Technology Made Easy
Updated on 27/02/2024. Removed privacy features for features that are no longer available, added new screenshots, and updated commands on how to configure the lately available privacy features.
Privacy issues and privacy controls on Facebook are constantly evolving and confusing. I’ve read a lot of comments and emails from readers like you who are frustrated and don’t know how to get your information.
For example, when you post a photo of your kids at a family gathering, how can you find out who has permission to share it?What personal data do those Facebook gaming apps collect, and who are those “third parties” to whom they sell?How can you make sure that your live video stream is only noticed through the other people you choose?
Every action you take on Facebook has privacy and sharing implications you want to perceive before you upload your next selfie. Unfortunately, checking all of Facebook’s settings is time-consuming, and even then, the most productive possible options for protecting your privacy aren’t. obvious.
Lately I’ve been going through all of Facebook’s privacy settings to learn what features we have to manage our privacy and what the maximum productive settings are for other people’s maximum (and I’ll continue to update this article as Facebook inevitably does more). changes). browser or the Facebook app (go to Menu > Settings > Privacy Check).
Either way, I’ll walk you through each of the settings below so that hopefully you can make a decision on which settings are right for you. For each section, I percentage my recommendations for each topic. and what to keep in mind when making your decisions. I also have direct links to Facebook’s “hidden” settings that aren’t part of the popular privacy control, but have vital privacy implications.
Here you can see the privacy settings (who can see your data) for your phone number, email addresses, date of birth, hometown, dating status, and other important non-public points about your life.
Before you start adjusting your privacy settings, take a look at how other people view your Facebook profile. You can go to your profile page and click on the menu button (the 3 dots under the “Edit Profile” button) and “Seen As”.
Strong recommendation: just me
Under Phone number, view the telephone numbers related to your account and who can see them. Your number is very important because it can be used to reset your Facebook password. By revealing your telephone number, you make you more vulnerable to the SIM card. exchange, where a hacker contacts your carrier (in-store or via teleteleteletele) and convinces you to get a new SIM card with your number or move your teleteleteleteleOnce the hacker takes control of your number, they can obtain codes to access accounts protected using two-factor authentication.
To delete or upload a phone number, go to your profile page > About > Contact and Basic Information.
Read more: Find Out If You’re a Victim of a SIM Swap
My Recommendation: Just Me
Under Emails, all the email addresses related to your account and who can see them will be displayed. Email addresses are vital because you can use any of them to log in to your account with your Facebook password. Make sure to delete old email addresses or those for which you don’t use strong passwords, because if that email address gets hacked, it could also compromise your Facebook account.
I propose that you restrict your email to “Me only”. People you know deserve to have your email address and if you accept an invitation from a friend’s spoofed Facebook account, that hacker will gain access to your email address.
To upload or send an email, go to your profile page > About > Contact & Basic Information.
My recommendation: friends.
For your birthday, you can decide percentage of your full birthday or just the month and day. This way, your friends can wish you a happy birthday on Facebook on your special day without necessarily knowing your exact age. Birthdays are used as a safety precaution. Check various services, so you need to protect them.
To get this information, go to your profile page > ToAbout > Contact and Basic Information.
My Recommendation: Just Me
For your city and your existing one, you may need to restrict it to “Just Me” so hackers can’t use that non-public information for social engineering purposes. Your friends know where you live and will possibly ask you where you grew up if they don’t.
To edit this information, go to your profile > About > Places.
My Recommendation: Choice
If you have set up an appointment with any other Facebook user, it will be shared unless you indicate otherwise.
To get this information, go to your profile page > ToAbout > Family & Relationships.
My recommendation: personal choice.
You can share your painting history and where you went to the best school, college, and university. This setup can help old friends locate it or for network painting purposes.
For this information, go to your profile page > ToAbout > Work-Study page.
Strong recommendation: friends or just me
I highly recommend setting this option to Friends Only or even “Just Me”. Keeping the friends list public puts them at risk for account cloning scams. The scam only works when the user can tap their friends pretending to be you to ask. for cash or send phishing messages, such as the classic “Is that you?” scam video.
