How to Change Privacy Settings on Facebook
Facebook gives you a surprisingly detailed set of controls over who sees your content, how people find you, and what data gets shared. The challenge isn't that the options don't exist — it's knowing where they are, what they actually do, and which ones matter most for your situation.
What Facebook Privacy Settings Actually Control
Facebook's privacy tools fall into a few distinct categories. Understanding what each one governs helps you avoid the common mistake of changing one setting and assuming everything else is locked down.
Audience controls determine who can see individual posts, your profile information, your friends list, and past content. These are the settings most people think of first.
Discoverability settings control whether people can find your account by searching your email address or phone number, and whether search engines like Google can index your profile.
Data and activity settings govern things like off-Facebook activity tracking, ad preferences, and what information Facebook collects from your behavior on other websites and apps.
App and third-party permissions manage what external apps and services can access through your Facebook login.
Each category sits in a different part of the settings menu — which is why many users change their post audience but never realize their phone number is still searchable by anyone.
How to Access Privacy Settings
On desktop: Click your profile picture in the top-right corner → select Settings & Privacy → then Settings → navigate to Privacy in the left-hand menu.
On mobile (iOS or Android): Tap the three horizontal lines (hamburger menu) → scroll down to Settings & Privacy → tap Settings → then Privacy.
Facebook periodically redesigns its interface, so menu labels may shift slightly depending on when you're reading this — but the general pathway remains consistent.
Changing Who Can See Your Posts 🔒
When composing a new post, the audience selector (the dropdown near your name that says "Friends," "Public," or similar) controls visibility for that specific post. Your options typically include:
- Public — anyone on or off Facebook
- Friends — only people you're connected with
- Friends except… — friends minus specific people you select
- Specific friends — only a handpicked list
- Only me — completely private
For future posts, you can set a default audience in Settings → Privacy → Your Activity. This saves you from manually adjusting every time.
For past posts, Facebook offers a bulk option: Settings → Privacy → Your Activity → Limit Past Posts. This changes all previously public or friends-of-friends posts to Friends only in one action. It's a one-way change — you can't bulk-reverse it — so it's worth understanding before using.
Controlling How People Find You
Under Settings → Privacy → How People Find and Contact You, you can adjust:
- Whether people can look you up using your email address
- Whether people can look you up using your phone number
- Whether search engines outside of Facebook can link to your profile
These settings are separate from post visibility. A profile can have friends-only posts but still be fully discoverable via Google if this isn't addressed.
Managing App Permissions and Third-Party Access
If you've ever used Facebook to log into another app or website, that connection may still be active. Settings → Security and Login → Apps and Websites lists everything currently connected to your account.
Each entry shows what permissions that app has — including whether it can see your friends list, email, or post on your behalf. Removing apps you no longer use is one of the more impactful privacy actions you can take, since these connections often persist silently for years.
Off-Facebook Activity and Ad Preferences 🎯
Facebook receives data about your activity on external websites and apps through tools like the Meta Pixel — a tracking script embedded on many sites. Settings → Your Facebook Information → Off-Facebook Activity lets you view this data and disconnect it from your account.
This doesn't stop data collection entirely, but it severs the link between that external activity and your Facebook profile for ad targeting purposes.
Ad preferences, found under Settings → Ads, let you adjust what categories Facebook uses to target you, and opt out of certain types of personalization.
Profile Information Visibility
Individual fields on your profile — workplace, education, hometown, relationship status, phone number — each have their own audience selector. You can set each one independently. Someone might want their workplace visible to friends but their phone number visible only to themselves.
To review these: visit your profile → click Edit Profile → check the audience selector next to each field.
The Variables That Change What's Right for You
The "correct" combination of privacy settings isn't universal. Several factors meaningfully change what makes sense:
| Factor | How It Affects Privacy Choices |
|---|---|
| How you use Facebook | Personal vs. professional use changes post audience needs |
| Whether you run a Page or Group | Public visibility may be intentional for reach |
| Who's in your friends list | Close contacts only vs. large mixed network |
| What apps are connected | More connected apps = more surface area to review |
| Your comfort with ad targeting | Affects how aggressively to restrict off-Facebook data |
| Whether you use Facebook Login elsewhere | Determines how important app permissions cleanup is |
Someone who uses Facebook exclusively to stay in touch with family has very different privacy needs than someone who uses it for community organizing, business networking, or journalism. The same setting — like keeping a profile publicly searchable — can be a deliberate strategy for one person and an overlooked risk for another.
The technical steps are the same for everyone. What those steps should add up to depends entirely on how your account fits into the rest of your digital life.