Facebook facebook.com How to make your Facebook private
Open Settings & privacy, run Privacy Checkup, and set who can see what you share. Then use Limit Past Posts under Settings & privacy > Settings > Privacy so older public posts become Friends only, and set who can see what others post on your profile.
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- Privacy settings
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Step by step
- 1
Open Privacy Checkup
Select your profile picture, go to Settings & privacy, then Privacy Checkup. Start with the section on who can see what you share.
- 2
Set the audience for new posts
Use the audience selector on each post, or set your default in Privacy Checkup, so new posts go to Friends instead of Public.
- 3
Limit your past posts
Go to Settings & privacy > Settings > Privacy and choose Limit Past Posts. It moves older posts that were public or shared with friends of friends to Friends only.
- 4
Change one post at a time if you need to
Open the post and change its audience from the post itself.
- 5
Control what others post on your profile
Go to Settings & privacy > Settings > Profile and tagging and set Who can see what others post on your profile.
Watch out for
- Public group posts and comments stay public. Facebook says anyone can see a post or comment you make in a public group.
- If you tag someone in a post, the tagged person's friends may also see it.
- Facebook has moved menus over time. If a path doesn't match, start from Audience and visibility under Settings & privacy > Settings.
- Some items on a profile, such as your name and profile photo, are visible to people who search for you. Facebook's Lock your Facebook profile page explains what locking covers where it's available.
What stays out there
A privacy setting only controls what Facebook shows from now on. Anything that was public earlier may already sit on people-search sites and data brokers that scraped it, and a setting on one platform doesn't change those copies.
Serus finds where your details are listed and removes them. It doesn't change your Facebook settings for you, so do the steps above yourself first.
Frequently asked
How do I make my Facebook profile private?
Run Privacy Checkup, set your future posts to Friends, then use Limit Past Posts so older public posts become Friends only.
How do I make my Facebook private on iPhone?
Open Settings & privacy from your profile in the Facebook app and follow the same Privacy Checkup and Privacy settings steps. Menu names can differ slightly by app version.
Can I make a Facebook Page private?
This guide covers personal profiles. Facebook's help center has a separate set of pages for Pages.
Will strangers still see anything on my profile?
Some basic profile details can still show to people who find you. Check what your profile shows by viewing it from a logged out browser.
Sources
Related guide Guide: How to Delete Yourself from the Internet Something changed? If these steps no longer match what you see, tell us and we'll re-check it.
