clicking on "Manage info" and then "Profile information." In the "Categories associated with you" section, click on "View and manage." If you have other demographic or behavioral categories in your Ad Preferences, you can click on the "Remove" button next to any categories you don't want used to target ads to you.

See fewer ads about specific topics (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

My recommendation: Personal choice

While you can't choose to see fewer ads overall, you can choose to see fewer ads in specific categories. Go to the Meta Settings page for Ad topics. There you can choose to "See less" of any topic listed. 

Turn off personalized ads based on information advertisers share about you (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

My recommendation: Personal choice

You can choose to prevent Facebook from using data from its partners to show personalized ads. Go Meta Settings page for Ad topics and in the "information other advertisers share about you" section you can select "Activity information from ad partners" to make your selection.

Choose which advertisers can use their own audience list to target you with ads (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

My recommendation: Personal choice

Some companies have lists of people that they want to reach with their ads. Facebook allows companies to target ads based on these lists, or even exclude you from seeing ads (for example, the DNC may want to exclude their ads from people on the RNC list). You can choose not to be shown ads using a list, as well as not be excluded from seeing ads. Go to the Meta Settings page for Audience-based advertising. There, you will see a list of all of the companies that have you on their audience list. Click on a company, and you can find out why you were included in the advertiser's audience. Click on the arrow next to the reason, and you can choose whether the company's list can be used to either include or exclude you from seeing ads.

Choose whether you are shown ads off Facebook based on your interests (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

My recommendation: Personal choice

Facebook serves a lot of advertising on websites and through apps off of Facebook. You can turn off personalized ads for those sites and apps, by going to the Meta Settings page for Ad preferences and selecting the "Manage info" tab. Click on "Ads shown outside of Meta." There, you can choose "Allowed" or "Not Allowed."

Hide ads from specific brands (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

My recommendation: Personal choice

If you're tired of being inundated with a specific company's ads, you can choose to hide them. Go to the Meta Settings page for Ad preferences and select the "Customize ads" tab. The click on "See all" next to "Advertisers you saw ads from." There you will find a list of the advertisers you have seen most recently, and you can click on the "Hide Ads" button next to any offenders.

Choose whether your social interactions with a company show up in ads

My recommendation: Only Me

Have you ever liked or followed a company, made a comment, shared a company's Page, checked into an event held by a company, made a recommendation, or joined a Facebook event held by a company? Facebook can broadcast your action as an advertisement to all your friends.

If you don't like this type of inadvertent endorsement, you can limit who can see these social interactions alongside ads to "Only me."

You can also go directly to the Meta Settings page for Ad preferences and click on "Social interactions." In the popup, you can select "Only me" or "Friends."

How to keep your account secure

In this section, you can change your password, turn on two-factor authentication, and get alerts when there is an unrecognized login to your account. If you already have two-factor authentication turned on and alerts are set for unrecognized logins, you'll receive the message that "You're all set. No security actions are recommended at this time."

Use a strong password

Strong recommendation

Do you have a strong password for your Facebook account – one that is unique to Facebook and at least 16 characters, including upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters? If the answer is no, you should strongly consider changing your password.

To ensure you remember your new strong password and to make it easier to use strong passwords going forward, I highly recommend using a password manager. We are fans (and users) of Dashlane and 1Password.

To change your password, you can go directly to the Facebook Settings page for Password and security.

Read more: Check how long it would take to crack your existing password

Turn on two-factor authentication

Strong recommendation

A strong password is essential, but that's not enough if it's compromised in a data breach or you are tricked into giving it away in a Facebook credentials phishing attack. That's where two-factor authentication comes in. When two-factor authentication is turned on, anyone trying to log into your account from a new device or browser would need to provide a one-time-use code delivered via an app, text message, or email. I highly recommend turning on two-factor authentication.

You can also go directly to the Facebook Settings page for Password and security and select "Two-Factor Authentication" to set it up.

You should also check the list of devices and browsers that don't require a code when you log in to ensure there aren't any of your old devices on the list. To check this, go to the Facebook Settings page for Password and security and select "Two-Factor Authentication." Once you've logged in, you'll see a box, with a section entitles "Authorized Logins." Click the "Recognized devices" button to view the list of devices that don't require a login code.

