Manage Facebook Privacy Options

Every so often, Facebook revamps their privacy settings to make them more user-friendly. Among the most recent new features are better control of your news feed, the ability to view your profile as another user, and a simplified privacy page. Need to navigate your privacy settings? With just a few tips, the new set-up will seem completely natural. Luckily, the new privacy settings are far more intuitive than before.

Steps

Managing Status Updates

  1. Type your desired status into the newsfeed bar.
  2. Click the button on the bottom left to tag people with you. Type their names into the box that says "Who are you with?"
  3. Update your location. If you want, you can share your current location with people.
  4. Decide who can see the update. Before you click Post, click the drop down box just to the left of it. You can choose to set the status visible to the public, just your friends, or a custom set of people.
    • To make your updates available to friends of friends, click Custom, then select Friends of Friends on the drop menu.
    • To set your status visible to only a certain set of people, click "Custom." Then, choose an option from the drop down menu. To set it visible to one or two people, choose "specific people" and then type the names of the people to whom you would like to grant permission.
    • You can also choose to hide the update from one or two people by typing their name in the "hide this from" section of the custom settings.

Managing Profile Info

  1. Access the "Edit Profile" page. This can be done by clicking the "Info" tab of your profile, and then hitting edit in the right corner (see picture). It can also be accessed by clicking "Edit My Profile" under your name on the home page.
  2. Choose who can see what information. Beside each of piece information, you will see a drop down menu. You can decide which groups of people will see which information by clicking the menu and selecting the desired option.
    • This can differ for each post. For example, you can set your work place visible to the public, but only allow your friends to see where you went to college.
    • Toggle between different sections of your profile by clicking the options on the left hand side of the page.

Using the Privacy Page

  1. Click on "Account" from the upper right hand corner and choose "Privacy Settings".
  2. Choose a default privacy setting for your profile. This will be the setting on all your posts unless you specify otherwise.
  3. Decide "How you Connect." Here you can make your wall and profile completely public or completely private.
    • This offers more security than the past Facebook privacy settings allowed, as you can now further customize who can send you friend requests and messages.
  4. Decide "How Tags Work." Under this option, you can control who sees things that you are tagged in.
    • Turn on or turn off profile review. If profile review is on, you must approve tags before they will appear on your profile. Until you do so, the tag will appear as "pending." Remember that not approving the post doesn't mean that you're not tagged—-it simply means that the tag will not appear in your profile.
      • To remove your tag from a post, simply click the "remove tag" button under the post.
    • Choose who can see posts that you're tagged in. Choose from the options in the drop down menu, or create your own option by clicking "Custom."
    • Decide whether or not to enable tag suggestions. When your friend uploads a photo that looks like you and this feature is enabled, Facebook will suggest that they tag you. The tag will only appear if your friend approves it.
    • Enable or disable tagging from the "places" app. Leaving this option enabled will allow your friends to tag you with them when they check in to places. You will always be notified when friends check you in with them, and you have the ability to remove the check-in from your profile.
    • Turn on Tag Review. Turning on tag review will allow you to review any tags your friends add to your profile before the tags appear.
  5. Click the "Edit settings" button to the right of the "Timeline and Tagging" option. Here you can edit who can post on your timeline, who can see what others post on your timeline and who can see posts you've been tagged in. You'll also get a few options to turn on options for "Review posts friends tag you in before they appear on your timeline" and that of "Review tags friends add to your own posts on Facebook" along with "who's seeing tag suggestions when photos that look like you are uploaded" (rarely looked at).
    • Use the same drop-down process to find out how much information you'd like to allow Facebook users and your friends to access.
  6. Control your Apps and Website privacy. Here, you can see the apps/games/websites that you've been using.
    • Click the "Edit Settings" tab under "Apps you use" to see a full list of your apps. You also have the option here to remove any "spammy" apps or to simply turn off all platform apps.
    • Decide what info your friends can "bring with them" when they use apps. Click "Edit Settings" under "How people bring your info into the apps they use." Decide which info you feel comfortable having shared. For maximum protection, uncheck everything.
    • Decide which "instant personalization" sites have access to your public information. Facebook has partnered with a few sites to completely personalize your experience on the site. The first time you visit a site with instant personalization, you will receive a notification at the top of the page. Using public information, the info on the site will be tailored to you. For example, if you visit Rotten Tomatoes, you will be presented with movie recommendations based on movies you have liked on Facebook and you'll see your friends' reviews and ratings of certain movies. Uncheck the box at the bottom of the page to disable all instant personalization. You can turn off instant personalization for specific sites by visiting the site and clicking the "Turn Off" option.
    • Choose whether or not to enable public search. If you have set "Search for me on Facebook" to "Everyone" (under Basic Directory Information), you have the option of allowing the public to see a preview of your Facebook profile. Check or uncheck the box at the bottom as desired.
  7. Limit the audience for past posts. Clicking this option will allow you to easily standardize who sees all of your past posts. By clicking "Limit Old Posts." you automatically set your past posts to your default privacy setting.
    • Bear in mind that if you change your mind later, you'll have to individually go back and change each post's privacy settings. If you're sure that this is what you want to do, hit "Confirm".
  8. Manage your blocked list settings. Here, you can block anyone from your profile (this means that it will appear to them as if you've deleted your profile).
    • To block someone, simply type a name or email address into the boxes provided.
    • To unblock someone, hit "Unblock" by their name on the list provided.
    • You can also block all invites to events and apps from specific friends without completely blocking the friend. To do so, type their name into the provided box.

Viewing Your Profile as Someone Else

  1. View your profile as someone else. If you're unsure about what your profile looks like to a certain one of your friends, you can check it out by clicking "View As..." on the right hand side of your profile.
  2. Type the name of the person you want to view your profile as. Hit enter. You will then be able to view your profile exactly as that person views it. Make notes of things you want to change.
  3. Click "Back to Profile" when you're done. This will take you back to your regular view of your profile. Alternatively, you can type in another name to see how someone else sees your profile.

Facebook Tips and Tricks

Doc:Facebook Tips and Tricks


Tips

While you can always make parts or all of your profile private again, once information has been released to the Internet (e.g. search engines), there's not much you can do to take it back.[1]

  • You also have the option of controlling the privacy of your updates by the individual update, in addition to by default. Just click on the little lock next to the "Share" button when you post an update. This is good for when, say, you have it so that your boss can't see your updates, but there's one or a few that are okay for him to see.

  • Remember, even though you can control what people see on your profile, you can't always control what people see on others' profiles. In other words, whatever you post on someone else's page is viewable based on their privacy settings, not yours. Don't leave dirty comments on other people's walls or pictures unless you're 100% sure they're on top of their privacy settings, or else those comments might come back to haunt you on search engines.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/09/facebook-privacy/
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