Stay Safe Online: The Detailed Guide to Facebook Privacy Options

Facebook privacy options are very important to explore when Facebook has become an integral part of our everyday lives.
We interact with people here, share our experiences, and make new friends but if not taken care of our privacy, can create some problems.
That’s why it’s very important to know how to set boundaries for your social media profile to avoid any accidents.
Let’s have a look at all of the Facebook privacy settings that you must adjust according to your need to protect your profile:

How to Make FB Profile Picture Private?

You can secure your profile picture in seconds by choosing who can view it. Limiting the visibility protects you from any kind of identity theft or creating fake profiles.

To make your profile picture private:

• Go to your Facebook profile page by clicking on your profile picture on the top right of the news feed
• Tap on your profile picture and select “See Profile Picture”
• Click on the three dots on the left side & select “Edit Audience” or “Edit Privacy” from the menu
• Click on the “Only Me” option to make it private or you can choose the visibility you would like to have
• Click “Done” and your profile picture’s visibility has been changed.

How to Make Facebook Cover Photo Private?

Cover photos usually contain some private photos that can reveal some personal aspects of your life like family, friends, and locations.
You can protect your personal information by limiting the audience who can see it but the Facebook cover photo is set as public by default, unlike the profile picture.
However, you can change the visibility of your previous cover photo by following these steps:

• Open your profile page and go to photos
  
• Open albums and choose the cover photo album
• Select the previous cover photo you would like to make private
• Click on the three dots at the left and select “Edit Audience” or “Edit Privacy” from the menu
• Choose “Only Me” button to make it private or what option suits your need
• Click on the “Done” button

How to Change Post Privacy On Facebook?

If you use your profile for work as well as for personal use, you can customize your audience through Facebook posts privacy to create some personal boundaries.
In this way, you can share work-related posts with your colleagues and personal posts with your friends and family.

To change the Facebook posts privacy:

• Go to your profile page by clicking the profile photo at the top right corner of new feed
• Find the post you want to change the visibility of 
• Click on the three dots at the right side of the post 
• Tap on “Edit Privacy” or “Edit Audience”
  
• Choose the audience for your post
  
• Click “Done” & your changes will be saved.
• For the new posts, you’ll get the visibility option under your name
• Select the audience of your choice and click “Post”.

How to Make Your Photos Private on Facebook?

By managing Facebook Photos Privacy, you can make your profile look good to the public by showing them what they should see.
If you have a business account you can showcase your achievements on your profile by setting them to the public.
If you have a personal account you can share your ideas and life experiences with your close friends by showing your photos.

To hide photos on fb follow these steps:

• Open your Facebook profile page
  
• Go to photos & select the photo you want to make private
• Click on the privacy icon below your name
  
• Select “Edit Post Privacy” & select the audience
• Click on “Done” to save the changes.

How to Make Your Friends List Private on Facebook?

Fb Settings and Privacy gives another amazing feature for making your friends list private.
This is a crucial step to take because some of your friends may not like to show their association with you publicly.
Apart from that your friend list can be the main target to stalk you on social media and use that information against you.
So, to protect yourself from any difficult situation, you can make your friend list private by following these steps:

For Desktop:

• Open your profile page
  
• Click on the “Friends” tab under “People You May Know” section
• Tap the three dots on the right side & click on “Edit Privacy” 
• Change the visibility status to “Only Me” beside “Who can see your friends list” option
• Tap on “Done” to save the changes & your friend list is private now.

For Mobile Phones:

• Open the main menu by clicking the three horizontal lines at right 
• Go to “Settings & Privacy” and then “Settings”
• Under “Audience and Visibility” section, select “How People Find and Contact You”
• Change the visibility status to “Only Me” beside “Who can see your friends list” option
• Your friend list is private now.

How to Make Facebook Profile Completely Private to Non Friends?

To make your Facebook Profile Private, you have to lock your profile & change posts and friend list visibility.
If you own a personal account and you want to make it completely private, you’ll create a prominent boundary between your personal and professional life which is a great thing.
Making your account private will restrict nonfriends on Facebook from sending you messages, seeing your personal information, and making comments.
Public profiles can be used by companies for data mining and other purposes and by making your account private you can easily avoid that.

Follow these steps to make your profile completely private:

Lock Your Profile:

• Click on the right corner of your news feed on your desktop and select “Settings & Privacy”
• For mobile phone app click on the three horizontal lines on the right side to go to the menu & go to “Settings & Privacy”
• Tap on “Settings” & open “Privacy Center”
  
• Click “Common Privacy Settings” on the left side 
• Select “Manage Audience Settings” at the second number 
• Go to “Lock Your Profile” on the fourth number
• Enable the lock option and click “Done”

Change the Posts Visibility:

• Now go to “Posts and Stories” option on the second number
• Tap on “Who can see your future posts?” & set its privacy as “Only Friends”
• Now, go to your profile information on first number
• Change the visibility of all sections to “Friends”

Change Friend List Visibility:

For Desktop:

• Open your profile page
• Click on the “Friends” tab under “People You May Know” section
• Tap the three dots on the right side
• Click on “Edit Privacy” 
• Change the visibility status to “Only Me” beside “Who can see your friends list” option
• Tap on “Done” to save the changes & your friend list is private now.