Read more: How to Protect Your Accounts with Two-Factor Authentication

Receive alerts when there is an unrecognized login to your Facebook account

Strong recommendation

You can choose to receive Login alerts that will be sent every time you log into your account from a device or browser that you don't usually use.  You can choose to have alerts sent via Facebook, email, or both. Note that a new web browser looks like a new computer to Facebook.

You can go directly to the Facebook Settings page for Password and security and select "Login alerts" to turn them on and select your delivery method.

Check where you're logged in (Not part of Privacy Checkup)

Strong recommendation

In addition to receiving alerts when there is an unrecognized login, you can check to see which devices have logged into your Facebook account. You can see where you're logged into Facebook – the device and physical location – by going to the Facebook Settings page for Password and security and select "Where you're logged in." If you see a suspicious login, you can click on it and then select "Log Out." Worst case scenario is that you'll have to log in again on a device you own, so err on the side of logging out.

Final thoughts

That covers the extensive privacy setting options on Facebook. If you want to dig even further into how Facebook is using your personal data and activities, read Facebook's latest privacy policy

Still confused by a specific issue or question with your account? Ask below in the comments, and we'll do our best to help you out.

[Image credit: screenshots of the Facebook site via Techlicious, computer mockup via Canva]

For the past 20+ years, Techlicious founder Suzanne Kantra has been exploring and writing about the world’s most exciting and important science and technology issues. Prior to Techlicious, Suzanne was the Technology Editor for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and the Senior Technology Editor for Popular Science. Suzanne has been featured on CNN, CBS, NBC and dozens of other TV and radio networks.


Topics

Facebook, Computers and Software, Computer Safety & Support, Tips & How-Tos, Privacy, Tech 101, Social Networking


Discussion loading

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From Albert on October 22, 2018 :: 7:49 am


Try Privacy Pub it will tell you which data is public in your profile:
http://www.privacypub.com/

Reply

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From Scott on October 28, 2018 :: 10:15 am


So I thought I would check out Touch of Modern after seeing a TV ad. I open a browser, type touchofmoder.com in the search, go directly to the site and see a window with an option to “log in with Facebook” or an option to enter an email address to access the site. Before I enter anything, there is a line saying “John Smith likes this”, and shows his facebook profile pic, and there is another profile pic next to it of someone else, both of these people are my Facebook friends.  Now I get that they are trying to market by saying, Hey your friends like this. But how do they know who my friends are when I haven’t entered any info on the page, have never visited before, etc. Seems strange, does anybody know how this works? How do they even know who I am?

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From Josh Kirschner on October 29, 2018 :: 11:31 am


Touch of Modern is using a login feature that connects directly to Facebook (similar to what we use as an option for our comments). Along with that login, they’re using a Facebook “widget” that shows friends who like a page. If you’re already logged into Facebook in your browser, your friends will show. If you hadn’t logged in to Facebook, nothing would show (you can test this yourself by going to Touch of Modern in incognito mode). Touch of Modern doesn’t have this friend information, that widget is coming directly from Facebook and Touch of Modern is just displaying it. If you go to our homepage, you’ll see a similar Facebook widget.

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From T on December 30, 2018 :: 4:34 am


If you tag friends in just one photo of a post with several photos, do their friends see the whole post with all the photos or just the photo they are tagged in?

I ask as even though I have only tagged them in one photo, their name now appears on the overall post heading?

Reply

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From Anne Moutrie on January 10, 2019 :: 12:21 am


I want to add a new friend but I want to prevent that new friend from seeing one existing old post. The only way I can see to do that is to change the audience on the post from Friends to a custom setting of all my existing friends, and then add the new friend. I assume that once added, they wn’t be able to see that one post as they are not on the custom list? But that going forward they would see all other posts that are classed as friends?

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From MD. ATIQUR RAHMAN on January 23, 2019 :: 10:04 am


Hey, people can see nothing in my work and education section although i set those as public in facebook. Please help.

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From Vijay Singh on March 01, 2019 :: 8:35 am


Why Facebook block me if i am not doing anything else why is my password frogen

Reply

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From Josh Kirschner on March 01, 2019 :: 8:12 pm


If you are blocked, it is because either you were doing something that’s against the policies or posting material that is inappropriate/against the policies.

Reply

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From Lorrie marlow on March 08, 2019 :: 7:22 pm


I want to post as my PERSONAL SELF onto my “Fan” PAGE.  But when I do that, the option to add a Photo/Video disappears.  It only reappears if I post AS MY FAN PAGE ONTO that fan page.  And when I try to SHARE to the FAN PAGE by adding a photo a PRIVACY SETTING message comes up over and over.  I know Mercury is in retrograde.  or IS IT JUST MEEEEEEE?!

