Facebook Trying to Hide People You May Know but Says No Options

Facebook Privacy Settings: Check and change your privacy settings on Facebook today

It seems at that place isn't a day that goes by without Facebook and privacy being in the news. Earlier this year, in that location was the small matter of Facebook reportedly storing hundreds of millions of user passwords in evidently text, with the data attainable by employees for several years.

So what's a privacy-conscious social media user to do if they don't want to delete Facebook entirely, but do want to secure their business relationship from outside meddling? Our guide to Facebook'southward privacy settings explains all you lot demand to know to keep using the pop social network safely.

How to change your Facebook password

Just first, it might be fourth dimension to change your Facebook password. Fortunately, the process is really straightforward.

To change your Facebook countersign, get to Settings > Security and login > Change password. Easy.

Related: How to bank check your password strength

Facebook Privacy Settings: Why they're so important

The infamous Facebook/Cambridge Analytica affair highlighted just how of import it is to keep track of the apps that are connected to your Facebook account through Facebook Login. This is considering the data was gathered through an app chosen 'thisisyourdigitallife', which allowed people to log in to it using their Facebook account.

Yous can find a listing of apps that have access to your Facebook information, such as your proper noun, pictures, birthday and friends list, on the App Settings page. There's a good chance the list will be significantly longer than expected.

Clicking each entry in the list shows you the types of data y'all've given them permission to access. By unchecking each box, you can limit how many of your personal details they can get their hands on. You tin also unlink the apps from your Facebook business relationship on this page, by clicking the 'X' that appears next to them.

However, as Facebook'due south FAQ notes: "The app or game may take stored info from when you were using it, merely you can contact the programmer to ask that they delete whatever info they may however have."

You tin can also switch off Facebook'south integration with apps completely, pregnant you won't be able to log into apps, games and other websites using your Facebook business relationship. To do this, get to Settings, Apps and Websites and Plugins, then select Edit and Disable Platform.

If y'all're concerned about your online privacy in general, yous might also desire to check out our roundup of the best VPNs for security and privacy. If you're non familiar with VPNs, they encrypt and anonymise your internet apply, and tin can also let you to appear equally if you're in a completely dissimilar country.

Read on for 18 simple means you lot tin ensure your Facebook privacy settings are exactly what you want them to be.

1) I desire to…get an overview of my privacy settings

Facebook's privacy settings are spread over a number of portions of the site. However, yous can do a quick health cheque by clicking the question marker icon that appears at the top of whatsoever Facebook page and selecting Privacy Checkup. This will permit you lot encounter privacy settings at a glance over 3 primal areas of Facebook

one) Posts – As explained below, this will explain how to control your privacy settings for every post.
ii)Profile – Hither you can limit what personal information (piece of work, age, contact details) is visible to whom.
three)Apps and websites – Who sees your activeness within third-party apps.

These are explained in more detail in the following three sections.

2) I desire to… control who sees my posts

This is perhaps the central privacy concern of privacy-conscious Facebook users. No-one wants their boss spying on their weekend activities, so it's important to be articulate about everything yous mail.

Whenever you lot upload a photo, fill in a status, or check in at a location, Facebook gives y'all the option to customise who you lot wish to share it with. The four primary options are:

• Public – Anyone can see information technology whether they're Facebook friends or not. If yous want to be part of a public discussion that can be viewed past both friends and via Facebook search (similar on Twitter), select this.
• Friends – Only people you're friends with can see the post. If you're posting photos of your children or whatsoever information you'd deem personal and so this is what you lot demand to select.
• Specific Friends − Select this if you'd similar the mail to exist seen by some of your Facebook friends, but not the vast majority. The Custom option is basically the changed of this, and allows y'all to select people you don't want to share your post with.
• Only You – Perhaps if you use Facebook every bit a repository for personal memories or a blog you can select Only You to ensure y'all, the account holder are the only one who sees it.

It's important to notation that Facebook remembers the setting from your last post, then if your terminal mail was a Public rant about X-Factor, that volition be the default setting next time.

iii) I want to… control who sees my app action

You're likely to take many tertiary-party services associated with Facebook, whether they're news services, fitness apps, games, dating apps, other social networks, streaming services or photograph-sharing apps. Most of these would have go associated with your Facebook business relationship if you used Facebook Connect to chop-chop create an account on them.

You tin use the samePrivacy Checkup or go to Settings > Apps and websites to completely disassociate them from your account.

Over the years, Facebook has probably collected a tonne of your personal information. Your email address, your altogether, political views, phone number, where you've studied, your sexual orientation, your political views, where y'all're from, where you're worked, who you're married to and who yous're related to.

With employers now doing social media checks on potential new colleagues, you lot may desire to shield some of this sensitive information.

Thankfully, much of this tin can be controlled via the Privacy Checkup mentioned above. You can change who sees what by heading to the Nearly section of your profile and selecting Edit nether each section. Switching your privacy settings from Friends to But Me volition hibernate the data from your profile. In some cases you may desire to remove information technology completely.

Related: How to download your Facebook data

5) I want to… hide posts from other people

If you're still friends with an ex on Facebook and don't want to remove them, but also desire to mail service photos of you in a new relationship without potentially aggravating your ex, you can hitCustom from the "Who should see this?" menu and tag the people you wish to hide the post from.