For Mobile Phones:

• Open the main menu by clicking the three horizontal lines at right 
• Go to “Settings & Privacy” and then “Settings”
• Under “Audience and Visibility” section, select “How People Find and Contact You”
• Change the visibility status to “Only Me” beside “Who can see your friends list” option
• Your friend list is private now.

Check How People See Your Profile:

• Go to Your profile page 
  
• Click on the three dots above What’s On Your Mind”
• On a mobile phone click on three dots on the right of “Edit Profile”
• Tap “View As”
  
• You’ll get a view of how people see your profile
• If you want you can further do the changes to it.

How to Change Privacy Settings on a Facebook Group Page?

By changing the Facebook group privacy settings, you can select who can view the posts in the group.
Sometimes sensitive topics are discussed in the group where people share their problems to get a good solution.
By making the group private no one can access it without your permission and misuse the information that it contains.
You can set criteria for members to join that group and you can check each member before letting them in.

To change the Facebook Group Privacy Settings:

• Login to your Facebook account
• Click “Groups” in the menu
  
• Choose the group you want to change the settings of 
• Click on the manage group option under the cover photo & tap “Edit Group Settings”
• Scroll down at the left side & click “Group Settings”
• click on “Privacy” under the “Setup Group”
  
• Set the group visibility to “Public” or “Private” and save the changes.

How to Change Facebook Marketplace Privacy Settings?

The Facebook Marketplace doesn’t have specific privacy settings but you can manage your interaction and activities to stay secure.
Taking care of Facebook Marketplace privacy is necessary to protect yourself from any unwanted messages and scams.

There are some potential measures you should take to keep your account safe:

• Always use a separate contact number
• Be careful while sharing the location
• Limit the visibility of your profile
• Check privacy shortcuts to adjust privacy settings.

---

To delete or adjust any listing:

• Click on the listing you want to delete
• Tap on the three dots at the right corner
• Select “Edit Listing” or “Delete Listing” as per your choice.

---

To control who can send you messages:

• Open the marketplace from the menu on left hand
• Click on “Settings”
  
• Click on “Customize Notifications”
  
• Here from “Messages from sellers” or “Messages from buyers” you can turn on/off as you like

How to Control Who Can Share Posts on Your Timeline?

If you don’t want to give access to someone to use your profile for posting you can change the posting settings to “Only Me”
This will help you keep track of your postings without any interruption.
Sometimes our friends post something on our profile that we don’t want to share publicly, so the best solution to this is to control who can share posts on your timeline.

To change the setting:

• Login to your Facebook profile
• Open “Settings & Privacy”
  
• Go to “Settings”
  
• Scroll down to “Audience and Visibility” & select the option “Profile and Tagging”
• You’ll see the first option of “Who can post on your profile?”
• Change the visibility to “Only Me” 
• Your changes will be saved.

What are the Facebook Privacy Options to Review the Tags Before They Appear on Your Screen?

Facebook Privacy Setting allows one more option for you by which you can control who can tag you in their post.
By enabling this option you can first review the post or comment you are tagged in and then you can decide whether you want to allow it or not

To review the tags:

• Login to your Facebook profile
• Open “Settings & Privacy”
  
• Go to “Settings” and then “Privacy Center”
  
• Go to “Common Privacy Settings”
  
• Tap on “Manage Audience Settings”
  
• Choose the option of “Review tags before they appear on your profile”
• Choose your profile, enable the option, and click “Done”.

How to Change the Privacy Settings for Who Can View Your Story?

By deciding who can view your story, you allow only certain people to view the content you share.
If you want to limit your story to reach only a few people that you trust and want to hide from some others you can easily do that through this feature.

To change the privacy of your story follow the steps given below:

• Go to your news feed/home on Facebook
• You’ll get the “Create a Story” option at the top of the feed
• Tap on it and create your story
• Then click on the “Settings” on the left, above your name
• Adjust the story visibility as you want to keep it
• Save the changes and click “Share to Story”
• Your story will go live.

How to Restrict Others From Sharing Your Public Stories or Reels to Their Story?

By restricting people from using your content and sharing it on their reels or stories you secure your content.
If you want to control oversharing your content follow these steps:

• Log in to your Facebook account
• Click on your profile at the right side of the news feed
• Select “Settings & Privacy”
  
• On a mobile phone click on three horizontal lines at the right and scroll down to “Settings & Privacy”
• Then, Go to “Settings” & Scroll down to “Audience and Visibility”
• Select “Reels” or “Stories” which you want to change the settings of 
• Disable the option of “Allow others to share your reels or stories to their story”.

