How to Hide Your Birthday on Facebook (Updated for 2026)

Your birthday is more than a reason for a cake. Combined with your name, it is one of the pieces of information banks, schools, doctors’ offices and criminals all recognize as an identity check. That is why so many people ask how to hide their birthday on Facebook, stop the notifications that tell hundreds of friends it is coming up, or simply avoid the awkwardness of public well-wishes. This updated 2026 guide shows exactly how to do it on the app and the web, what the settings do and do not protect, and the next step most people miss: where else your date of birth is listed.

1. Why your birthday is worth hiding

A date of birth looks harmless, but it is a key piece of “personally identifiable information.” Fraudsters use it in three ways.

Account recovery and security questions. Many services use your birth date as a verification detail, and attackers who have it need one fewer guess.
Identity theft building blocks. A name, a birth date and a hometown go a long way toward opening an account in your name. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center reported more than 31,000 identity theft complaints in 2025, and the FTC says imposter scams were the most frequently reported fraud type in its 2025 data (FTC).
Social engineering. A caller who knows your birthday sounds more credible when impersonating your bank or a relative.

Our guide on what identity theft is explains how these pieces get combined, and why some people use a different DOB online covers the trade-offs of fibbing.

2. How Facebook handles your birthday

Facebook splits your birthday into two parts you can control separately: the day and month, and the year. Each one has an audience setting such as Public, Friends, Only me or a custom list. A few other facts shape what you can and cannot hide:

Facebook requires a date of birth to create an account and stores it for age checks.
Your birthday also lives in Meta Accounts Center, which connects Facebook, Instagram and other Meta apps. Changes there can apply across accounts.
Friends see birthday reminders based on what they can see, so setting the date to Only me stops those prompts.
Facebook’s terms ask for accurate information, so hiding is safer than falsifying.

3. How to hide your birthday on Facebook (desktop and app)

Step 1: Open your profile information

On a computer, click your profile photo, then About, then Contact and basic info. On the mobile app, open your profile, tap the three dots or Edit profile, then scroll to your basic information. Menu names change as Meta updates the interface, so use the settings search bar and type “birthday” if you cannot find it.

Step 2: Edit the birthday audience

Find the Birthday row and select the edit icon. You will see two fields: month and day, and year. Choose the audience selector next to each one.

Step 3: Set both fields to Only me

Select Only me for the day and month, and again for the year. Save your changes. This hides your birthday from friends, friends of friends and the public.

Step 4: Check the result from another view

Use “View as” or ask a trusted friend to confirm that your birthday no longer appears. Check your Instagram profile too if it is linked.

Step 5: Review Accounts Center

Open Settings and privacy, then Accounts Center, then Personal details, and review the birthday entry. Make sure it matches your intent across your connected Meta accounts.

Expert tip: Hide the year even if you keep the day visible. Friends can still celebrate, but criminals do not get the full date.

4. How to stop birthday notifications

There are two different notifications people want to stop.

Notifications about you. Friends see a reminder when your birthday is visible to them. Set the birthday to Only me and those reminders stop. If your friends still get reminders after you change the setting, give it a day and confirm that both fields are saved.

Notifications about other people. To stop your own feed from filling up, open Settings and privacy, then Notifications, and turn off Birthdays. You can also mute individual friends from the Birthdays page.

If you want to reduce unwanted attention without disappearing, consider limiting who can post on your timeline and review tags. Our guides on keeping tagged pictures private and using Facebook privacy settings go through each control.

Curious what’s already out there? Wiperts’ 100% Free Diagnosis shows which data brokers are listing your name, home address and phone number. Check your exposure free — it takes about a minute.

5. “People still know my birthday!” Why hiding it does not erase it

Many readers search for variations of this problem: “people celebrate my birthday even when they don’t know it.” There are several ordinary reasons.

Earlier visibility. If your birthday was public for years, friends may have saved it or remember it.
Other apps. Instagram, WhatsApp, calendars, contact lists and school or work directories can all hold the date.
Birthday posts from prior years. Old timeline posts and photos mention the date.
Shared accounts. Family members who manage events or gift registries may have recorded it.
Public records. Voter files, marketing databases and people-search sites list birth dates independent of Facebook.

That fifth point matters most. A hidden Facebook birthday does nothing to the profile that a data broker built from public records and purchased marketing lists.

6. Where else your date of birth is exposed

People-search sites commonly publish an age, a birth month and year, or the full date of birth, together with your address history and relatives. Data brokers sell the same fields to marketers and background-check companies. Hiding the birthday on social media addresses one source while dozens of others stay open.

