How to Make Your Facebook Profile Completely Private: A Step-by-Step Guide

In today’s digital age, online privacy is more crucial than ever. Facebook, with its vast network of users and the sheer amount of personal information it holds, often raises concerns about who can see your posts, photos, and other details. If you’re looking to tighten your Facebook privacy settings and control who has access to your profile, you’ve come to the right place. This comprehensive guide will walk you through each step, ensuring your Facebook experience is as private as you want it to be.

Why Prioritize Facebook Privacy?

Before we dive into the how-to, let’s understand why making your Facebook private is so important:

• Protecting Personal Information: Facebook stores a significant amount of your personal data, including your birthday, location, family members, interests, and more. Limiting who can access this information reduces the risk of identity theft and unwanted targeting.
• Avoiding Unwanted Attention: By controlling your privacy settings, you can avoid contact from individuals you don’t know or prefer to not interact with. This is especially important for safety and security.
• Maintaining Control Over Your Online Presence: You should have the power to decide who sees what you share. Privacy settings allow you to curate your online image and prevent posts from being viewed by unintended audiences, such as potential employers, family members, or distant acquaintances.
• Preventing Data Harvesting: While Facebook has faced scrutiny regarding data privacy, implementing robust settings minimizes the amount of your information accessible to third-party apps and services.

Step-by-Step Guide to Making Your Facebook Private

Facebook’s privacy settings are organized into several sections. We’ll go through each one methodically, ensuring you have full control over your profile’s visibility.

1. Accessing Privacy Settings

First, you need to navigate to the privacy settings menu. Here’s how:

1. On a Desktop Computer:
   • Log into your Facebook account.
   • Click the downward-facing arrow in the top right corner of the screen.
   • Select “Settings & Privacy” from the dropdown menu.
   • Click on “Settings”.
   • In the left sidebar, click on “Privacy”.
2. On the Facebook Mobile App:
   • Open the Facebook app and log into your account.
   • Tap the three horizontal lines (menu icon) in the top right corner (on Android) or bottom right corner (on iOS).
   • Scroll down and tap “Settings & Privacy”.
   • Tap “Settings”.
   • Scroll down to the “Audience and Visibility” section and tap on “Privacy Checkup” or “Privacy Shortcuts”. You’ll find some of the same options here as in the desktop settings, but you can also access the main privacy settings by tapping “Privacy Settings” in the same “Audience and Visibility” section.

Once you’re in the Privacy Settings area, you will see several options to adjust.

2. Controlling Who Can See Your Future Posts

This is one of the most critical settings to manage. You can control the default audience for all your future posts.

1. Locate the “Your Activity” section: On the desktop version, it should be at the very top of the Privacy Settings page. On mobile, it’s slightly further down, but should be labeled similarly.
2. Look for “Who can see your future posts?”: Next to it, you’ll see a dropdown menu (or a text indicating the current setting).
3. Click the Dropdown Menu: Choose from the following options:
   • Public: Anyone on or off Facebook can see your posts.
   • Friends: Only your Facebook friends can see your posts.
   • Friends except…: Choose specific friends you don’t want to see your posts.
   • Specific friends: Select certain friends you want to share with.
   • Only me: Only you can see your posts.
   • Custom: Create a custom list of people who can or cannot see your posts.
4. Choose Friends or “Only me”: To maximize privacy, selecting “Friends” is a good start or “Only me” if you want to be the only one seeing your posts..
5. Consider “Only me” or a smaller custom list for sensitive posts: For potentially controversial content, using “Only me” or a small custom list can prevent it from being seen by the wrong eyes. Remember, you can change the audience for each individual post before publishing it.

3. Limiting Visibility of Past Posts

What about posts you’ve already shared? Facebook allows you to limit the audience of older posts too.

