How to Be Offline on Facebook So People Will Not Know You Are on Facebook

Facebook Privacy Settings: Check and change your privacy settings on Facebook today

It seems at that place isn't a day that goes by without Facebook and privacy being in the news. Before this year, there was the small affair of Facebook reportedly storing hundreds of millions of user passwords in plain text, with the information accessible past employees for several years.

So what'southward a privacy-conscious social media user to do if they don't want to delete Facebook entirely, but practise desire to secure their business relationship from outside meddling? Our guide to Facebook's privacy settings explains all you need to know to keep using the popular social network safely.

How to modify your Facebook password

But first, it might be time to change your Facebook password. Fortunately, the process is really straightforward.

To change your Facebook password, go to Settings > Security and login > Alter countersign. Easy.

Related: How to cheque your password force

Facebook Privacy Settings: Why they're so of import

The infamous Facebook/Cambridge Analytica matter highlighted just how important it is to keep track of the apps that are connected to your Facebook account through Facebook Login. This is because the data was gathered through an app called 'thisisyourdigitallife', which allowed people to log in to it using their Facebook business relationship.

You can find a list of apps that accept access to your Facebook data, such equally your name, pictures, birthday and friends listing, on the App Settings page. There'due south a practiced chance the listing will be significantly longer than expected.

Clicking each entry in the list shows you the types of data you've given them permission to access. By unchecking each box, y'all tin limit how many of your personal details they can get their hands on. Y'all can likewise unlink the apps from your Facebook business relationship on this page, past clicking the 'X' that appears next to them.

Even so, equally Facebook'due south FAQ notes: "The app or game may have stored info from when yous were using information technology, just y'all can contact the developer to inquire that they delete whatever info they may still accept."

You can too switch off Facebook'south integration with apps completely, meaning you won't be able to log into apps, games and other websites using your Facebook account. To do this, get to Settings, Apps and Websites and Plugins, then select Edit and Disable Platform.

If y'all're concerned nigh your online privacy in full general, you lot might also want to check out our roundup of the all-time VPNs for security and privacy. If yous're not familiar with VPNs, they encrypt and anonymise your internet utilize, and can also permit you to announced as if you're in a completely unlike country.

Read on for 18 simple ways you can ensure your Facebook privacy settings are exactly what yous want them to be.

1) I want to…go an overview of my privacy settings

Facebook's privacy settings are spread over a number of portions of the site. However, you tin can do a quick health check by clicking the question mark icon that appears at the top of any Facebook page and selecting Privacy Checkup. This volition permit yous see privacy settings at a glance over 3 cardinal areas of Facebook

ane) Posts – As explained below, this will explain how to command your privacy settings for every post.
two)Contour – Here yous tin limit what personal information (work, historic period, contact details) is visible to whom.
3)Apps and websites – Who sees your activity within third-party apps.

These are explained in more than particular in the following three sections.

two) I want to… control who sees my posts

This is perhaps the key privacy concern of privacy-conscious Facebook users. No-one wants their boss spying on their weekend activities, so it's important to be clear about everything you mail.

Whenever you lot upload a photo, make full in a condition, or check in at a location, Facebook gives you the option to customise who yous wish to share it with. The four main options are:

• Public – Anyone tin see it whether they're Facebook friends or not. If yous desire to be part of a public discussion that can be viewed by both friends and via Facebook search (like on Twitter), select this.
• Friends – Simply people you're friends with tin see the post. If you're posting photos of your children or any information you'd deem personal then this is what y'all need to select.
• Specific Friends − Select this if you'd like the postal service to be seen by some of your Facebook friends, just not the vast majority. The Custom option is basically the inverse of this, and allows you lot to select people y'all don't want to share your post with.
• Merely You – Perhaps if you use Facebook as a repository for personal memories or a blog you tin can select Only You to ensure you, the business relationship holder are the but one who sees it.

It's important to notation that Facebook remembers the setting from your final post, then if your last mail service was a Public rant about X-Factor, that will be the default setting next time.

three) I desire to… control who sees my app activity

You're likely to accept many third-party services associated with Facebook, whether they're news services, fettle apps, games, dating apps, other social networks, streaming services or photo-sharing apps. Nigh of these would have become associated with your Facebook account if you used Facebook Connect to quickly create an business relationship on them.

You can use the aforementionedPrivacy Checkup or go to Settings > Apps and websites to completely disassociate them from your account.

Over the years, Facebook has probably collected a tonne of your personal data. Your email address, your birthday, political views, phone number, where y'all've studied, your sexual orientation, your political views, where you're from, where you're worked, who you're married to and who yous're related to.

With employers now doing social media checks on potential new colleagues, you may desire to shield some of this sensitive data.

Thankfully, much of this tin can be controlled via the Privacy Checkup mentioned above. You can alter who sees what by heading to the Almost section of your profile and selecting Edit under each section. Switching your privacy settings from Friends to Merely Me will hide the data from your profile. In some cases you may want to remove it completely.

Related: How to download your Facebook data

v) I want to… hibernate posts from other people

If you're still friends with an ex on Facebook and don't want to remove them, but also want to post photos of yous in a new relationship without potentially aggravating your ex, you tin hitCustom from the "Who should encounter this?" menu and tag the people you wish to hide the post from.

6) I want to… post something, just hide information technology from my timeline

Maybe you have something to say and don't want information technology as a permanent record on your timeline, such equally a idea, a meme, or a joke in context that'due south, ahem, of its time, you can achieve this by ticking the Hide From Timeline box in the post field.