Source	What it can show	Can you change it?
Facebook / Instagram	Birth date to friends or public	Yes, via audience settings
Google account	Birthday in profile	Yes, in account settings
People-search sites	Age, birth year or full date	Only via opt-out requests
Marketing databases	Birth month and year	Via opt-outs and removal services
Public records	Voter and court records	Limited, depends on the state

Read more about how brokers compile this data in our guide to data brokers and how to get control of your name and in what data is being gathered about you.

7. Tips for keeping your birthday safer everywhere

Share the day, not the year. If you want birthday wishes, show the month and day only.
Use unique answers for security questions. Do not use your real birth date when a service offers alternatives.
Be cautious with quizzes and surveys. “Your birthday and first car” style posts are data collection in disguise.
Limit old posts. Facebook’s tools let you restrict past posts to friends in bulk.
Use an alias email for sign-ups. It keeps your birth date and your main inbox apart. See how to set up an alias email.
Freeze your credit. If your date of birth is already out there, a free credit freeze blocks new accounts. Read what a credit freeze is.

8. What about using a different birthday?

Some people enter a false birth date to protect themselves. The idea is understandable, but there are drawbacks. Facebook’s terms ask for accurate data, so a fake birthday can lead to restricted access if the platform checks age or you need to recover the account. Banks and government agencies use real birth dates, so a mismatch between platforms can complicate verification. A better balance is to keep your true date but set the audience to Only me. For other platforms, read our analysis on whether to use a different DOB online.

9. How Wiperts removes the date of birth Facebook cannot reach

Facebook settings only control Facebook. Wiperts works on the other side of the problem: the people-search sites and data brokers that list your birth date, age, address and phone number.

Wiperts’ free diagnosis checks more than 100 brokers to show where your name appears. A paid plan then submits removal requests for your name, date of birth, salary, home address and phone number, monitors the web around the clock, and re-removes listings if a broker adds them back. It also removes personal results from Google and Bing and blurs your home on maps.

100% Free Diagnosis: Check Your Exposure

Find out what data brokers have on you. Enter your details in the free scanner on the Wiperts homepage:

First Name
Last Name
Select State
Email Address
Website

Scan Databases Now — no payment is needed to see your exposure report.

10. A five-minute birthday privacy checklist

Set both Facebook birthday fields to Only me.
Check Instagram and Accounts Center for the same setting.
Turn off Birthdays notifications you do not want.
Search your name on two or three people-search sites to see whether your birth date appears.
Freeze your credit if you have not already, using the steps in how to report identity theft as a guide if you suspect misuse.
Schedule a recheck in 60 days.

11. Key takeaways

Hide both parts of your birthday by setting them to Only me.
Doing so also stops friends’ birthday notifications.
Facebook settings do not remove your date of birth from data brokers.
Avoid fake birthdays; use audience controls instead.
Combine privacy settings with a credit freeze and broker removals for real protection.

Pick the Wiperts plan that fits your household

Plan	Covers	One-time deep scrub	Then
Individual	1 person	$89	$14/month
Couples (most popular)	2 people	$149	$24/month
Family	Up to 4 people	$199	$39/month

Every plan includes removal of your name, date of birth, salary, home address and phone number from 100+ data brokers and people-search sites, Google and Bing search-result removal, home blurring on maps, and 24/7 monitoring that re-removes your data if it reappears. See plans and start your removal

12. Frequently Asked Questions

How do I hide my birthday on Facebook?

Go to your profile, open About, choose Contact and basic info, find Birthday, select edit, and change the audience for both the month-and-day and the year to Only me. Save the change. The menu wording shifts between app versions, so search your Facebook settings for “birthday” if you cannot find it.

How do I turn off birthday notifications on Facebook?

Birthday notifications to your friends depend on who can see your birthday. When you set the date to Only me, friends no longer receive reminders about it. To stop receiving reminders about other people’s birthdays, open Notification settings and turn off Birthdays.

Can I remove my birthday from Facebook completely?

Facebook asks for a date of birth when you create an account and keeps it for age and safety purposes, so you generally cannot erase it entirely. You can, however, hide it from everyone except yourself, and you can remove the year display from your profile.

Why do people still wish me happy birthday after I hid it?

Friends may remember the date from earlier years, see it on another Meta app such as Instagram, receive reminders from a calendar or contact app, or have a birthday saved from before you changed the setting. Hiding the date on Facebook does not erase what others already know.

Is it safe to use a fake birthday on Facebook?

Facebook’s terms ask people to provide accurate information, and a false date can cause problems with account recovery or age restrictions. A safer approach is to keep your real birthday but set the audience to Only me.

Does hiding my birthday on Facebook remove it from people-search sites?

No. Data brokers collect dates of birth from public records and marketing lists, not from your Facebook settings. You must opt out of each broker or use a removal service to take your date of birth off those profiles.

Sources

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