How To Make Facebook Private: 3 Quick Tips
After Mark Zuckerberg went on trial in 2018, he admitted to one thing on the stand: your personal information is not private.
Since then, the social network has developed more tools to make your Facebook profile private.
However, not many know about these key features, and the default sharing option on the platform is set to public.
If you are trying to have more online privacy, you’ve arrived at the right place.
Here are 3 quick tips on how to make Facebook Private:
- How to make your friends list private on Facebook from phone and computer.
- How to make photos private on Facebook.
- How to make your profile private.
Managing Facebook Privacy Settings
Contrary to popular belief, you can make Facebook as public or as private as you would want to.
The platform provides you with the tools you need to set up each privacy setting on your profile.
Of course, perhaps we can’t stop Facebook from using our data in different ways, but that’s another story.
If you wish to have more control over the people who can see you and your content, then it makes sense to modify some crucial aspects of the platform.
1. How to Make Your Friends List Private on Facebook
First things first - you can start by making it so no one sees who your Facebook friends are. This method works both for mobile devices and computers.
As your friends list may reveal key information about your family and loved ones.
Start by:
- Step 1: In the top right corner, click on the down pointing arrow icon.
- Step 2: On the dropdown menu, click on privacy settings, then select “Settings;”
- Step 3: On the left sidebar, click on Settings Privacy.
- Step 4: On “How People Find And Contact You”, go to who can see your friend list.
- Step 5: Click on edit.
- Step 6: Choose an option on the friends’ screen!
You’ll need to choose between:
- Just your friends
- Specific friends
- “Only me”, only you in this case.
After you click on any of the options like “Only me”, the changes will be saved.
Your profile will remain private as you want it to.
You can always go to settings at the upper right corner of the screen to edit profile settings again.
Likewise, you can also edit the settings from the Friends tab under your cover photo.
Remember that it’s up to you whether you want People You May Know on Facebook to find you or not.
Now that you’ve chosen who can see your friends list, it’s time to limit who sees your photos.
Remember that all these instructions work for the Facebook mobile app, the only difference is that you’ll find the drop-down menu in the bottom left corner.
2. How to Make Photos Private on Facebook
The sharing default setting for photos is set to public.
Meaning that anyone who has a Facebook link to your profile will see all your photos.
Changing is quite easy. You can make albums private by managing the edit button on each Facebook Album.
From the Facebook privacy settings, do the following:
- Step 1: Go to your Facebook profile page by clicking on your profile picture.
- Step 2: Select the photos tab.
- Step 3: Click on the photo you want to change.
- Step 4: Click the three horizontal dots menu.
- Step 5: Click on “Edit Post Audience”
Then just simply select one of the options:
- Just friends from the people in the photo.
- Only your friends.
- Only friends that you choose.
- “Only me”.
Now, your photos and albums will only be seen by those you have just selected.
Next, is to limit who sees what’s on your profile.
3. How To Make Your Profile Private
Having an entirely private profile means that all aspects related to your account will be totally private to others.
To make your Facebook private, you’ll need to change what other Facebook users are allowed to see from your Facebook page.
Just:
- Step 1: Click on your profile picture to go to your Facebook account profile page.
- Step 2: Click on edit details (pencil icon), and a new menu or Facebook window will popup.
- Step 3: Toggle on and off you want to share on your Facebook account.
This process also works for the Facebook app.
Other Privacy Settings on Facebook To Consider
Here are a few important settings that you should take into account.
Before doing any of these steps, know that you can access them all from the Facebook settings menu.
Just:
- Step 1: On the right top corner, click on the down pointing arrow.
- Step 2: On the three line menu, click on settings to edit privacy.
- Step 3: Click on the privacy tab.
From the settings screen you can change the default privacy settings.
Again, we will teach you how to do the most important ones below.
Changing these settings will change the targeted ads the suggested friends you receive from the app.
Your Activity Tab: Limit Who Sees Old Posts and Future Posts
Here you can make all your posts private.
Individual posts on Facebook can be seen by anyone with a link.
To limit future posts, just go into the “Your Activity menu”.
There, you’ll be able to limit who can see your future posts and previous posts.
You can also go over all past posts individually, but it’s a waste of time to review posts one by one.
Just select limit past posts to make the process quicker.
“How To Find You” Tab: Don’t Appear in Other Search Engines Outside of Facebook
If you don’t want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile page, you can edit it here.
In this tab you’ll also limit who can send you friend requests, and who can find you with your phone number or email.
If nothing has changed, Facebook might not be working .
This is a trick that some Facebook users employ every time.
That’s all you need to know for now! Following the previously mentioned steps should be more than enough to get rid of Facebook privacy concerns.
For more Facebook-related tips, check all the articles we have for you on GrowFollowing.
How To Make Facebook Private FAQ
How Do I Make My Facebook Completely Private To Non-Friends?
To make your Facebook account private simply go to Privacy settings.
There you can limit past posts visibility, who can see your friends list, and even delete your own posts.
Facebook tracks all these decisions, so you may see some slight changes on your account.
How Do I Hide My “About Info”?
On the Facebook screen of your profile, click on edit details. That’s all you need to have a private Facebook.
Karen is a senior technical writer and copywriter here at GrowFollowing. Her area of expertize are social media apps and new media.