1. Locate “Limit the audience for posts you’ve shared with Friends of Friends or Public?” : You’ll find this option under the “Your Activity” section, beneath the “Who can see your future posts?” setting.
2. Click on “Limit past posts”: On the next screen, Facebook will present the following: “When you limit the audience for posts you’ve shared with Friends of Friends or Public, posts you shared in the past will become visible to Friends only.”
3. Click “Limit Past Posts”: A pop-up window will appear to confirm your action. Click the button again to confirm.
4. Understand the Impact: This will change all past public posts to “Friends Only”. Please note, that this change is not reversible in a single step. You will need to manually revert each post’s audience individually if you wish to do so later on.

4. Controlling Who Can Send You Friend Requests

Do you want to limit who can add you as a friend? You can manage this as well.

1. Locate the “How People Can Find and Contact You” section: This section is generally located below “Your Activity” section in Privacy Settings.
2. Find “Who can send you friend requests?”: It will have a dropdown menu next to it.
3. Click the Dropdown Menu: Choose from the following options:
   • Everyone: Anyone with a Facebook account can send you a friend request.
   • Friends of Friends: Only people who have mutual friends with you can send you a friend request.
4. Select “Friends of Friends”: This prevents random users from adding you, which enhances privacy.

5. Controlling Who Can See Your Friends List

Your friends list can provide information about your connections. You might want to make it less visible.

1. Locate the “How People Can Find and Contact You” section: You will find this section in the Privacy Settings page, it’s usually below the “Your Activity” section.
2. Find “Who can see your friends list?”: Click on the dropdown menu next to it.
3. Click the Dropdown Menu: Choose from the following options:
   • Public: Anyone can see your friends list.
   • Friends: Only your friends can see your friends list.
   • Only Me: Only you can see your friends list.
   • Custom: Customize a list of people who can or cannot see your friends list.
4. Select “Friends” or “Only me”: If you want to limit visibility, opt for “Friends” or “Only me”. “Only me” setting is the most private.

6. Controlling Who Can Look You Up Using Your Email Address or Phone Number

Facebook allows people to find you using your email address or phone number. You can control this.

1. Locate the “How People Can Find and Contact You” section: It’s in the Privacy Settings, below “Your Activity” section.
2. Find “Who can look you up using the email address you provided?”: You’ll see a dropdown menu next to it.
3. Click the Dropdown Menu: Choose from the following options:
   • Everyone: Anyone with your email address can find you.
   • Friends of Friends: Only your friends’ friends can find you using your email address.
   • Friends: Only your friends can find you using your email address.
4. Choose “Friends” or “Friends of Friends”: It’s advisable to set this to “Friends” or “Friends of Friends” to limit who can find you this way.
5. Locate “Who can look you up using the phone number you provided?”: You’ll see a dropdown menu next to it.
6. Click the Dropdown Menu: Choose from the following options:
   • Everyone: Anyone with your phone number can find you.
   • Friends of Friends: Only your friends’ friends can find you using your phone number.
   • Friends: Only your friends can find you using your phone number.
7. Choose “Friends” or “Friends of Friends”: It’s advisable to set this to “Friends” or “Friends of Friends” to limit who can find you this way.

7. Controlling Search Engine Links to Your Profile

You can prevent search engines like Google from linking to your Facebook profile.

1. Locate the “How People Can Find and Contact You” section: It’s in the Privacy Settings.
2. Find “Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile?”: This option will have a checkbox next to it.
3. Uncheck the Box: To prevent search engines from indexing your profile, make sure this box is unchecked. If the box is checked, click on it to uncheck it.
4. Confirm Your Choice: When the box is unchecked a window will pop-up asking you to confirm the action. Click “Turn Off” on the window.

8. Reviewing Your Activity Log

Your Activity Log is a record of everything you’ve done on Facebook. You can review and control it.

1. On a Desktop Computer:
   • Go to your profile page.
   • Click “Activity Log” on your profile picture, near the center of the page.
2. On the Facebook Mobile App:
   • Go to your profile page.
   • Tap the three dots (more options) beneath your cover photo.
   • Tap “Activity Log”.
3. Review your activity: Look through your past activities, like posts, comments, likes, etc.
4. Adjust visibility: You can change the audience of individual posts from your Activity Log if you need to further fine-tune your privacy.