To replace these settings, go to Facebook’s Settings page to see how other people locate and tap on it.
Read more: What Is Facebook Account Clone And What Can You Do About It?
My Recommendation: Choice
Facebook is a collection of other people and pages that you adhere to. Determine if there are any sensitive pages that you stick to that you don’t want the world or your friends to know about.
For this setting, go to your profile page > Friends > menu (the 3 dots next to “Find Friends”) > Change Privacy.
In this section, you can find out who can read your long-term posts and stories, as well as read your previous Facebook posts.
My Recommendation: Friends or Custom
The “Default Audience” is where you set who will see your regular posts, adding text posts, photos, and videos. My recommendation is to keep it on Friends, unless you want to advertise to everyone or have an express desire for a traditional setting (e. g. , to exclude a poisonous friend or family member).
You can view your future posts by going directly to Facebook’s Post Settings page.
You can override your default setting for a quick post at the time of creation by clicking the down slider next to the audience and choosing a new one.
Read more: How to Create and Use Custom Friend Lists on Facebook
Strong recommendation: just me
If you’re tagged in a post through someone on Facebook, your Facebook friends can see the post in their feed even if they’re not friends with the original author. This is a huge privacy risk and scam, as someone can tag you in a photo you don’t need to be related to, whether it’s an embarrassing photo from last night’s party or a natural spam message (which I’ve noticed tons in my diet). So I recommend setting this to “Just Me”.
You can view the posts you’re tagged in by going directly to Facebook’s settings page to view the profile and tag, and you’ll find the option in the “Tagged” section.
My recommendation: friends.
My recommendation is to save it for Friends, unless you get random comments from strangers.
If you need to check or replace these settings, go to the Facebook Settings for Profile & Tagging page and look for the option in the “View & Share” section.
My Recommendation: Choice
You may not need everyone to see what others post on your profile page. If you need to verify or replace these settings, go to the Facebook Settings for Profile & Tagging page and locate the option in the “View & Share” section.
My recommendation: personal choice.
If you’re worried about foul language appearing on your profile page, you can upload up to 1000 keywords that will cause a post to be hidden. The post will remain visual to the other people who posted it and their Facebook friends.
If you need to check or replace these settings, go to the Facebook Settings page for Profile & Tagging and look for the option in the “View & Share” section. Although it’s probably best to restrict the number of other people who can post to your profile on Friends (unless your friends are the problem!)
My Recommendation: On
If you’re tagged in a post, the post automatically appears on your timeline by default. I suggest that you decide on the settings to review posts before they seem to prevent embarrassing or unwanted posts from appearing on your timeline. Go to Facebook Settings Page for Profile and Tagging, and locate the option in the Review section.
My Recommendation: On
Posting an old photo from school or a painting trip?Once you’ve shared it, your Facebook friends may want to tag more people in the photo. By default, your Facebook friends can upload tags. However, you can choose to check those tags before they appear in your post. Go to the Facebook settings page to view the profile and tags, and look for the option in the Review section.
My Recommendation: Choice
When you create a public post, everyone on Facebook can see it. However, you can restrict the number of other people who can comment on your public posts. You can configure these settings based on your publishing goals.
If you’d like to review or replace these settings, go to your Facebook Fan Settings and Public Content page.
My recommendation: friends.
When you post a new profile picture or edit other public profile information, the default setting is that only friends (and friends of those tagged) can like or comment. I propose to leave this setting as it is.
For this setting, go to Facebook’s settings page for fans and public content.
Have you ever been tagged in an embarrassing photo from twenty years ago, posted online through this former classmate?You can remove those tagged pieces by going to your profile page (you can do this by clicking on your profile picture in the sidebar) and clicking Manage. Publications.