How to Stop People Send You Friend Request?

If you think that your friends section is enough for you and you don’t want to add further friends to it you can disable the option for people to send you a friend request.
This is usually done to avoid any unnecessary friend requests. By this, only the friends of your friends can send you a friend request.

So, to stop people from sending you friend requests:

• Log in to your Facebook account
• Click on your profile at the right side of the news feed
• Select “Settings & Privacy”
  
• On a mobile phone click on three horizontal lines at the right and scroll down to “Settings & Privacy”
• Then, Go to “Settings” & Scroll down to “Audience and Visibility”
• Select “How people find and contact you”
  
• You’ll get the first option of “Who can send you friend requests?”
• Change its settings to “Friends of Friends”
• And you are done.

How to Change the Facebook Privacy Settings for Who Can Send Us Message Requests?

You can change the privacy setting of Messenger if you don’t want someone to send you a message request on Facebook.
You’ll get the categories of three types of people on Facebook who you can restrict to sending you message requests.
You can either restrict people with your phone number, friends of friends, or other people on Messenger.

To block message requests:

• Open Messenger on your mobile phone
• Tap on the three horizontal lines beside the chats
• Go to the “Settings” beside your name
• Open “Privacy & Safety”
• Click on “Message Requests”
• You’ll get the three options
• Choose the category of people which you don’t want to send you message request
• Select “Don’t receive requests”
• Your changes will be saved automatically.

How to Block Apps, Websites, and Games Notifications on Facebook?

Unnecessary games, websites, or app notifications can be disturbing because you feel it unnecessary and they overlap with your important notifications.
You can use the Facebook privacy options to block these notifications by following these simple steps:

• Log in to your Facebook account
• Click on your profile at the right side of the news feed
• Select “Settings & Privacy”
  
• On a mobile phone click on three horizontal lines at the right and scroll down to “Settings & Privacy”
• Then, Go to “Settings” & Scroll down to “Your Activity”
• Select “Apps and Websites”
• You’ll find the last option of “Game and App Notifications”
• Turn it off & you’ll not receive any of these notifications from now on.

How to Block People and Business Pages on Facebook?

Blocking someone comes due to many reasons like bullying, harassment, Negative Interactions, Preventing Stalking, and stopping someone from seeing your profile.
When you block someone’s profile or business page, you get completely invisible to them. They can’t reach you or message you.
To block someone’s personal profile or business page:

• Open their profile page or business page
• You’ll see the three dots under their cover photo
• Tap on it, click block & confirm.

FAQs

Why I Can’t Edit Privacy on Facebook Post?

This can be due to three main reasons:

• The post is made by someone else (you are tagged in it), so you can’t change its privacy.
• The post is in a private group and the privacy settings of that post are controlled by the group’s privacy settings
• There is some sensitive content in your post that is against the Facebook guidelines.

How Do I Make My Photos Private on Facebook?

• Open your Facebook profile page 
• Select the photo you want to make private
• Click on the Privacy icon below your name
• Select “Edit Post Privacy” & select the audience
• Click on “Done” to save the changes.

How To See Who Shared Your Facebook Post with Privacy Settings?

There is no such option in privacy settings but you can see the shares of your post directly from it.
Check the post you want to get information on, you’ll get the “Shares” under the post which will tell you how many people have shared it by clicking on it.

How to Hide My Facebook Account Without Deleting It 2024?

You can hide your Facebook account completely by making it private through Facebook privacy options. 
Go to “Settings and Privacy” and change all the profile visibility settings to “Only Me”.
Read the blog above to get to know about each visibility option. 
You can also simply deactivate your account to hide it. 
Go to “Settings & Privacy”> “Settings”> “Account Center”> “Personal Details”> “Account Ownership & Control”> “Deactivation or Deletion”> “Choose Account”> “Deactivate Account”> “Continue”.

How to Hide Facebook Profile From Someone Without Blocking?

You can lock your profile by selecting “Lock Profile” from the menu which will appear after you click three dots under the “People you may know” section on your profile.
You can also change the visibility of every post, friend list, photo, or personal detail by setting the custom privacy for that person.
You can read the blog above to learn how to change the visibility of posts, friend list, photos, or personal details.

Conclusion:

After setting up a Facebook account, It’s important to protect your personal boundaries and keep yourself safe from being harassed or getting your information misused in this social media world.
When you know about the privacy settings in detail you can easily protect your information and control your account’s visibility.
In this blog, we have discussed the Facebook privacy options in detail and provided you with enough information to keep your account secure.
If you found this blog helpful do let us know in the comments section below and if you have any questions that were missed to discuss here you can also ask it.
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated when our new blog goes live!