9. Checking and Adjusting Tagging Settings

You can control who can tag you in posts and who can see posts you’re tagged in.

1. Navigate to “Profile and Tagging” Settings: Go back to “Settings & Privacy”, then “Settings”. Look for “Profile and Tagging” in the left sidebar (on desktop) or in the “Audience and Visibility” section of the settings menu on mobile.
2. Control “Who can post on your profile?”: You can choose between “Friends” and “Only me”.
3. Control “Who can see what others post on your profile?”: Select options to adjust the audience who sees content posted on your profile by others.
4. Adjust “Tag Review”: Turn on “Review posts you’re tagged in before the post appears on your profile?” This allows you to approve tags before they become visible on your profile.
5. Adjust “Review tags people add to your posts before the tags appear on Facebook?”: This will allow you to approve tags added to your posts, ensuring you have control over the tags linked to your content.

10. Managing Your Apps and Websites

Facebook often allows apps and websites to access your information. You can manage these settings to protect your data.

1. Go to “Settings & Privacy”, then “Settings”.
2. Find “Apps and Websites”: Click on it in the left sidebar on the desktop, or scroll through your options to find it on your mobile device.
3. Review Active Apps and Websites: Click on “Active” to view all apps and websites that have access to your Facebook account.
4. Remove Unwanted Apps or Websites: Click the checkbox next to apps you want to remove and click “Remove”.
5. Adjust Permissions: For remaining apps, click the “View and edit” button (or pencil icon) next to each app to manage the specific data permissions it has.
6. Control Apps and Website access with the “Apps, Websites and Games” setting: you can turn this off entirely to prevent third-party apps and sites from accessing your Facebook information. This will also disable app integrations with your Facebook account including games.

11. Location Settings

Facebook tracks location if you have that feature turned on in your app or device. Manage this for increased privacy.

1. Go to “Settings & Privacy”, then “Settings”.
2. Find “Location”: This can be located in the left side bar of the settings page (desktop) or in the “Permissions” section of the settings page on your mobile device.
3. Adjust Location History: You can turn your location history off. Note this will stop Facebook from tracking your location history, but will not prevent Facebook from knowing where you are when you are using the app.
4. Manage Location Services for the App: In your device’s settings, manage location permissions for the Facebook app. You can allow location access only while using the app, or deny access entirely for even greater privacy.

12. Face Recognition Settings

Facebook uses face recognition technology. If you are not comfortable with this, you can manage it here.

1. Go to “Settings & Privacy”, then “Settings”.
2. Find “Face Recognition”: This option should be available in the left sidebar of the settings page on your desktop, or in the “Permissions” section on mobile.
3. Choose “No”: You’ll see an option “Do you want Facebook to be able to recognize you in photos and videos?”. Select “No” to prevent Facebook from using facial recognition on your photos and videos.

13. Staying Vigilant

Privacy settings are not a “set it and forget it” deal. Facebook frequently updates its platform and privacy options, so it is essential to review them occasionally. Additionally:

• Review your settings periodically: Make a habit of checking your privacy settings every few months to ensure you’re still comfortable with them.
• Read Facebook’s privacy policy and updates: Stay informed about any changes Facebook makes to its privacy policy and settings.
• Be mindful of what you share: Even with strict privacy settings, be aware that what you post could still reach beyond your intended audience through sharing or tagging.

Conclusion

Making your Facebook profile private is a proactive step to safeguarding your personal information and controlling your online experience. By carefully adjusting the settings outlined in this guide, you can create a more private and secure environment on Facebook. Remember that privacy is a personal journey, and you should customize these settings to align with your comfort level. Stay vigilant and regularly review your privacy settings for the most secure experience possible. Taking these measures will put you back in the driver’s seat of what people see about you online, giving you peace of mind in this interconnected world.