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From My son on April 05, 2019 :: 4:34 pm


Hi, I have a under aged boy who happens to be computer savy nd unfortunately I’m not! And he has changed his passwords for his email and facebook so that i can’t see anything. . how do i get back into his account without him telling me his passwords. His email is the same but he’s changed the passwords on those too so I can’t get in and see his password saved list, without putting in his password. Can u help?

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From Josh Kirschner on April 08, 2019 :: 12:06 pm


There’s no way to get into his email or Facebook with having his passwords. However, this should be a condition of him using technology - no password, no phone or computer use. I have the passwords for all of my kids accounts - email, social media, etc. I almost never access them, but they know I could if I wanted to. And if they didn’t share, they would quickly find themselves without access to those apps or devices.

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From pabitra panda on May 28, 2019 :: 12:03 pm


i have been using facebook since 2011 i have added many photos of my old memoirs but now all photos are not showing , only some photos are showing which has added within 2 months , when i am going to that posting date its showing—
this content is not available right now-
when this happens,its usually because the owner only shared with a small group of people, changed who can see it or its been deleted.

plz help me

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From jb on June 04, 2019 :: 4:35 pm


Why can people Im not friends with still access my profile, even though I have it marked Friends only in privacy settings?

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From Josh Kirschner on June 05, 2019 :: 3:31 pm


Certain profile information (e..g, your name and photo) are always public - there is no way to mark them as private. What information are people seeing that you thought should be private in your privacy settings?

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From Judy Gordes on July 03, 2019 :: 4:56 pm


Some photos on my timeline are blocked.  I can’t even see photos on my profile.  What is wrong?

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From Judy Gordes on July 03, 2019 :: 4:59 pm


I am being blocked from seeing some of the photos on my timeline. I also cannot see any of the photos on my profile.

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From Josh Kirschner on July 03, 2019 :: 6:52 pm


Is there a specific error message you’re getting or are you just not seeing any photos? Are you sure the photos are there and weren’t deleted? Can other people see them?

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From s bienvenu on July 03, 2019 :: 5:14 pm


If I post an event from my personal page and I want the event to be public, does the public then have access to my page?

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From Linda on August 04, 2019 :: 6:07 pm


Hi,

If my underlying setting says that “friends of friends” can see posts, if on a specific post I choose a specific friend, can his or her friends see this post or is it only viewable to the specific friend?

Thanks,

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From Josh Kirschner on August 06, 2019 :: 3:08 pm


In Facebook, posts can be set to Public, Friends or customized for individual people. “Friends of friends” isn’t one of the options. Which setting are you looking at where you see that?

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From Jose Angelo Alconaba on August 27, 2019 :: 2:16 pm


I remember there use to be a selection on who can send you messages.Where one of its option is “friends only”. My question is,is it possible to limit those messages to only those who are in my friends list and keep out those who I do not know?! I have been receiving messages from “life forms” I don’t know who cannot publicly say what they want to say (like posting comments on my page itself). Sometimes these paid political trolls are using multiple account. They think the can silence me my sending private messages. They are weong. In fact, they only proved that thwy are coward. PLEASE help. Thanks.

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From Josh Kirschner on September 03, 2019 :: 3:34 pm


Facebook doesn’t have the ability to limit messages to “Friends only”. It’s an obvious need that people have been requesting for a while. You can block individual people, but that isn’t helpful when the unwanted messages are coming from an endless stream of spammy/nuisance accounts.

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From Desiree on August 27, 2019 :: 3:03 pm


I have been getting unwanted messages that are causing me a lot of distress. How can I change my settings so only friends can send me messages?

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From Josh Kirschner on September 03, 2019 :: 3:36 pm


As I noted in the comment above, Facebook doesn’t have the ability to limit messages to “Friends only”. We’re going to try to take the issue up with Facebook to see if we can get a better answer, but my expectations aren’t high, given that this has been an issue for so long yet they haven’t taken action.

