Control Who Can See What You Share
Privacy Settings and Privacy Checkup
You can view and adjust your privacy settings at any time. To view and adjust your privacy settings:
- Click
at the top right of Facebook and select Settings.
- Click Privacy on the left column.
For other things you share on Facebook, you can select the audience before you share.
The Privacy Checkup helps you review who can see your posts and info from your profile, like your phone number and email address. It also shows you your settings for apps you’ve logged into with Facebook.
You can use the Privacy Checkup to review and adjust your privacy settings to help make sure that you’re sharing with who you want.
To go to the Privacy Checkup:
- Click
at the top of any page on Facebook (ex: your homepage)
- Select Privacy Checkup
Note: Privacy Checkup isn't available to everyone right now. For example, you may not have access to Privacy Checkup on certain devices. You can still adjust all of the settings covered by Privacy Checkup by going to your privacy settings. Learn more about how to select an audience for your posts, how to adjust privacy settings for apps and games and how to edit basic info on your profile and choose who can see it.
Something that’s public can be seen by anyone. That includes people who aren’t your friends, people off of Facebook and people who use different media such as print, broadcast (ex: television) and other sites on the Internet. For example, if you use our services to provide a real-time public comment to a television show, that may appear on the show or elsewhere on Facebook.
What information is public?
Information you share that is always public: Some of the information you give us when you fill out your profile is public, such as your age range, language and country. We also use a part of your profile, called your Public Profile, to help connect you with friends and family. Your Public Profile includes your name, gender, username and user ID (account number), profile picture, cover photo and networks. This info is also public. Some of the ways this helps us connect you are:
- Your name, profile picture and cover photo help people recognize you
- Gender helps us describe you (ex: "Add her as a friend")
- Listing your networks (ex: school, workplace) allows others to find you more easily
- Username and user ID (ex: your account number) are in the URL of your profile
- Age range helps provide you with age-appropriate content
- Language and country help us provide appropriate content and experiences
Information you share publicly: When you choose to share something with Public (ex: when you select Public from the audience selector), it’s considered public information. If you share something and you don’t see an audience selector or another privacy setting, that information is also public. Learn more about using the audience selector to control who you share with when you post to Facebook.
Stuff other people share: If other people share info about you, even if it’s something you shared with them but did not make public, they can choose to make it public. Also when you comment on other people’s public posts, your comment is public as well.
Posts on Facebook Pages or public groups: Facebook Pages and public groups are public spaces. Anyone who can see the Page or group can see your post or comment. Generally, when you post or comment on a Page or to a public group, a story can be published in News Feed as well as other places on or off Facebook.
Remember that public information can:
- Be associated with you, even off Facebook
- Show up when someone does a search on Facebook or on another search engine
- Be accessible to Facebook-integrated games, applications and websites you and your friends use
- Be accessible to anyone who uses our APIs, such as our Graph API
Who Can See What You Post
You'll find an audience selector tool most places you share status updates, photos and other things you post. Click the tool and select who you want to share something with.
The tool remembers the audience you shared with the last time you posted something and uses the same audience when you share again unless you change it. For example, if you choose Public for a post, your next post will also be Public unless you change the audience when you post. This one tool appears in multiple places, such as your privacy shortcuts and privacy settings. When you make a change to the audience selector tool in one place, the change updates the tool everywhere it appears.
The audience selector also appears alongside things you've already shared, so it's clear who can see each post. After you've shared a post, you have the option to change who it's shared with. If you want to change the audience of a post after you've shared it, click the audience selector and select a new audience.
Remember, when you post to another person's timeline, that person controls what audience can view the post. Additionally, anyone who gets tagged in a post may see it, along with their friends.
When someone clicks Share below your post, they aren’t able to share your photos, videos or status updates through Facebook with people who weren’t in the audience you originally selected to share with. Only the people who could see those posts when you first made them are able to see them when someone clicks Share. Use the audience selector to adjust who you share posts with.
Note: When a friend shares a link that you posted, they can share the link with a wider audience than you originally shared it with. Keep in mind that any text you added in your post will not be shared.
When you add a hashtag to your post, the people you’ve shared your post with can also see it in that hashtag's feed. For example, if you share a post with a hashtag with the audience Friends, people you're friends with can see your post in that hashtag’s feed.
If you use a hashtag in a post you share to a Public audience, and allow people to follow you, your post will appear on your public profile and in that hashtag's feed.
Your Profile Info
Here's an overview of who can see what's on your profile and tools you can use to control what you share on your profile and timeline.
Overview- To edit things like places you’ve lived or your family and relationships, click About below your cover photo, then hover over the info you’d like to change and click Edit. Use the audience selector next to this info to choose who you're sharing it with.
- Anyone can see your public information, which includes your name, profile picture, cover photo, gender, username, user ID (account number), and networks (learn why).
- Only you and your friends can post to your timeline. When you post something, you can control who sees it by using the audience selector. When other people post on your timeline, you can control who sees it by choosing the audience of the Who can see what others post on your timeline setting.
- As you edit your info, you can control who sees what by using the audience selector.
- Before photos, posts and app activities that you’re tagged in appear on your timeline, you can approve or dismiss them by turning on timeline review. Keep in mind, you can still be tagged, and the tagged content (example: photo, post) is shared with the audience the person who posted it selected other places on Facebook (ex: News Feed and search).
- Set an audience for who can see posts you’ve been tagged in on your timeline.
- To see what your profile looks like to other people, use the View As tool.
To edit your basic personal info (example: gender, contact info, relationships, work, education):
- From your News Feed, click your name in the top left.
- Click About below your cover photo.
