Facebook has become a virtual home for billions of people, sharing photos, life updates, and sometimes our deepest thoughts. But when it comes to privacy, many of us don’t fully understand who can see what. Whether you’re worried about strangers peering into your profile, or you’ve heard whispers of ways to view a private profile on Facebook, knowing the right settings is crucial.
Here are some powerful privacy hacks everyone should know to lock down their Facebook presence, plus a few myths to watch out for.
1. Use the “View As” Tool to See Your Profile From Others’ Eyes
One of the simplest and most effective hacks is to regularly check how your profile looks to different audiences.
- Go to Settings & Privacy → Privacy Shortcuts, then under “Who can see my stuff?” select View As.
- This shows you how your profile appears to the public (people who aren’t your friends) or even to a specific person.
- It’s a bird’s eye view of what you’re sharing and whether some posts or photos are more visible than you intended.
This tip is exactly recommended in the Fama blog on Facebook privacy.
Using View As may help you discover that certain old posts or tagged photos are publicly viewable, and you can quickly make adjustments.
2. Clean Up Your Activity Log
Your Activity Log is like a backstage pass to everything you’ve done on Facebook. It’s where you can review:
- Your own posts
- Posts you’ve been tagged in
- Posts by others
- Your photos, comments, and more
Here’s how to make this work for your privacy:
- Navigate to Settings → Privacy → Activity Log.
- Explore Your Posts, Posts You’re Tagged In, and Posts by Others.
- For each item, choose to Hide (so it doesn’t appear on your timeline) or Delete.
- For each post or photo, check the audience icon and adjust it to Friends, Only Me, or a custom list as needed.
Cleaning your activity log doesn’t just tidy up your timeline, it helps reduce unintended exposure.
3. Limit Who Sees Your Friends List
Your friends list is a map of your social connections. In the wrong hands, that can be leveraged in ways you might not like.
- Go to Settings → Privacy → How People Find and Contact You → Who can see your friends list.
- Set it to Only Me if you don’t want anyone else to see your connections.
This is especially useful to prevent fake account clones or people trying to mimic your profile by friending your friends. As one Reddit user suggests:
“Make your Facebook ‘let others see your friends’ hidden/private so the scam artists can’t replicate your profile.”
Hiding your friends list reduces the risk of malicious actors building fake networks based on your circle.
4. Control Tagging and Timeline Visibility
Tags can sometimes expose you more than you realize. Here are a few strategies:
- Review tags before they appear on your timeline: Go to Settings → Profile and Tagging → Review posts you’re tagged in before they appear and turn this on.
- Limit who can tag you: Adjust tag permissions under the same section.
- Restrict past tagged posts: Bulk manage old tagged posts and adjust their visibility.
This ensures that when someone tags you in a photo or post, you don’t accidentally expose that content publicly.
5. Audit Your App Permissions and Third Party Access
Facebook connects with many apps and websites. These apps often have permission to access parts of your data.
- Go to Settings → Apps and Websites.
- Review which apps are listed and what permissions they have.
- Remove or limit access for apps you no longer use or trust.
This is an often overlooked privacy area where third party apps can access more data than expected.
6. Protect Your Profile Picture and Cover Photo
Your profile picture and cover photo are highly visible, even when other parts of your profile are private.
- Change the audience on your profile picture and cover photo to Friends or Only Me.
- When uploading new pictures, check the visibility settings before posting.
Restricting these images prevents strangers from misusing them, including creating fake profiles using your photos.
7. Disable Face Recognition
Facebook’s face recognition technology can automatically suggest tags when someone uploads a photo of you. If you value privacy, this can be a significant concern.
- Go to Settings → Face Recognition.
- Turn off the setting that allows Facebook to recognize you in photos.
This reduces unwanted tagging and limits Facebook’s ability to create a biometric profile of you.
8. Limit Data Sharing for Ads and Partners
Facebook uses a lot of behavioral data for advertising. You can restrict much of this.
- Navigate to Settings → Ads.
- Review categories such as “Data about your activity from partners” and “Interests.”
- Turn off or limit data sharing.
This reduces how much of your Facebook behavior is used for targeted advertising.
9. Beware of Privacy Myths and Hoaxes
Many viral posts claim to improve your privacy but are completely false.
- The “post this legal text to make your profile private” messages are hoaxes. They do not change Facebook’s privacy policies.
- Claims about “tricking the algorithm” or “secret privacy shortcuts” are usually misleading.
Rely on Facebook’s official privacy tools rather than viral misinformation.
10. Understand Shadow Profiles and Information Leakage
Even with strict privacy settings, Facebook may still gather more data than what you actively share.
- Shadow profiles refer to data Facebook collects indirectly, such as information from your contacts or activity outside the platform.
- Public signals like your friends, likes, and behavior can allow attackers or algorithms to infer hidden attributes.
Being mindful of what you publicly interact with limits unintended data exposure.
11. When Someone Claims They Can Help You View a Private Profile on Facebook
You’ve likely seen tutorials or tools claiming to help you view a private profile on Facebook. Here’s the truth:
- Most of these are scams or attempts to steal your data.
- Bypassing someone’s privacy settings is unethical and often illegal.
- Use legitimate, compliant tools for social media checks.
If you’re conducting social media checks for hiring or risk management, use privacy compliant tools like GetPhyllo Social Screening.
12. Why Regular Privacy Checkups Matter
Facebook updates its interface and privacy features frequently. Privacy settings you set last year may not function the same way today.
- Review your privacy settings every few months.
- Use View As after major Facebook design updates.
- Revisit your Activity Log, app permissions, and ad settings regularly.
Teams that handle brand safety or reputation monitoring can also use a social listening API to monitor public conversations responsibly.
Explore GetPhyllo’s Social Listening API here.
13. Final Thoughts: Privacy Is a Continuous Process
Securing your Facebook profile isn’t something you do once and forget. It involves:
- Understanding your privacy risks
- Making smart choices about visibility
- Reviewing your settings regularly
- Staying aware of common myths and scams
Using Facebook’s tools such as View As, Activity Log, and Tag Review, combined with mindful sharing habits, significantly strengthens your privacy protection.
For organizations handling social risk, tools like social screening and social listening offer compliant ways to analyze public social data without crossing privacy boundaries.
For YouTube related tracking, you can also explore tutorials here.