In the box that appears, click on “Filters. ” In the Post Filters area, you can decide to “Only show posts I’m tagged in. “You can hide posts or delete them. First, explore and decide on posts. must be deleted (detached), click “Next” and decide “Remove Tags”. Next, browse and decide on posts that you need to be able to show but don’t need others to see on your timeline, click Next, choose “Hide Posts”.
My recommendation: turn on Limit Posts
When you restrict your posts further here, it will apply to ALL of your posts, adding public posts shared with “Friends of Friends”, friends only. Unless you’re a celebrity or have a page that’s used to generate interest in a business you run, you probably need to restrict your activity to those you have friends with. Keep in mind that anyone who is tagged in your posts and their Facebook friends can still see those posts.
You can view old posts by going directly to Facebook’s post settings page and clicking “Limit Past Posts” in the “Your Activity” section.
If you want to replace the express post audience, you need to move to each post separately for editing. You can override the sharing settings for any individual Facebook updates by clicking on the 3 dots and then deciding on “Edit Audience”.
My Recommendation: Choice
For 24-hour visual “Stories,” you can restrict them to your Facebook friends or create a traditional list of other people you want to share your stories with. You can only set your default story in the privacy control.
For individual stories, click the gear next to “Your Story” when you create a story and look for the option to replace your story’s audience for that story.
My Recommendation: Choice
If you tag in a Story, that user can share it in their Story, along with your full call and a link to your post.
You can turn this off by going to Facebook’s settings page to view stories.
My Personal Choice Recommendation
If your story is public, you can allow others to share your story in their own story, with your full name and a link to your original story. Go to the Facebook Stories settings page to make your decision.
My Personal Choice Recommendation
If your story is public, you can allow others to share your story in their own story, with your full name and a link to your original story. Go to the Facebook Settings for Reels page to make your choice.
My Recommendation: Choice
If you don’t want other people to see the number of reactions to your posts, you can turn off the post reactions demo.
Go to Facebook’s settings page to see your personal likes and turn off “On Your Posts. “
Blocking a user means that you are invisible to that user on Facebook. So, if a mutual friend tags you in a post, that user may not see the post. If you comment on a mutual friend’s post, that user may not see the post. the commentary. There are some exceptions. If you’re using a Facebook app or game, or if you’ve joined a group, the blocked user may see you. And the user you’re blocking may not disappear from your view entirely. If a mutual friend posts a photo and tags the blocked user, you’ll still be able to see it in your friend’s feed.
To block someone, go directly to the Facebook Block Settings page and the Edit button next to “Block Users. “If you just need to block someone from seeing posts you share with your friends, you can upload them to your limited list (also on the Block page). Click the “Edit” button next to “Shortlist” to upload them.
If you just need to block someone from messaging you or want to connect via video call on Messenger, you can go to Facebook’s Settings page to block and the “Edit” button next to “Block messages” to upload your name.
If you just need to block someone from sending invitations to view an app (which happens when one of your friends tries to get loose pieces in a game), you can go to Facebook’s settings page to block and the “Edit” button. next to Block App Invitations.
If you just need to block someone from sending invitations to occasions, you can go to Facebook’s settings page to block and the “Edit” button next to “Block invitations to occasions. “
If you need an app to prevent it from contacting you and prevent it from getting private data about you through Facebook, you can go to Facebook’s settings page to block and click the “Edit” button next to “Block apps” to upload the name. the application.
If you need a page to avoid interacting with your posts or being able to like or reply to your comments, you can go to the Facebook Block Settings page and choose the “Edit” button next to “Block Pages” to upload the page name. You may not be able to post to the page timeline or send a message to the page. And, if you lately like the page, automatically blocking it will result in your removal and abandonment.
This section tells you how to limit how other people can locate you through search engines (such as Google) or with your phone number, email address, or call through Facebook.
My Recommendation: Choice
You have two features to restrict who can send you a friend request: Everyone or Friends of Friends. Unless you’re inundated with requests or don’t need to be found, I suggest leaving the setting at Everyone so that other people who need to log in are valid. power.
You can do this directly by going to Facebook’s Settings page to see how other people locate and touch you.
