Where to find Facebook privacy settings and what they control

Facebook privacy settings live in one place: the Settings & Privacy menu in the top right corner of your screen. Click the downward arrow or three horizontal lines (depending on whether you're on desktop or mobile), then select Settings & Privacy, then Settings. From there, click Privacy in the left sidebar. This is where you control who sees your posts, who can contact you, and who can find your profile.

The privacy controls Facebook offers fall into three main categories: who can see your content, who can contact you, and who can find you. Each one works independently, so you can lock down your posts while keeping your friend requests open, or vice versa. Understanding what each setting does before you change it prevents you from accidentally making something public that you meant to keep private.

Key Takeaways

  • Privacy settings are in Settings & Privacy > Settings > Privacy, and the most important one is "Who can see your posts," which defaults to Friends but can be changed to Only Me or Public.
  • Your profile visibility, friend request rules, and message request filters are separate settings that work independently of your post privacy.
  • Changes take effect when ready, but old posts keep their original privacy level unless you change them individually.
  • Facebook's default settings lean toward sharing more, so you may want to review and tighten them when you first create an account.

Controlling who sees your posts

The single most important privacy setting is "Who can see your posts?" This appears near the top of your Privacy page. By default, Facebook sets this to Friends, meaning only people you've added as friends can see what you post. You can change this to Only Me (private to you alone), Friends (the default), Friends except (everyone except specific people), or Public (anyone on the internet).

This setting applies only to new posts you make after you change it. Posts you made before the change keep their original privacy level. If you want to change the privacy of old posts all at once, scroll down on the Privacy page to "Limit the audience for posts you've shared in the past" and click the button. This changes all your old posts to Friends only, but does not change them to Only Me or Public. If you need to hide a specific old post, you have to edit that post individually.

Managing who can contact you and send friend requests

Below the post privacy setting, you'll find "Who can send you friend requests?" By default this is set to Everyone. You can change it to Friends of Friends (only people who share a mutual friend with you) or Everyone. This does not prevent people from messaging you—it only controls who can send you a formal friend request.

Message requests are handled separately. Look for "Who can message you?" on the Privacy page. The default is Friends, but you can change it to Everyone. When someone who isn't your friend messages you, the message lands in a separate folder called Message Requests rather than your main inbox. You can read it without accepting the request, and you can delete it without responding. This setting does not prevent anyone from trying to contact you—it just sorts their messages into a different folder.

Controlling profile visibility and search

Further down the Privacy page, you'll see "Who can look you up using the email address or phone number you provided?" By default this is set to Everyone. If you change it to Friends, only your friends can find you by searching your email or phone number. This does not prevent them from finding you by name or through mutual friends—it only affects search by contact information.

You can also control whether your profile appears in search results at all. Look for "Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile?" If you uncheck this box, Google and other search engines will not index your Facebook profile, though people on Facebook itself can still find you. This is useful if you want to keep your Facebook presence separate from your public online presence.

Blocking and limiting specific people

If you want to hide your content from one person without unfriending them, use the "Friends except" option when you post. Click the audience selector (usually shows "Friends") before you post, then choose Friends except and select the people you want to exclude. That post will be visible to all your friends except the ones you named.

For a more permanent solution, you can block someone entirely. Go to their profile, click the three dots in the top right, and select Block. A blocked person cannot see your profile, message you, send you a friend request, or see your posts. You can unblock them later the same way. If you want someone to stay your friend but not see your posts, use the Restrict option instead—they'll see only the posts you specifically share with them, but they won't know they're restricted.

Adjusting app and website permissions

Facebook also tracks which apps and websites can access your information. To see what has permission, go to Settings & Privacy > Settings, then click Apps and Websites in the left sidebar. You'll see three categories: Active (apps you've used recently), Expired (apps you haven't used in a while), and Removed (apps you've deleted). Click any app to see what information it can access—usually your name, email, friend list, and sometimes your location or photos.

You can remove an app's access by clicking it and selecting Remove. You can also click Edit to see exactly what data it's allowed to see and turn off specific permissions. Removing an app does not delete your account on that service—it just disconnects it from Facebook. If you log back in with Facebook, you'll be asked to grant permission again.

Understanding what happens when you change settings

Privacy changes take effect when ready for new content. If you change "Who can see your posts?" from Friends to Only Me, your next post will be private, but your previous posts stay at their original privacy level. The one exception is the "Limit the audience for posts you've shared in the past" button, which changes all old posts to Friends only in one action.

If you deactivate or delete your Facebook account, your privacy settings no longer matter—your profile and posts become invisible to everyone. Deactivation is temporary and reversible; deletion is permanent and takes up to 90 days to complete. During the deletion period, your data is still stored but not visible to other users.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I make my profile completely invisible to people I'm not friends with?

You can make your posts private (Only Me) and restrict who can message you and send friend requests, but your profile itself will still appear in Facebook's search results if someone looks for your name. To hide your profile from search engines outside Facebook, uncheck "Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile?" To hide it from Facebook's internal search, you would need to deactivate or delete your account.

If I change my post privacy to Only Me, can I still share posts with specific people?

Yes. Even if your default is Only Me, you can click the audience selector on any individual post and change it to Friends, Friends except, or Public for that post only. The default setting applies only to new posts you create without changing the audience first.

What does "Friends except" actually do?

When you post with "Friends except" selected, everyone on your friends list can see that post except the specific people you named. They won't be notified that you excluded them, and they won't see the post if they visit your profile. You have to set this for each post individually—it's not a permanent setting.

If I restrict someone, will they know?

No. A restricted person can still see your public information and posts you specifically share with them, but they won't know they're restricted. They'll just see less of your activity than your other friends do.

Do privacy settings explore to photos and videos the same way they explore to posts?

Yes. When you upload a photo or video, it inherits the privacy level you set for posts. You can change the privacy of individual photos or videos after you upload them by clicking the audience selector on that specific item. Albums have their own privacy settings separate from individual photos, so you can make an album private while sharing individual photos from it.