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From Neville Reilly on September 15, 2019 :: 7:07 am


How do i post a photo and have it covered as warning sensitive type photo The ones that you have to say yes to open

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From Shéla Sookroo on September 19, 2019 :: 4:40 am


Hi! I wanted to know whether my friends on my restricted list can view my about/details like relationship status if i’ve changed the audience from “only me” to “friends”

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From Josh Kirschner on September 19, 2019 :: 2:53 pm


According to Facebook, anyone you’ve added to your restricted list won’t be able to see anything you haven’t shared as public. For example (from Facebook help), if you set your boss to restricted, “If your boss goes to your profile, they won’t be able to see anything you haven’t tagged them in or shared as Public.”

The problem is that Facebook sometimes provides misleading info or changes privacy procedures without communicating them adequately. To be safe, you could create custom privacy for your relationship status as Friends, but that excludes certain people.

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From IslandGirl on September 25, 2019 :: 4:58 pm


Why can I set “future posts’ when setting privacy and not ‘all posts’?  Can everyone see my past posts?

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From Tom on October 10, 2019 :: 4:07 am


The ’ settings ’ text link at top right of my business page (there are 2) doesn’t takes me to a page where i can change my settings for my facebook page, for the last couple of weeks it’s been taking me to the very 1st page i see after clicking ‘login ’ where there are no settings options, what’s going on?

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From Howie Meivogel on November 04, 2019 :: 11:02 pm


If I set a permission on a post to share with just one other person (specific friends) from my friends list will all my post I now create only have that Specific friends permission until I change the permission manually prior to posting it ? Thanks

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From Josh Kirschner on November 06, 2019 :: 7:59 pm


Facebook defaults to new posts using the same permission as the last post you made. So, if you selected specific friends, it will stay on specific friends. Which is why when you set a post to Public, it’s especially important to pay attention to your future posts to make sure you want them to be public, as well.

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From Boji on November 07, 2019 :: 9:31 pm


How do you know what your friends see about you in the case of liking certain posts.  It seems sort of random, but sometimes I’ll get a notification of a friend liking a certain post.  I’m not so interested in what people see when they actually come to my page/timeline, but I just want to know what pops up on THEIR page about me whenever I’m liking other people’s posts or commenting on other people’s posts. 

For example, once in a while I’ll see a post and write a comment, then suddenly a friend is liking my comment or responding to it, despite the post having nothing to do with them.

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From Josh Kirschner on November 08, 2019 :: 10:07 am


The Facebook algorithms use a variety of factors to determine whether you will be shown your fiend liking posts, and vice versa. The goal is to maximize engagement, but what factors actually come into play and how, we don’t know - it’s a black box.

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From Boji on November 08, 2019 :: 8:43 pm


OK.

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From Johnson Harvey on November 11, 2019 :: 10:05 pm


Please tell me how I can post on a friends and make it available that only he can see it.

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From Lynette Rodgers on November 25, 2019 :: 4:47 am


I unblocked my friend and sent him a friend request which he accepted.  Before I blocked him I could see his friend list.  Now I can only see his friend list if he puts his friends list to public. He said he doesn’t want it public.  He says he doesn’t care if I see his friend list.  He also said he doesn’t have me restricted anywhere and that his other friends can see the list but not me. He said to ask Facebook what he can do. When his privacy setting is on public I can see it but as soon as he switches back to friends it is gone.  Help…....I am his friend on FB and should be able to see his friends like all his other friends can.

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From Philip Christopher Haggerty on December 19, 2019 :: 8:11 am


over the past 3 days I have received over 500 requests from people I may know I know none of them is facebook just dumping people on you and can I stop it?

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From Josh Kirschner on December 19, 2019 :: 11:36 am


There is a difference between Friend Requests (when someone actively asks to be your friend) and Friend Suggestions (people who Facebook thinks you might know based on their algorithms). Facebook determines Friend Suggestions based on a number of factors, including friends you have in common, people who have uploaded your email in their address books (and vice versa) and then synced those addresses with Facebook, and possible other factors, such as same schools/graduating classes, etc.

There is no way to turn off Friend Suggestions, but you shouldn’t get too worked up about it. They aren’t active Friend Requests - just ignore them.

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From Itzik Shabo on December 23, 2019 :: 10:56 am


I hate the news in all it’s forms and from all over the world. I feel it’s all negative and mostly lies. So are many other pages. Facebook makes the process extremely difficult to block those pages. I finally learned how to do it and guess what? After a short while I can no longer block them the way I did it. Facebook has a message saying I can’t block them for now. It’s been 2 weeks since I was able to block pages by going on their site and blocking them from the option menu. Now I was told I can block those pages by reporting them first. I did that but still seeing videos with violence, fake news, videos about British , Australian and Canadian news. Facebook is acting like a bully forcing me to watch what I choose not to.

