How To Change Your Domain_6 Privacy Settings

A person using the Facebook app on a phone in front of a laptop. — Chinnapong/Shutterstock

Facebook'southward long listing of privacy options tin seem daunting, simply at that place are but a few settings that you need to modify to better protect yourself. Here are some things you should bank check correct now.

While most of these settings can be changed via the Facebook app on iPhone and Android, the settings themselves may be presented slightly differently when accessed from the app.

Delist Your Profile from Search Engines

If yous don't want your Facebook profile potentially actualization when someone searches for your name, you should instruct Facebook to delist it from search engines. This tells the search engine not to index the folio, simply this might have a short while to accept effect.

To modify the setting, open Facebook in a browser and click on the downward-facing pointer in the top-right corner, followed past Settings & Privacy. Select "Settings," and then click on "Privacy" in the sidebar that appears to the left of the page.

Scroll down to the "How people can observe and contact you lot" section and disable "Practise you desire search engines outside of Facebook to link to your Profile" by clicking the Edit button.

Shortcut:Facebook > Settings > Privacy > Practice you lot want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your Profile?

Make Your Friends List Private

By default, your friends list is visible to everyone, including to people you are not friends with. Having a listing of your friends might help people find you, and not everyone is comfy with this. You lot probably don't want Joe Public being able to await upwardly a list of your close friends, family members, or romantic partners.

Y'all can alter the visibility of your friends list nether Facebook settings. Click on the downwards arrow in the top-right corner of Facebook, and so select Settings & Privacy > Settings. Click "Privacy" in the sidebar, and so whorl down to the "How people can find and contact you" section.

Change "Who tin can see your friends listing" to a setting that you're more comfortable with. You lot tin cull between "Public," "Friends," "Only Me," and several custom inclusive and exclusive settings. Choose "Simply Me" to keep your friends listing private.

Shortcut: Facebook > Settings > Privacy > Who can run into your friends list?

Restrict Visibility of Your Older Posts En Masse

If y'all initially fabricated your Facebook business relationship back when it was an invite-simply college network or soon later on the service opened upwards to everyone, you lot might have forgotten about some embarrassing older public posts that you fabricated.

You might not realize that some of your older posts were fabricated public when Facebook underwent one of its many overhauls. Fortunately, you don't need to get digging through years of embarrassing updates to quickly limit who tin come across your former posts.

Click on the downward-facing arrow in the top-right corner of Facebook and select Settings & Privacy > Settings, followed by "Privacy" in the sidebar on the left. Nether the "Your activeness" department, look for "Limit the audition for posts you've shared with friends of friends of Public?"

You can use the "Limit Past Posts" link to modify the visibility of these older Public posts (and those shared with Friends of Friends) so that they are only shared with your immediate friends listing.

Shortcut: Facebook > Settings > Privacy > Limit the audience for posts you've shared with friends of friends of Public?

Enable Timeline Review

By default, anyone can tag you in a mail service and it'due south added to your Facebook Timeline, right on your profile alongside the updates that you've authored yourself. This happens for both posts (like someone tagging you because yous met upward for a coffee) and photos.

If you'd rather have more control over what appears on your profile, you can choose to manually review all future tags. To practise this, head to Facebook and click on the down-facing arrow in the superlative-correct corner. Click on Settings & Privacy > Settings, and then click on "Contour and tagging" in the sidebar that appears on the left.

Under "Tagging," enable "Review posts that you're tagged in before the mail service appears on your contour?" by clicking on the Edit button. When you're tagged in the future, you volition receive a notification, and y'all can determine whether to approve or hide the post from your profile.

Y'all can likewise manually review any pending posts nether Activity Log. Head to your contour and click on the ellipsis "…" button, and so choose Action Log.

Shortcut: Facebook > Settings > Profile and tagging > Review posts that y'all're tagged in before the post appears on your contour?

Disable Facial Recognition

Facial recognition has some upsides on Facebook, simply not everyone is comfortable with it. With facial recognition enabled, Facebook might suggest you lot equally a tag when a friend uploads a photo, or make suggestions on your own photo tags.

Peradventure fifty-fifty more than useful is the power to receive a notification whenever Facebook detects your likeness existence used in a profile picture. If the account is genuinely trying to impersonate yous, you lot can then report it and hopefully get the content removed.

If you'd rather turn this setting off, you can practice so by clicking on the downward-facing pointer in the top-right corner of Facebook and clicking Settings & Privacy > Settings. Click on "Confront Recognition" in the sidebar on the left, and so utilize "Edit" to disable the "Practice you want Facebook to be able to recognize yous in photos and videos?" option.

Shortcut:Facebook > Settings > Confront recognition > Do you desire Facebook to be able to recognize yous in photos and videos?

Restrict How You lot Are Establish on Facebook

While you can't hide the proper noun y'all supply on your profile, you tin can restrict how you are found through other ways. Facebook uses any phone numbers or email addresses yous supply to assist people notice you lot, so if you'd like to remain (largely) incognito, make sure that you disable this setting.

Click on the downward-facing arrow in the elevation-right corner of your Facebook feed, and and so click on Settings & Privacy > Settings. Select "Privacy" in the sidebar on the left, and then roll downwardly to the "How people tin find and contact y'all" section.

Disable "Who tin wait you up using the email address yous provided?" and "Who can look you lot up using the phone number yous provided?" as necessary. You can manage your contact information on your Profile under the "Well-nigh" section.

Shortcut:Facebook > Settings > Privacy > Who tin look you upwardly using the email accost/phone number you lot provided?

Review Connected Apps & Websites

Facebook's Cambridge Analytica data-harvesting scandal was just possible using a continued app called "This Is Your Digital Life," which ended upward scraping information from some 87 one thousand thousand profiles. Users would log in to the app using their Facebook profile equally a social login, which is a mutual practice.

While Facebook has fabricated changes to the way that information is handled, it's still important to exist aware of which apps and websites are connected to your account. You lot should make certain that just apps that you trust and actively use have admission to your account.

Y'all can review your listing of connected apps past clicking on the downwardly-facing pointer in the pinnacle-correct corner of your Facebook feed, and so choosing Settings & Privacy > Settings. From there, click on "Apps and websites" in the sidebar on the left, then review whatsoever "Active" log-ins that you have.

If you don't recognize a connected app or website, or you lot oasis't used the service for a long time, get rid of it. You can e'er reconnect the app in the future, and y'all shouldn't lose any data, since nix is stored on Facebook anyway.

Shortcut: Facebook > Settings > Apps and websites.

Finally: Preview How Others See Your Contour

Facebook allows you lot to encounter how your Facebook profile appears to other people. This allows you to view what data you have left on display for the public to see.

To access this feature, head to your profile page and click on the ellipsis "…" icon just beneath your name. Select "View every bit" from the dropdown and have a await around your profile. If you're uncomfortable with anything left on display, striking "Exit View As," and then make changes to the desired information.

Shortcut: Facebook > Profile.

Recall that Facebook is still a wild w of sorts, and that protecting your personal information is essential if you lot want to use the service safely. Watch out for these Facebook scams.

RELATED: Beware These 7 Facebook Scams