- In the left menu, click the section you'd like to change.
- Hover over the information you'd like to edit.
- To the right of that section, click Options, then select Edit.
- Use the audience selector to choose who can see this information, then click Save Changes.
If you set your gender to Custom and select one or more genders, you can also select an audience for your custom gender. In addition to your custom gender, you'll choose a Pronoun. The pronoun you select is public. This feature isn't available in all locations.
Note: Your email has additional settings.
You can also: This feature is currently disabled.
We previously announced a security incident on Facebook that involved the View As tool, which lets you see what your profile looks like to other people. We temporarily turned this feature off while we conduct a thorough security review.
To learn more about our investigation or to see if your Facebook account is impacted, visit https://www.facebook.com/help/securitynotice.
Your email has both a privacy setting (that controls who you share it with) and a setting that controls whether it shows on your profile or not. For example, you can choose to show your email on your profile, but set its privacy to Friends, so your email is shared on your profile and other places on Facebook with your friends.
To adjust who you share your email with and decide if it shows on your profile:
- From your News Feed click your name in the top left.
- Click About at the top of your profile.
- Click Contact and Basic Info in the left menu.
- Click Edit next to your email and click the audience selector next to your email to change the audience it's shared with and save any changes.
By default, the Friends section of your profile is public, meaning everyone can see it. To adjust who can see your Friends section:
- Click
- In the left column, click Privacy.
- Look for the setting Who can see your friends list? and click Edit to the far right.
- Select the audience of people (such as only Friends) you'd like to have access to your friends list.
Note: People may see mutual friends when they visit your profile. Your friends also control who can see their friendships on their own profiles. If people can see your friendship on another profile, they'll also be able to see it in News Feed, search and other places on Facebook.
If you're not sharing a piece of information in your About section, like your mobile phone number or email, a friend can ask you to share it with them.
When someone asks for your info, you'll get a notification. You can also see the request in your timeline review. You can then choose who you want to share your information with by using the audience selector. You can also choose to ignore the request.
You can control who can see your contact info right from your profile:
- From your News Feed click your name in the top left.
- Click About and click Contact and Basic Info in the left menu.
- Click Edit next to each piece of contact info and use the audience selector to adjust who you share it with.
Your Timeline
No, Facebook doesn't let people track who views their profile. Third-party apps also can't provide this functionality. If you come across an app that claims to offer this ability, please report the app.
No. Private messages only appear in your inbox on Facebook or on the Messenger app. Learn more about what people can see on your timeline.
When you share something on your timeline, use the audience selector to choose who it's shared with. If you want to change who you shared something with after you post it, return to the audience selector and pick a new audience.
You can also adjust the audience of many posts at once by using the Limit Past Posts tool in your account settings. When you limit past posts, the audience of all your previous Facebook posts visible to Friends of Friends and Everyone will change and only be visible to Friends. However, anyone tagged in these posts, and their friends, may also still see these posts. To use this tool:
- Click
- In the left column, click Privacy
- Look for the setting Limit the audience for posts you've shared with friends of friends or Public? and click Limit Past Posts to the far right.
- Click Limit Past Posts to confirm your decision.
Keep in mind:
- If you want to undo this action in the future, you'll need to adjust the audience of each individual post. Limiting the audience of your previous posts cannot be reversed in one click.
- If you have shared a previous post with a custom audience, such as Friends except Acquaintances or Close Friends, this tool will not change the audience for those past posts.
- If you tagged someone in the post, the audience of the post will still include the person you tagged and people they include in posts they're tagged in.
- This tool only controls the audience for posts you've shared. If you've been tagged in someone else's post, they control the audience for their posts.
To select the audience for stuff your friends share on your timeline:
- Click
- Click Timeline and Tagging in the left column.
- Look for the setting Who can see what others post on your Timeline? and click Edit to the far right.
- Select an audience from the dropdown menu.
Note: Posts on your timeline may appear other places on Facebook, like News Feed and search, for people who are in the audience they're shared with (example: friends, public, custom).
To choose who can see posts you’ve been tagged in after they appear on your timeline:
- Click
- In the left column, click Timeline and Tagging.
- Look for the setting Who can see posts you're tagged in on your timeline? and click Edit to the far right.
- Select the audience of people (such as only Friends) you'd like to have access to posts you've been tagged in.
You can review photos and posts you're tagged in before they appear on your timeline by turning on timeline review. Keep in mind, photos and posts you hide from your timeline are visible to the audience they're shared with other places on Facebook, such as in News Feed and search.
You can use the audience selector to change who can see stuff you share on your timeline after you share it. Keep in mind that when you share something on someone else's timeline, they control the audience for the post.
To change the audience of something you've shared on your own timeline:
- Go to your timeline and scroll down to the post you want to edit.
- Click the audience selector next to the date or time on the post. The icon will be different depending on its current audience settings.
- Select your audience from the options that appear (example: Public, Friends, Only Me).
Learn more about how to control what people can see on your profile and timeline.
Keep in mind that things you've hidden from your timeline may still show up in other places on Facebook, including News Feed and search (ex: if you shared a photo or post with someone). To limit who can see your stuff in search, you can change the audience for the things you share, or you can remove them from Facebook.
To review all the posts you’ve hidden from your timeline, go to your activity log.
When you hide a photo or post you're tagged in on your timeline, or adjust your timeline and tagging privacy setting, this only limits who can see the content on your timeline. The photo or post is still visible to the audience it's shared with other places on Facebook, such as in News Feed or search.
Please keep in mind that the person who uploaded a photo chooses the audience for that photo. If you're tagged in something you don't like, you can remove the tag or ask the person who posted it to take it down.