My Recommendation: Choice
People can search for you on Facebook with your phone number or email address, even if you’ve hidden them on your profile. This method makes it easier for other people you know to locate you, especially if you have a common call on your phone. Facebook, such as Jane Smith. Set the setting to “Everyone” or “Friends of friends” if you want other people to find your email address or phone number. You can also choose to completely hide your email address or phone number. numbers by choosing “Only Me” as your audience. The settings you choose apply to all of your telephone numbers or email addresses.
You can do this directly by going to Facebook’s Settings page to see how other people locate and touch you.
My Recommendation: Choice
You can make your Facebook profile page public on search engines like Google. If you don’t want your Facebook profile to appear in search, you can turn off this setting at the privacy checkup or directly by going to the Facebook Settings page to see how others work. People locate you and touch you.
My recommendation: personal choice.
When your Facebook friends send you messages, you’ll see them appear in the Messenger Chats window. However, other people may also try to reach you through Messenger: “other people with your phone number,” “Friends of friends,” and “others. “other people on Facebook. ” If you don’t need strangers to touch you, send message requests to “Do Not Receive Requests. “If you want to see the request before allowing them to chat with you, select “Message Requests. “”
You can set your personal tastes by going to Facebook’s Settings page to see how other people locate and touch you.
Facebook makes it simple to log in to other apps with your Facebook account. If those features are too intrusive for you, this is where you can turn them off.
My recommendation: Delete connections
Instead of creating a new username and password for an app or website, you would have possibly used your Facebook account. If it’s no longer the app or website, it’s a good idea to remove the connection. However, some apps and internet sites would possibly involve valuable data about your account. Please note that when you remove the connection to your Facebook account, you will lose access to your third-party account.
My Recommendation: Choice
In Facebook’s privacy control, see a list of all the websites and apps you’ve connected to your Facebook account. To remove the connection, click the “Remove” button next to the app or site. In the pop-up window, you’ll have the option to “delete all posts, photos, and videos posted through the site or app to your timeline” and/or “Allow Facebook to notify [app name] that the connection has been removed. “This option can allow you to regain awareness of the account you created with your Facebook login.
My recommendation: personal choice.
You can turn off the ability to use Facebook to log in to apps, websites, and games.
Go to Facebook’s settings page for apps and click the “Disable” button next to “Apps, Websites, and Games. “
My Recommendation: Choice
You can turn off annoying notifications for friend game requests, game prestige updates, and app notifications.
Go to Facebook’s settings for apps and websites, then click the “Disable” button next to “Game & App Notifications. “
Meta will show you classified ads on Facebook – that’s how they make money. It’s just a matter of whether or not those classified ads will be targeted to your demographics and interests (and, perhaps, less applicable to you).
My recommendation: personal choice.
Here, you can choose to share your marital status, employer, job title, and education level with advertisers. It does not delete data from your Facebook profile; it just has an effect on the classified ads you see.
You can also go directly to the meta-settings page to learn about your personal tastes and click on “Manage Information” and then “Profile Information”. There, you can turn off any knowledge you don’t need to share.
My Recommendation: Choice
In addition to the fundamental profile data, Facebook uses other data that you have shared with Facebook to serve you ads. You can remove interest categories by going to the Meta Settings page for advertising preferences and clicking on “Manage Information” and then “Profile Information. “In the “Categories related to you” section, click “View & Manage. “If you have other demographic or behavioral categories in your ad preferences, you can click the “Remove” button next to the categories you don’t need to use to target your ads. classified ads for you.
My recommendation: personal choice.
Although you can’t see fewer classified ads overall, you can see fewer classified ads in express categories. Go to the Meta settings page for your ad themes. There, you can “See Less” of any topic listed.
My Recommendation: Choice
You can choose to protect your Facebook from the knowledge of your spouses to run personalized ads. Go to the Meta settings page for ad topics and in the “Information shared through other advertisers about you” section, you can select “Advertising information about your spouse’s activity. “” so you can decide onion.