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From Jack on December 11, 2020 :: 12:14 pm


I have found a way to resolve ALL the issues from ALL social media platforms. It was much easier then expected. I simply closed them all. Try it and see for yourselves.

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From Gary Mock on February 10, 2020 :: 5:11 pm


How do I stop people from sharing my posts and pictures? I have seen posts by individuals and organizations that there is no share button on their posts.

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From Josh Kirschner on February 11, 2020 :: 3:55 pm


If you post something as “friends only”, then they won’t be able to share your comments or photos. However, if you shared a story from another site, like the Washington Post, people will be able to share the news story from the WaPo, but not your associated comments. If you share something as “Public”, then others will be able to share your posts or photos.

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From Geraldine on April 13, 2020 :: 1:07 am


Hi, I’ve, for a while now, set the privacy settings for my Facebook profile picture to friends only. The whole purpose being I did not want people looking me up to see my profile picture.
However I recently noticed that anyone looking me up on the messenger app can actually see my profile picture.  Is there any way at all that my profile picture in messenger could be restricted to whatever settings I’ve used in Facebook?? I wouldn’t mind my profile picture not being seen at all on messenger should it come to that..
Thanks

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From Josh Kirschner on April 13, 2020 :: 6:25 pm


Certain profile information can never be private on Facebook, this includes your name, profile picture, cover photo, gender, username and user ID. See: https://www.facebook.com/help/393920637330807/

So not sure why you thought your profile picture was private on Facebook, but it likely never was. And that is also why it shows up on Messenger.

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From jay s. gertz on April 27, 2020 :: 10:14 am


There’s a section under Ad Preferences for Advertisers and Businesses entitled Businesses who uploaded and used a list. I am trying to eliminate the ubiquitous ads I keep getting on my feed, but am confused about ALLOW or DON’T ALLOW choices. Sorry, but the wording confuses me. Which should I choose to eliminate the use of lists from businesses?

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From Josh Kirschner on April 27, 2020 :: 6:04 pm


So in that section, there are two sections you can control: 1) Showing Ads to You Using a List and 2) Excluding You From Ads Using a List. Confusingly, they both probably show “Don’t Allow”, but that is not their current setting. “Don’t Allow” is actually sort of a button you have to press and then go into the next popup to explicitly Don’t Allow businesses to use lists to match with your profile information. Once you successfully blocked list use, the button will now say “Allow”.

So, click “Don’t allow”, confirm “Don’t Allow” and then you should be set.

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From Jerry on April 28, 2020 :: 5:24 am


Is there any way I can block people who are not my friends from liking or reacting to public posts in my to my timeline.  I had a stalker laugh at all my posts and then block me and now I can’t get rid of them. It’s basically harassment.  How do you even get Facebook to remove them when you can’t even access their profile after they blocked you?

Thanks.

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From Josh Kirschner on April 28, 2020 :: 11:28 am


When someone blocks you, they will no longer see your posts or timeline, either. So I don’t understand how they’re commenting on your posts - public or otherwise - unless you’re posting into a group that you’re both members of or on a organization page. With groups and pages, blocking and privacy would be handled by the group/page admin.

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From Michelle nelson on April 30, 2020 :: 5:26 pm


I was diagnosed of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis a couple of years ago, I had  severe tremors, difficulty swallowing and sleeping. I was given medications which helped but only for a short while. So i decided to try alternative measures and began on ALS HERBAL TREATMENT from Herbal HealthPoint, It made a tremendous difference for me (Go to w w w. herbalhealthpoint. c o m).  I had improved walking balance, increased appetite, muscle strength, improved vision and others

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From Craig on April 30, 2020 :: 10:04 pm


What do I put for my settings so that the way my timeline appears to me is the same way it will appear to my friends (without making it public for the whole world to see)?

I currently have “Who can see what others post on your timeline?” set to “Friends,” and I have “Who can see posts you’re tagged in on your timeline?” also set to “Friends.” Evidently that’s not enough. I had a friend bring up my timeline on his computer, and he could see some of the former posts (including, by the way, some posts I deleted years ago which I myself no longer see on my timeline) and zero of the latter posts.

Is that a glitch, or is there something I’m doing wrong in the settings? Would it help if I manually add in the names of some or all of my friends in these settings?

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