How To Make Your Facebook Account Private

With more than 2.6 billion active users every month, Facebook remains the most popular social media platform worldwide. Given these numbers, you want to make sure you’re using the channel safely, and that starts with adjusting your Facebook privacy settings. In the following article, we will present why someone would want to make their Facebook account private, the different privacy levels for your Facebook account, and how to make your Facebook account private. Read on to continue enjoying using the platform without compromising your personal and other crucial information.

Why Would Someone Make Their Facebook Account Private?

While Facebook is meant to help you connect with people around the world, not everyone wants to make their Facebook account public and visible to anybody. Some may prefer to maintain their connection with just family or friends. Others will use it for study or work purposes and simply stay involved with the necessary Facebook groups.

Many people also don’t want to disclose information about their personal lives to just anyone. Other Facebook users want to ensure that their posts and sensitive information are safe from scammers and hackers. While reasons vary, the common denominator is the desire to protect one’s self while being able to control what they want to share on their respective Facebook accounts.

Different Privacy Levels for Your Facebook Account

To help protect your privacy while using the platform, Facebook offers various privacy levels for your account — status updates, photos, and even your friends’ list. Below are your options, which you can always adjust:

• Public: This option allows anyone, including those off of Facebook, to see what you share on your profile.
• Friends: This gives access only to people you are friends with on Facebook.
• Friends Except: All friends can see your updates except for certain users that you wish to exclude.
• Specific Friends: Only the friends you’ve chosen individually or from your friend lists can see what you’re sharing on Facebook.
• Only Me: As the name suggests, only you can see your status updates and other information.

How To Make Your Facebook Account Private

Having established the different privacy levels available on the platform, we can now guide you on how to make your Facebook account private. Below are the simple steps to take both on desktop and your mobile device:

Desktop

1. Visit facebook.com, and enter your login details.
2. Click on the arrow found in the upper right corner of the page.
3. Choose Settings.
4. Select the Privacy option found on the left part of the screen.
5. Start changing your privacy settings for different scenarios. For example, select the users who can see your posts or your friends’ list.
6. Click on the blue Edit option so you can apply the changes.

Mobile

1. Open the Facebook app icon on your mobile device, and enter your login details if you’re not automatically logged in.
2. Select the three horizontal lines found on the upper right corner of the screen to see several options.
3. Choose Settings and Privacy located at the bottom of the screen. Then, select Privacy Shortcuts to start customizing your privacy settings.
4. Click on the See More Privacy Settings option at the bottom to find more choices.
5. Choose from the various options under Your Activity depending on your preferences and needs: who can see your future posts, limit who can see past posts, who can see your stories, and who can see the people, pages, and lists you follow, and who can see your highlights. Your options include public, friends, friends except, specific friends, or only me for a totally private setting.
6. Adjust the settings under How People Find and Contact You. For instance, choose who can see your friend requests: everyone or friends of friends.
7. Tap on the Who can see your friends lists option if you want to protect other people’s privacy. You can choose Only Me, so you’re the only one who has access to your complete friends list, and others can only see your mutual friends.
8. To make it harder for people to find you, adjust who can look you up using the email address and phone number you provided. You can also turn off the setting for Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile?

Making Your Profile Picture Private

You can make your Facebook profile picture private by following the steps below:

1. Log in to your account.
2. On the top right corner of the screen, tap on your profile picture.
3. Select the Photos option under your profile picture.
4. Choose Albums and then Profile Pictures.
5. Click on your profile photo.
6. Click on the three dots found on the upper right portion of the photo.
7. Select the Edit Audience option.
8. Limit the people you want to have access to your photo.

Protect Your Facebook Account With Social Catfish

Facebook allows you to stay connected with family and friends and meet new people. However, it’s best to know how to make your Facebook account private, so you can guard yourself against potential scammers and impersonators. If you suspect someone is trying to compromise your Facebook account, find out their identity by performing a reverse search on Social Catfish.