My Recommendation: Choice
Some companies have lists of other people that they need to succeed with their classified ads. Facebook allows businesses to target your classified ads to classified ads based on those lists, or even prevent you from seeing classified ads (e. g. , the DNC may need to exclude your classified ads from other people on the RNC’s list). You can opt out of seeing classified ads using a listing, as well as not be excluded from viewing classified ads. Classified ads. Go to the Meta settings for audience-based advertising page. There, see a list of all the companies that have you on their audience list. Click on a company and find out why they included it in the advertiser’s audience. Click on the arrow next to the explanation of the reason and you can decide whether the corporate list can be used to accompany or exclude you from the display of classified ads.
My Recommendation: Choice
Facebook serves a lot of classified ads on internet sites and through non-Facebook apps. You can opt out of receiving personalized classified ads for those sites and apps by going to the Meta Settings page for ad preferences and selecting “Manage Statistics. “Click on “Ads served outside of Meta. ” There you can decide between “Allowed” or “Not Allowed”.
My Recommendation: Choice
If you’re tired of being inundated with classified ads from a courier company, you can choose to hide them. Go to the Meta settings page to learn about your personal tastes and select the “Customize Ads” tab. Click “See all” next to “Advertisers whose classified ads you’ve noticed. “There, look for a list of the advertisers you’ve noticed at most recently and you can click on the “Hide Ads” button next to the violators.
My Recommendation: Just Me
Have you ever liked or followed a company, made a comment, shared a company’s page, watched an event hosted by the company, made a recommendation, or joined a Facebook event hosted by a company?Facebook can promote your action to all your friends.
If you don’t like this kind of unintentional endorsement, you can restrict the number of other people who can see those social interactions next to the classified ads to “Only me. “
You can also go directly to the MetaSettings page for Ad Preferences and click on “Social Interactions. “In the pop-up window, you can choose “Only Me” or “Friends”.
In this section, you can replace your password, allow two-factor authentication, and get alerts when your account is not recognized. If two-factor authentication is already allowed and alerts have been set up for unrecognized logins, you’ll get the following message: “You’re all set. There is no protective action at this time. “
Strong Recommendation
Do you have a strong password for your Facebook account, a password that is unique to Facebook and is at least 16 characters long, adding uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters?If the answer is no, you deserve to seriously convert your password. .
To make sure you don’t forget your new strong password and make it less difficult to use strong passwords in the future, I recommend a password manager. We’re enthusiasts (and users) of Dashlane and 1Password.
To replace your password, you can go to Facebook’s Settings page for Password & Security.
Read more: check how it would be needed to crack your existing password
Strong Recommendation
A strong password is essential, but it’s not enough if you’re compromised in a knowledge breach or if you’re tricked into revealing it in a Facebook credential phishing attack. That’s where two-factor authentication comes in. When two-factor authentication is enabled, anyone who wants to log into their account from a new device or browser will need to provide a one-time code sent via an app, SMS, or email. I highly recommend enabling two-factor authentication.
You can also go directly to Facebook’s Password & Security Settings page and “Two-Factor Authentication” to set it up.
You also deserve to check out the list of devices and browsers that don’t require a passcode when you log in to make sure none of your old devices are listed. To check this, go to Facebook’s Settings page for Password & Security and choose “Two-Factor Authentication. “Once you’re logged in, you’ll see a box with a segment categorized as “Connections Allowed. “Click the “Recognized Devices” button to see a list of devices that don’t require a login code.
Read more: How to use your accounts with two-factor authentication
Strong Recommendation
You can choose to receive login alerts that will be sent each time you log in to your account from a device or browser that you do not use. You can choose to receive alerts via Facebook, email, or both. Keep in mind that a new internet connection browser looks like a new PC for Facebook.
You can go directly to Facebook’s Settings page for Password & Security and “Login Alerts” to allow them and their delivery method.
