What "Private" Actually Means on Facebook
Making your Facebook completely private means changing who can see your posts, photos, friend list, and profile information. Facebook has separate privacy controls for different parts of your account — your profile itself, your posts, your search visibility, and who can contact you. You need to adjust all of them to truly lock down your account, because changing one setting does not automatically change the others.
The most important distinction: a private profile does not prevent Facebook from collecting data about you or showing you ads. It only controls what other people see. If you want to reduce what Facebook knows about you, that requires different settings in your ad preferences and data settings.
Key Takeaways
- Facebook has separate privacy controls for your profile visibility, posts, friend requests, and search results — you must change each one individually.
- Setting your profile to private prevents strangers from seeing your posts and photos, but does not stop Facebook from tracking your activity or showing you targeted ads.
- You can restrict who sees your friend list, past posts, and your phone number or email address through the Privacy section of Settings.
- Blocking specific people is faster than making your whole profile private if you only want to hide from a few individuals.
- Even with a private profile, Facebook still collects information about your clicks, searches, and device activity to sell advertising.
How to Lock Down Your Profile Visibility
Start in Settings. On a computer, click the downward arrow in the top right corner of Facebook, then select Settings and Privacy, then Settings. On a phone, tap the three horizontal lines in the bottom right, scroll down to Settings and Privacy, then tap Settings.
Go to the Privacy section on the left side of the screen. You will see "Who can see your posts?" — click that and change it from "Public" or "Friends" to "Only Me" if you want no one but yourself to see anything you post going forward. This does not hide old posts; you will need to change those separately if you want them hidden.
Below that, find "Who can contact you?" and change it to "Friends" so strangers cannot message you. Then find "Who can look you up using the email address you provided?" and "Who can look you up using the phone number you provided?" — change both to "Friends" or "Only Me" depending on whether you want your friends to be able to find you by phone or email.
Hide Your Friend List and Past Posts
Still in the Privacy section, look for "Who can see your friends list?" and change it to "Only Me". This prevents anyone from seeing who you are connected to, which is one of the easiest ways for strangers to find information about you.
For posts you have already published, Facebook does not have a single button to make them all private at once. You have two options: go through your timeline and change each post individually by clicking the audience button (the icon showing who can see it), or use the "Limit Past Posts" feature. The Limit Past Posts button is in the Privacy section and changes all your old posts to "Friends" only — it does not make them completely private, but it stops strangers from seeing them. If you want posts visible only to yourself, you will need to edit them one by one.
Control Who Can Send You Friend Requests
In Settings, go to Privacy again and find "Who can send you friend requests?" You can leave this as "Everyone" or change it to "Friends of Friends" to reduce requests from strangers. This does not prevent people from messaging you if you have already allowed messages from non-friends, but it does reduce how easily they can connect to you.
You can also go to your profile and click the three dots next to your name, then select "Block" to prevent a specific person from seeing your profile, sending you a request, or messaging you. Blocking is when ready and does not notify the person, though they may notice if they try to visit your profile.
Adjust Your Search and Tag Settings
In the Privacy section, find "Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile?" and turn this off. This prevents Google and other search engines from showing your Facebook profile in their results, which is a straightforward way to reduce how findable you are outside Facebook itself.
Go to the Timeline and Tagging section in Settings. Find "Who can post on your timeline?" and change it to "Only Me" so no one can write on your wall. Then find "Who can see posts you have been tagged in on your timeline?" and change it to "Only Me" or "Friends" depending on how restrictive you want to be. You can also turn on "Review posts you have been tagged in before the post appears on your timeline?" so you approve tags before they show up.
Turn Off Activity Status and Location Sharing
In the Privacy section, find "Who can see your active status?" and change it to "Only Me". This prevents people from knowing when you are online. You can also turn off "Show activity status" entirely if you do not want anyone to see when you were last active.
If you have ever shared your location on Facebook, go to Settings, then Apps and Websites, and review what apps have permission to access your location. Remove location access from any app you do not actively use. You can also go to your profile and remove location information from past posts by editing them individually.
Limit App and Website Access to Your Data
In Settings, go to Apps and Websites. Under "Active" you will see every app and website that has permission to see your Facebook data. Click each one and review what information it can access — many apps ask for permission to see your friends list, email, or birthday even if they do not need it. Remove apps you no longer use and restrict permissions on apps you keep.
Go to the Ads section in Settings and click "Ad Preferences". Under "Advertisers you have seen ads from", you can see which companies have your contact information and are targeting you. You cannot remove yourself from all ad targeting, but you can click each advertiser and choose "See less" to reduce how often you see their ads. Under "Your interests", you can remove interests Facebook has assigned to you based on your activity, though Facebook will continue to infer new ones.
What a Private Profile Does Not Protect
Making your profile private stops other people from seeing your posts and photos, but it does not stop Facebook from collecting data about what you click, search for, how long you spend on each page, what device you use, or your location. Facebook uses this information to build a profile of your interests and sell advertising based on it.
If you want to reduce what Facebook knows about you, you have limited options. You can turn off location services for the Facebook app in your phone settings, clear your cookies regularly, or use a browser extension that blocks Facebook tracking on other websites. You can also go to Settings, then Off-Facebook Activity, to see what data other websites have sent to Facebook about you and clear it — though this does not prevent future tracking.
Frequently Asked Questions
If I make my profile private, can my friends still see my posts?
Yes, if you set "Who can see your posts?" to "Friends", your friends will see everything you post. If you change it to "Only Me", no one but yourself can see your posts, including your friends. You can also customize each individual post to be visible to different groups of people.
Will people know I blocked them?
No, Facebook does not notify someone when you block them. They may figure it out if they try to visit your profile and cannot find it, or if they notice you are no longer in their friend list, but they will not receive a notification from Facebook.
Can I make my profile private but still let specific people see my posts?
Yes. Instead of setting your profile to "Only Me", set it to "Friends" and then use the custom audience feature on individual posts. Click the audience button on a post and select "Custom" to choose specific people or groups who can see that post.
Does a private profile stop Facebook from showing me ads?
No. Facebook shows you ads based on data it collects about your activity, not based on your privacy settings. A private profile only controls what other people see, not what Facebook collects or how it targets you.
If I delete old posts, can people still find them?
Once you delete a post, it is gone from your timeline and no one can see it through your profile. However, if someone took a screenshot or shared it before you deleted it, they still have a copy. Deleting only removes it from Facebook's display of your profile.