Connecting people at the click of a button, social media has made the world a smaller place. Enabling people to share life experiences with their loved ones, social media has had a transformative effect on society, and Facebook has had a big role in this transformation.
With an active user base of 2.7 billion users, Facebook has connected millions of people and rekindled innumerable friendships. That said, the perks of social media come with its own sets of quirks and with scandals like Cambridge Analytica, many people are sceptical about social media and how it can change people’s opinions.
Although a lot is going on social media, policies like the GDPR are giving people the power to control their data and see how organisations like Facebook use their data.
In addition to this, Facebook has added features to its ecosystem, which help users control how others see the data they post on the platform. All these features have helped people protect their data and share it only with the people they want seeing their posts.
So if you are looking to share your stories only with the people close to you and not the 2.7 billion people on Facebook we have compiled a list of features you can enable to enhance your privacy and make your account private.
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Restrict the people who can see what you post on Facebook
The best thing you can do to make your account private is to put a filter on the posts you share on Facebook. To restrict your posts only to your friends you can follow the steps given below
Step 1: Click on the inverted triangle on the top right corner and click on Settings & privacy.
Step 2: Click on Settings under Settings and privacy.
Step 3: Click on Privacy in the new window.
Step 4: Under Your activity click on Edit in front of Who can see your future posts?
Step 5: Select Friends from the drop down menu.
The steps mentioned above are only used to limit the audience of your future posts. To restrict the audience of your previous posts you have to change a few other settings as well
Step 6: Under Your activity click on Limit Past Posts.
Step 7: Click on Limit Past Posts in the new dialog box that opens up.
Step 8: Click on Limit Past Posts in the new dialog box that opens up.
Step 9: Click on Close
Once you have performed the settings for limiting past posts, all your posts will be limited only to your friends and to change the audience for a post you will manually change the settings for each post
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Restrict the people who can see your friend list
By default Facebook makes your friend list public, due to this anyone can see who your friends are on the network. Although this might not sound like a breach of privacy, a highly motivated person can get to you through your friend list. So, if you want to limit the people who can see your friend list follow the steps given below
Step 1: Click on the inverted triangle on the top right corner and click on Settings & privacy.
Step 2: Click on Settings under Settings and privacy.
Step 3: Click on Privacy in the new window.
Step 4: Under How people can find and contact you click on Edit in front of Who can see your friends list?
Step 5: Select Friends from the drop down menu.
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Restrict the personal information on your timeline
Your timeline is the one place where anyone can access all the personal information you have on Facebook. From your contact number to your relationship status your timeline has all the information any stranger might be looking to get their hands on.
Therefore, it’s quintessential for any user to restrict the personal information on their timeline. To protect your personal information from people you can follow the steps given below
Step 1: Open your timeline by clicking on your profile name on the top-right corner.
Step 2: Click on Edit Details.
Step 3: Toggle all the information you don’t want to be public on your timeline.
Step 4: Click on Save.
Step 5: Click on Update your information to manage your personal information on Facebook and to restrict the audience for the same.
Step 6: Click on Contact and basic information
Step 7: Click on the icon next to the edit icon in front of your contact number and email to select your audience for your contact information. It is a good idea to select Only me in the list as your contact information can be used to carry out phishing attacks.
By following the steps mentioned above you can manage the audience for all the personal information on your timeline making your Facebook account more secure.
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Make your profile invisible on search engines
By default Facebook indexes your profile on search engines. due to this people can get to your Facebook profile by looking you up on any search engine. If you don’t want to indexed by search engines follow these steps
Step 1: Click on the inverted triangle on the top right corner and click on Settings & privacy.
Step 2: Click on Settings under Settings and privacy.
Step 3: Click on Privacy in the new window.
Step 4: Under How people can find and contact you click on Edit in front of Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile?
Step 5: Click on the checkbox in the dialog box that opens up and click on turn off.
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Take a privacy checkup for all your data on Facebook
The privacy checkup is a great feature which enables users to get on top of all the data Facebook has on them and how they can manage it. To take privacy checkup follow these steps
Step 1: Click on the inverted triangle on the top right corner and click on Settings & privacy.
Step 2: Click on Privacy Checkup under Settings and privacy.
Step 3: Select the privacy settings you want to go through.
Once you have selected a section, Facebook will show you most of the settings pertaining to that topic enabling you to manage your privacy settings at one place.
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