Strong Recommendation
In addition to receiving alerts in case of an unrecognized login, you can check 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 Facebook’s settings page for Password & Security and selecting “Where You’re Logged In. “If you see a suspicious connection, you can click on it and then choose “Sign Out. “In the worst-case scenario, you want to sign back in to a device you own, so opt out.
This covers Facebook’s many privacy settings features. If you would like to learn more about how Facebook uses your non-public knowledge and activities, please read Facebook’s latest privacy policy.
Do you still have an express question or query about your account?Ask below in the comments and we’ll do our best to help.
[Image credit: Screenshots from Facebook site Techlicious, Canva PC mockup]
In the article’s privacy settings, I see that you can access geographic locations from a list of places you’ve lived. But will this be shared with other people indexed as having lived there lately or will it come with those who are “from”?that region and/or other people who have also lived there in the past?
According to Facebook, “When you tag someone, that content (e. g. , photo, post) is likely to be shared with the tagged user and their friends. This means that if you haven’t already accompanied their friends in the audience, their friends will too. Now go check it out. For example, if you tag Jane in a photo shared with your friends, your audience expands to Friends ( ) to accompany your friends and Jane’s friends.
That way, your friends will be able to see the conversation. To do this, “you can turn off this setting for each post when you publish it. To do this, click the audience selector next to the story, choose Custom, and uncheck Friends from tagged people.
But it gets more complicated. . . Again, according to Facebook, “the audience also extends to friends ( ) when others tag your post or photo. “So even if you set it to private, it seems like your friends cancel your efforts. However, you can approve or reject the tags that your friends upload to your posts before they appear on Facebook by following these steps: https://www. facebook. com/help/247746261926036.
Is it possible to comment on photos/messages on a friend’s page, but in such a way that their friends can’t see what I posted/said?
Hi, I’m wondering if Facebook allows you to share content percentage-wise publicly, but prevents some of your friends from seeing it. Is this an option?
Thanks for your reply, I’m on a Facebook forum, but they don’t seem to respond, that’s why I turn to some other forum for help.
I once used the “View As” feature on Facebook to see what some friends can see on my profile, but I’ve found that some friends may not like and comment, but they can simply share. I need to replace this to allow all my friends to like and comment on my posts.
-Posts have even been shared as friends and/or.
I find that I don’t log in at certain times because Facebook shows how long I’ve been online. . . There are other people I don’t need to know how long, when, or how many minutes I’ve been online. . . . I don’t need to eliminate those other people. . . but I don’t need you to know. . . .
Is there NOTHING to do?
Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any way to hide your most recent activity on Facebook. I’ve researched some of the recommended answers online and none of them work. Uninstalling Facebook Messenger is not the solution because Facebook Messenger is not installed on my device. And yet, my last hour of activity is still displayed. Disabling the data that apps can use doesn’t work, because the time of the last activity is rarely already marked in my settings (so supposedly this only applies to third-party apps). Stay away from any browser add-ons promoted for this purpose as I can’t believe how they would make a difference and it’s imaginable that they would simply create their own privacy issues.
Messenger doesn’t want to be installed to use Facebook, it’s a separate app. I discuss some of the common “solutions” I’ve discovered elsewhere that offer to delete Facebook Messenger to fix this problem: it doesn’t work.
That’s a smart question. Instead of creating a new consultant every time Facebook updates its policies, we update the existing consultant and load the updated date at the bottom. So you can see that this consultant was updated on 07/22/16.
The date you see on the maximum number of articles (the “published” date) is used through the formula to sort articles on the homepage and various list pages; The articles are organized in chronological order, with the most recent first. When we update an article, we update the publication date so that the updated article appears again on the homepage and elsewhere. We’ve added the comment “as of xx/xx/xxx” to make it clear that this is an updated article and why the comments may be earlier than the update date.
By the way, we only replace the publication date when there is a major update to the article. If we only need to make minor corrections or notes, we’ll leave the publication date alone and put an update date next to the express note or replace.
You can hide public groups from your Facebook profile by going to the Groups section and tapping the Edit button in the top right corner of the organization you want to hide.
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