7) I desire to… stop people sharing my photos and posts

If you lot've shared a photograph or a status on Facebook, it could be open to being re-shared past other Facebook users. That means Friends and, if you've tagged people,  evenFriends of Friends. If the post is Public so anyone in the world can share it. At that place's no style around that, other than to set the post to Merely Me in the start place, which kind of defeats the signal in most cases.

8) I want to… check what my Public profile looks like

In that location'southward a really easy way to encounter what your profile looks similar to someone outside your network of Facebook friends, who may take stumbled across your profile. To do this you lot tin can head to your Profile page, click the menu button adjacent to Action Log and selectView Equally. If y'all spot information or posts yous do not want to be public,Edit the privacy settings of individual posts or get to Settings to censor them.

You tin likewise utilize this tool to come across what a specific Facebook friend sees.

ix) I want to… change who can see onetime posts

In the early days of Facebook many of usa were quite naïve with what we shared. Thankfully, there are options inSettingsto rectify some of your past privacy mistakes. Y'all tin can click Privacy andLimit The Audience for Former Posts on Your Timeline. Then only clickLimit Past Posts to modify any posts listed as Public or Friends of Friends. OstendLimit By Posts, to ensure that only Friends can run across them. This can be undone at a later date only you may have to switch all of your posts dorsum one by i so make sure y'all're certain earlier you push that 'limit' push button.

10) I want to… limit who tin send me friend requests

Tired of strangers trying to add together you on Facebook? Click Settings > Privacy and head to Who can send you lot friend requests. You tin can change it from Everybody to Friends of Friends but that'due south about equally far as you lot can get, so if you're trying to avert accepting that friend of a friend's request, you might be out of luck.

xi) I want to… block someone

This ane'southward easy (and fun). Go to Settings > Blocking, begin typing the name or e-mail address of the friend (or ex-friend) you wish to block from your account. You can besides cake certain people from sending you messages, but you take to be friends with them.

It'southward also possible to block people people you lot're not friends with by heading to their profile, clicking the "…" on the correct mitt side and selecting Block.

Facebook probably has your phone number and one or more of your email addresses at this point. If folks (i.e. potential employers, old flames, stalkers, etc.) were to enter these in search, they may be able to detect your profile. In Settings > Privacy you lot can right this past clickingWho can look y'all up using the electronic mail address you lot provided and selectingEveryone, Friends of Friends or Friends. The aforementioned process applies if you're trying to keep your phone number private.

13) I want… my Facebook page kept off Google

There's no hiding from Facebook's overarching Search engine. All you can do is lock downwardly your privacy settings and hope you have a common name. However it'southward unlike in the example of other search engines like Google. OpenSettings > Privacy and selectNo to keep your name off of Google's radar.

The right to anonymity was and, in some cases, still is one of the most cherished tenets of the net. With Facebook at present showing all profiles within search results, changing to an causeless proper noun seems a proficient idea for those who don't want to be discovered, take been harassed, work in sensitive industries, accept been discriminated about, etc…

Unfortunately, it's not that piece of cake. Facebook makes you lot use your birth name when signing up and has very strict rules about changing it thereafter. If yous're reported for a fake name information technology could suspend your business relationship. The company has softened its stance following feedback from victims of abuse and the LGBTQ customs.

While you can't hide your proper name, if yous'd like to request a name change, you tin visit Settings, click Full general > Proper name and then Review Modify.

Related: Best password manager

fifteen) I want to… protect my location

Facebook loves it when you check into places. It gobbles upward all of that lovely data to attract advertisers and display location-specific ads on your homepage. The most obvious step to protecting your location is not clicking the location pin when posting.

However, when you're using the mobile app, Facebook may try to use GPS and Wi-Fi to proper noun your location. You can prevent this from happening by inbound the Location settings on your mobile device and denying Facebook access.

In iOS information technology goes: Settings > Privacy > Location > Facebook > Never

Or for Android devices: Settings > Applications > Facebook > Location and toggle Location Services off.

xvi) I want to… prevent/remove a tag

If you've had Facebook for a few years, your friends take probably tagged y'all in some pretty embarrassing pics. Developed social media etiquette and a full knowledge of the consequences mean that it might non happen as much these days. If you're looking to go rid of those awkward memories before a potential employer gets there start, help is at hand.

In Settings > Timeline and Tagging you can change the options to under Review to check over every tag before information technology appears on yours or anyone else's timeline.

You can always select Remove Tag within individual post settings. If the post is offensive, you tin can besides Report Post if you lot want it off the site altogether.

17) I want to… make my profile completely private

Until October 2015, information technology was possible to hide your Facebook account and prevent it from popping up when someone searches your name. However, this stopped beingness an pick afterward the visitor broadened its Universal Search through the Knowledge Graph initiative.

Now, even if your privacy settings are completely locked down you'll appear within search results significant that there is a certain level of info that anyone can option up if they click on your profile. This includes your profile picture, your list of friends and the pages y'all've liked. No manner around it, sadly.

18) I want to… tag friends simply limit who sees the posts

When you lot tag people in posts and photos, the number of people who see it can take on a life of its own. The friend must approve the post to their timeline but, if they practice, all of their friends will exist able to run into information technology as well. For example, if you lot tagging a friend in a photograph of your child, you're effectively expressing consent that those exterior of your friendship circle tin view it, react to it, share information technology and fifty-fifty comment on the photo too.

Then, in other words, if you're concerned most who might view the photo, tagging friends is best avoided.

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Source: https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/facebook-privacy-settings-2939307

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