6) I want to… postal service something, just hibernate it from my timeline

Maybe you lot accept something to say and don't want it equally a permanent record on your timeline, such equally a thought, a meme, or a joke in context that's, ahem, of its time, you lot can achieve this past ticking the Hide From Timeline box in the mail service field.

vii) I want to… stop people sharing my photos and posts

If you've shared a photo or a status on Facebook, information technology could be open to beingness re-shared by other Facebook users. That means Friends and, if you've tagged people,  evenFriends of Friends. If the post is Public then anyone in the earth can share information technology. In that location'southward no way around that, other than to set the post to Only Me in the first place, which kind of defeats the betoken in virtually cases.

eight) I want to… check what my Public profile looks similar

At that place'south a really easy way to see what your profile looks like to someone exterior your network of Facebook friends, who may accept stumbled across your profile. To do this you can head to your Contour page, click the carte du jour button next to Activity Log and selectView As. If you spot information or posts you do non desire to be public,Edit the privacy settings of private posts or go to Settings to censor them.

Y'all can also utilise this tool to see what a specific Facebook friend sees.

ix) I want to… change who tin can encounter erstwhile posts

In the early days of Facebook many of u.s.a. were quite naïve with what we shared. Thankfully, in that location are options inSettingsto rectify some of your by privacy mistakes. You tin can click Privacy andLimit The Audience for Quondam Posts on Your Timeline. So simply clickLimit Past Posts to change whatsoever posts listed as Public or Friends of Friends. ConfirmLimit Past Posts, to ensure that only Friends can see them. This can be undone at a later on date but you may accept to switch all of your posts back one by one so brand sure you're certain before you lot push that 'limit' button.

10) I want to… limit who tin can send me friend requests

Tired of strangers trying to add together you lot on Facebook? Click Settings > Privacy and head to Who can ship you lot friend requests. You can change information technology from Everybody to Friends of Friends but that's about every bit far equally you lot can go, so if you lot're trying to avoid accepting that friend of a friend's request, you might be out of luck.

11) I want to… block someone

This ane'south piece of cake (and fun). Go to Settings > Blocking, begin typing the name or e-mail address of the friend (or ex-friend) you wish to block from your account. You can also cake certain people from sending yous messages, but you take to be friends with them.

Information technology's too possible to cake people people yous're not friends with by heading to their profile, clicking the "…" on the right hand side and selecting Cake.

Facebook probably has your phone number and one or more of your email addresses at this point. If folks (i.e. potential employers, old flames, stalkers, etc.) were to enter these in search, they may be able to discover your profile. In Settings > Privacy you can right this past clickingWho tin can look you up using the e-mail address you provided and selectingAnybody, Friends of Friends or Friends. The same procedure applies if you're trying to go on your phone number private.

13) I want… my Facebook page kept off Google

In that location'due south no hiding from Facebook's overarching Search engine. All you can practice is lock downward your privacy settings and hope yous accept a common name. However it's dissimilar in the instance of other search engines like Google. OpenSettings > Privacy and selectNo to keep your name off of Google's radar.

The right to anonymity was and, in some cases, still is one of the near cherished tenets of the internet. With Facebook now showing all profiles inside search results, changing to an causeless proper noun seems a good idea for those who don't want to be discovered, have been harassed, work in sensitive industries, have been discriminated about, etc…

Unfortunately, it'due south not that like shooting fish in a barrel. Facebook makes you use your nascency proper noun when signing up and has very strict rules nearly irresolute information technology thereafter. If you're reported for a fake name it could suspend your business relationship. The visitor has softened its opinion post-obit feedback from victims of abuse and the LGBTQ customs.

While y'all tin can't hide your name, if you'd like to request a name change, you tin can visit Settings, click General > Name and so Review Modify.

Related: All-time countersign director

fifteen) I want to… protect my location

Facebook loves information technology when y'all cheque into places. Information technology gobbles upwardly all of that lovely data to attract advertisers and display location-specific ads on your homepage. The nigh obvious step to protecting your location is not clicking the location pin when posting.

Even so, when you're using the mobile app, Facebook may try to use GPS and Wi-Fi to name your location. You can prevent this from happening by entering the Location settings on your mobile device and denying Facebook admission.

In iOS it goes: Settings > Privacy > Location > Facebook > Never

Or for Android devices: Settings > Applications > Facebook > Location and toggle Location Services off.

sixteen) I want to… prevent/remove a tag

If yous've had Facebook for a few years, your friends accept probably tagged you in some pretty embarrassing pics. Developed social media etiquette and a full knowledge of the consequences mean that information technology might not happen every bit much these days. If you're looking to get rid of those awkward memories earlier a potential employer gets there beginning, help is at manus.

In Settings > Timeline and Tagging you can alter the options to nether Review to check over every tag before it appears on yours or anyone else'south timeline.

Yous tin always select Remove Tag within individual mail service settings. If the post is offensive, you can also Report Post if you desire it off the site altogether.

17) I want to… make my profile completely private

Until October 2015, it was possible to hide your Facebook account and foreclose information technology from popping upwards when someone searches your name. However, this stopped being an option afterwards the company broadened its Universal Search through the Knowledge Graph initiative.

Now, even if your privacy settings are completely locked down you'll appear inside search results meaning that there is a sure level of info that anyone can pick up if they click on your contour. This includes your profile moving picture, your list of friends and the pages yous've liked. No style around information technology, sadly.

18) I want to… tag friends but limit who sees the posts

When you tag people in posts and photos, the number of people who run across it tin can take on a life of its own. The friend must corroborate the postal service to their timeline but, if they practise, all of their friends will be able to come across it too. For case, if y'all tagging a friend in a photo of your child, you're effectively expressing consent that those outside of your friendship circle can view it, react to it, share information technology and even comment on the photo likewise.

So, in other words, if you're concerned about who might view the photo, tagging friends is all-time avoided.

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Source: https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/facebook-privacy-settings-2939307

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