How to Solve Facebook Privacy Issues

Your Facebook account holds a detailed map of your life, from personal milestones to casual connections, and a little bit of privacy management goes a long way. Taking control of who sees your information isn't about being deceptive, it's about being intentional. This guide will give you clear, step-by-step instructions to lock down your settings and use the platform with confidence.

Start with the Privacy Checkup: Your First Stop

Facebook has a built-in tool that acts as your central command for privacy. It's the best place to start because it walks you through the most important settings in a straightforward way. Think of it as a guided tour of your account's vulnerabilities.

To find it:

1. Click your profile picture in the top-right corner.
2. Select Settings & Privacy, then click Privacy Checkup.

You'll see several boxes. Here's what to focus on in each one:

• Who can see what you share: This covers your basic profile information (phone, email, birthday), your friends list, and the default audience for your future posts. Go through each item carefully. Do you want old college acquaintances to know your phone number? Probably not. Set this information to Only me or Friends.
• How to keep your account secure: This is where you can beef up your password and, most importantly, turn on two-factor authentication (2FA). We'll cover this in more detail later, but for now, turn it on. It's one of the single most effective ways to protect your account from being hacked.
• How people can find you on Facebook: This controls who can send you friend requests and who can look you up using your email or phone number. Setting friend requests to Friends of Friends is a great way to cut down on random requests from people you don't know.
• Your ad preferences on Facebook: While this doesn't directly relate to what your friends see, it impacts how advertisers use your information. You can review the topics you've shown interest in and even remove the ability for advertisers to target you based on personal details like your relationship status or employer.

Master Your Audience: Control Every Post You Share

Fixing your privacy settings isn't a "set it and forget it" task. You need to actively manage the audience for your posts. Facebook gives you granular control, so a goofy vacation photo doesn't have to be seen by your boss, and a professional accomplishment doesn't need to be shared with distant relatives.

Set Your Default Audience for Future Posts

First, set a solid default. This will be the audience for any new post you create unless you change it. A safe default for most people is Friends.

1. Go to Settings & Privacy > Settings.
2. Under Audience and Visibility, click on Posts.
3. Next to Who can see your future posts?, make sure it's set to Friends, not Public.

This simple change prevents you from accidentally sharing something meant for your inner circle with the entire internet.

Mastering Per-Post Audience Settings

Before you hit "Post," always check the audience selector. It's the little dropdown button right below your name. Here's what the common options mean:

• Public: Anyone on or off Facebook can see it. Use this for business-related announcements, articles you're sharing for broad discussion, or if you're using your profile as a public figure.
• Friends: Only your immediate Facebook friends can see it. This should be your go-to for most personal updates.
• Friends except...: This is for posts you want to share with most of your friends, but not all of them. For example, planning a surprise party for a friend. You'd share with "Friends except... [the friend's name]."
• Specific friends: The opposite of the above. You're sharing something with *only* a select group of people. This works well for niche interests or sensitive family news.
• Only me: Perfect for saving an article, link, or draft post to your own timeline without anyone else seeing it.

Bulk-Update Your Old Posts

What about all those posts you made in 2012 when you didn't know better? Hiding old, public content is a smart move.

1. Go to Settings & Privacy > Settings.
2. Under Audience and Visibility, click on Posts.
3. Find the option for Limit who can see past posts and click Limit Past Posts.

Facebook will warn you that this action can't be undone automatically. When you confirm, it will change the audience for all your previous Public or Friends of Friends posts to Friends. This means you can't selectively change them back without going through your timeline one by one, so be certain before you click.

Lock Down Your Profile Information

Your profile is full of small details that can paint a surprisingly complete picture of you for third parties. Let's tighten up access to that information.

1. Navigate to your own profile by clicking your name.
2. Click the Edit profile button.
3. Scroll to the bottom and click Edit your About info.

This is your control panel for every piece of personal data. Go through each section:

• Contact and Basic Info: Take a hard look at your phone number, email addresses, and birthday. Do they really need to be visible? Hiding your birth year is a good start, as it helps prevent identity theft. Set your mobile number and email to Only me. Nobody needs that information from Facebook.
• Family and Relationships: You can control who sees your relationship status and family members listings.
• Friends List: Who you're friends with can say a lot about you. Hiding your friends list prevents strangers - and even nosy acquaintances - from seeing who you're connected to.
  1. On your profile page, click the Friends tab.
  2. Click the three-dot menu (...) on the right side of the page and select Edit Privacy.
  3. Under Friends List, set the audience to Only me. This is highly recommended.

Control Who Can Find You and How You're Tagged

Privacy isn't just about what you share, it's also about what others share about you and how people find your account in the first place.

Manage Your Tagging Settings

Ever been tagged in an unflattering photo an acquaintance posted? You can stop those posts from appearing on your timeline automatically.

1. Go to Settings & Privacy > Settings.
2. On the left menu, select Profile and Tagging.

Under the "Reviewing" section, you'll find two powerhouse settings. Turn them both on (they are off by default):

• Review posts you're tagged in before the post appears on your profile? When this is on, you get a notification asking you to approve or reject a tagged post before it shows up on your timeline. It gives you final say over your own space.
• Review tags people add to your posts before the tags appear on Facebook? This gives you control over who your friends can tag in photos you have posted.

Stop Random People From Finding You

Tired of friend requests from strangers or bots? You can make yourself harder to find.

1. Go to Settings & Privacy > Settings.
2. On the left menu, select Privacy.

Here are the key settings to adjust:

• How people find and contact you: Set Who can send you friend requests? to Friends of Friends. Limit who can look you up using your email and phone number to Only me.
• Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile? Unless you're a public figure trying to build a personal brand, toggle this Off. This will stop your Facebook profile from showing up in Google search results.

Clean Up Your Connected Apps

"Log in with Facebook" is convenient, but every time you use it, you grant an app access to your data. Over the years, you've likely authorized dozens of apps you no longer use. It's time for an audit.

1. Go to Settings & Privacy > Settings.
2. In the left sidebar, scroll down and find Apps and Websites.

You'll see a list of every app and website you have ever connected to your Facebook account. You will likely be surprised at how long this list is. Go through it and remove anything you don't use or don't recognize. To do this, check the box next to the app's name and click the Remove button. Be ruthless. If you haven't used Spotify in five years or played that silly quiz game since 2014, it doesn't need ongoing access to your profile information.

Final Thoughts

Taking control of your Facebook privacy is an ongoing practice, not a one-time setup. A few dedicated minutes spent reviewing these settings now can save you from future stress and exposure. By being intentional about who sees your content, your personal information, and your connections, you can continue using the platform for what it does best - connecting with the people you care about.

While locking down your personal data is vital, many of us also use social media to grow our brands or businesses. This requires carefully crafting a public presence, which means scheduling consistent, engaging content. At Postbase, we built our tool specifically to solve the headaches of modern social media management. It allows you to plan your content in a single visual calendar, schedule posts reliably across all your platforms (including video-first formats like Reels and Shorts), and manage audience engagement from one unified inbox, keeping your professional workflow separate and streamlined.