Troubleshoot Privacy Issues

Learn more about how to adjust your privacy settings to control who you share with.

Timeline Confusion

Your profile picture is public. When you add or change your profile picture, it appears in a few different places on Facebook:

  • A story will be posted on your Timeline and may show up in your friends' News Feeds.
  • The photo will appear in your Profile Pictures album.
  • A thumbnail version of the photo will appear next to your name in different places throughout Facebook. This helps friends identify your posts and comments on Facebook.
Last edited about 3 months ago
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You can control who can see your contact info right from your profile:
  1. Go to your profile and click the Update Info button
  2. Find the Contact Info section and click Edit
  3. Use the audience selector to the right of each piece of contact info to adjust who you share it with
Learn about additional settings for your email address.
Last edited over a year ago
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Confusion with Apps, Websites & Other Third Parties

Your public search setting controls whether people who enter your name on a public search engine may get a link to your profile as a result. However, this information may still be saved in a search engine’s cache or search memory. The link may appear until the search engine updates and deletes it, but the link will not be valid.

Facebook does not have control over content that has already been indexed and cached in search engines. To request the immediate removal of this search listing, you will have to contact the specific search engine’s support team.

Please contact the appropriate support team using one of the links below:

Last edited over a year ago
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Other Confusion

By default, anyone on Facebook can add you as a friend. If you’d like to change who can send you friend requests:

  1. Click in the top right of any Facebook page and select Settings
  2. Click Privacy in the left column
  3. Click Edit next to Who can send you friend requests?
  4. Select an audience from the dropdown menu
Last edited about a month ago
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When you import your contacts from other services (ex: your email account) to Facebook, you have the option to send your contacts an invitation to join Facebook. If people received an invitation from you that you didn't mean to send, please let us know.

Unfortunately we can't retract invitations that have already been sent, but you can prevent any future invitation reminders from being sent to these people. Learn more about removing your imported contacts.

Last edited about 2 months ago
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Report a Bug

If you believe that the privacy settings you have set are not working properly, please let us know.

Last edited over a year ago
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On a PC

First make sure that the image you want to capture is showing on your screen. To take a screenshot:

  1. Click the Print Screen button. This button is located in different places. On many computers you’ll find it in the upper right corner.
  2. Open Microsoft Paint by selecting Start > All Programs > Accessories > Paint.
  3. Click anywhere on the white part of the screen.
  4. In the Edit menu at the top of your screen, select Paste.
  5. Select File > Save As.
  6. From the Save As menu in the pop-up box, select JPG.
  7. Type in a filename for your image, choose a location on your hard drive to save to and then click Save. Many people choose to save their image to their desktop.

On a Mac

To take a screenshot:

  1. Hold down the following three keys at the same time: , Shift and 4.
  2. Press the spacebar. A camera icon will appear.
  3. Tap the touchpad to take the picture. It should appear on your desktop as a file named "Picture 1."

On an iPhone or iPad

To take a screenshot:

  1. Press and hold the power and home buttons.
  2. Release once you hear the shutter noise or see the screen flash.
  3. The screenshot will be stored in your phone's Camera Roll (Photos > Camera Roll).

On an Android running Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) or later

To take a screenshot:

  1. Press and hold the power and volume down buttons. On some phones, such as the Samsung Galaxy S3, S4 and S5, you'll need to press and hold the volume down and home buttons instead.
  2. Release once you hear the shutter noise or see the screen flash.
  3. The screenshot will be stored in your phone's Gallery.
Last edited about 8 months ago
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