How to Use Facebook Privacy Settings to Protect Your Information

Facebook gives you more privacy controls than most people ever touch, and the defaults often favor sharing. Between posts, photos, friends lists, apps, ads and location data, it is easy to expose more than you intend. This guide walks through the settings that matter most, in the order that gives the best return for your time. Meta changes menu names and layouts regularly, so use this as a map: the labels may shift, but the controls are almost always still there. For deeper background, see how to protect your personal info on Facebook and what happens to your data on Facebook.

1. What Facebook knows about you

Even if you post rarely, Facebook can hold:

Profile details you entered: name, birthday, hometown, work, school
Posts, photos, videos, comments and reactions
Friends, followers and groups
Messages
Device information, IP addresses and approximate location
Activity from sites and apps that use Facebook tools
Interests inferred for advertising

Understanding the categories helps you decide which settings matter. For more, see Facebook tracking explained and what is shared on Facebook.

2. The 20-minute privacy checkup

Step 1: Run the Privacy Checkup

Open the settings menu and look for Privacy Checkup. It walks you through who can see your posts, how people can find you, your data settings and your sign-in security. It is a good starting point, and the sections below cover what it does and what it misses.

Step 2: Set your default audience to Friends

Find the setting for who can see your future posts and change it from Public to Friends, or a custom list for finer control. This is the single most effective setting. A public post can be seen, copied and indexed by people you do not know.

Step 3: Limit old posts

Facebook has a control to limit the audience of past posts so older public posts become visible to Friends only. Use it once, then review it periodically. Also check Public photos, cover photos and profile pictures, which are often public by design.

Step 4: Control how people find you

Look for the settings on who can send you friend requests, who can look you up using your email address or phone number, and whether search engines outside Facebook can link to your profile. Tightening these reduces the chance that someone who has your number or email can find your account. Turn off the search-engine link if you do not want your profile to show up in search results.

Step 5: Set up tag review

Turn on review for tags and for posts you are tagged in before they appear on your timeline. Limit who can post on your timeline and who can see what others post there. See how to keep your tagged pictures private on Facebook.

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.

3. Profile information: what to show and what to hide

Go through each field in your About section and check its audience.

Field	Safer choice
Birthday	Hide the year, or show only to you. See how to keep your birthday private on Facebook
Phone number	Only me
Email address	Only me
Current city and hometown	Friends, or remove
Workplace and school	Friends, or remove if sensitive
Relationship and family	Friends or hidden
Friends list	Friends or only me

Think about what each detail lets a stranger infer. A hometown and a birthday help guess security answers. A workplace helps a scammer craft a believable message.

4. Apps and websites connected to Facebook

Over the years you may have used Facebook to log in to games, shopping sites and quizzes. Those connections can keep access to some of your profile information. Open the apps and websites section, review the list and remove anything you do not use or recognize. Also check what each remaining app can see. Quizzes and games in particular have a history of over-collecting. See Facebook apps collect and sell personal information.

5. Location and device settings

Turn off location history if you do not need it.
Remove check-ins from old posts if they reveal your home or routine.
Review location permissions in your phone settings and consider setting Facebook to allow location only while using the app, or never.
Disable features that suggest you to people based on contacts upload if you do not want to be found that way.

6. Ads and off-Facebook activity

Facebook uses information from your activity and from partner websites and apps to choose ads. In the ad preferences and activity information sections you can review the topics you are associated with, hide advertisers and limit how off-Facebook activity is used. These controls reduce personalization rather than stopping data collection entirely. For a wider view, see Facebook’s all-seeing eye.

7. Security settings that protect privacy

Turn on two-factor authentication with an authenticator app or security key.
Review where you are logged in and log out of devices you do not recognize.
Set up alerts about unrecognized logins.
Use a unique password stored in a password manager.

A hacked account exposes your messages, photos and contacts, so security is part of privacy.

8. Public versus private profiles

Some people need public profiles for work, creative projects or community roles. If that is you, consider these options.

Keep a personal account private and create a separate page for public content.
Use a business email and phone number on public pages, not personal ones.
Avoid posting the same details on both.

If your profile is public and you have not thought about it, read is it a problem if I set my Facebook and Twitter profiles to public.

9. Facebook privacy is only one layer

Even a perfectly configured Facebook account does not stop data brokers from listing your name, address, phone number and relatives from other sources. Scammers who cannot see your posts may still find your home address on a people-search site and then use your public friend list or tagged photos to craft a message. Removing broker listings is a separate task. See how to remove your personal information from the internet and data broker cleanup guide. If a scam does reach you, the FTC accepts reports at reportfraud.ftc.gov, and its consumer site at consumer.ftc.gov explains common social media scams.

10. Settings people commonly miss

Several controls sit outside the main privacy page. Check who can see your friends list and the people, pages and lists you follow. Review the audience on your cover photo and profile pictures. Look at the settings for story sharing and for reels or videos, which may have separate audiences. Check the group settings for any private groups you belong to, since your membership may be visible. Finally, review the list of people you have blocked or restricted and confirm that your messaging controls limit who can contact you outside your friends list.

11. What to do before you delete or deactivate

If you decide to leave, download a copy of your data first, then review the difference between deactivating and deleting. Deactivation hides your profile but keeps your data, while deletion removes it after a waiting period. Remember to remove apps and websites that used Facebook to log in, or you may lose access to them. Leaving Facebook does not remove your listings on people-search sites, so address those separately.

12. Three scenarios and what to do

Scenario 1: You want to stay in touch with family and nothing else. Set everything to Friends, hide your friends list, remove phone and email visibility, and prevent search engines from linking to your profile.

Scenario 2: You run a small business or community group. Use a page for public content, keep your personal profile private and avoid linking your home address anywhere.

Scenario 3: You are leaving an unhealthy relationship. Restrict or block the person, review friend lists and tags, turn off location features, check logged-in devices and remove your address from people-search sites. See securing online privacy post-breakup.

13. How often to review

Frequency	Task
Quarterly	Run the Privacy Checkup, review apps and tagged posts
After changes	Revisit settings after a major update, move or breakup
Yearly	Download your data, delete unused groups and review friends

14. Common mistakes

Setting future posts to Friends while leaving old posts public.
Hiding the birthday date but showing the year in other places.
Ignoring connected apps.
Posting location in real time.
Treating Facebook settings as protection against data brokers.
Never revisiting settings after Facebook changes its menus.

15. How Wiperts fits

Facebook settings control what Facebook shows. Wiperts handles the other half: it scans more than 100 data brokers and people-search sites for your name, address and phone numbers, submits removal requests, removes your personal results from Google and Bing, blurs your home on maps and monitors continuously so profiles that return are removed again.

See what is public about you with the free diagnosis.

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

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16. Key takeaways

Run the Privacy Checkup and set your default audience to Friends.
Limit old posts, lookups, search-engine links and tagging.
Remove unused connected apps and tighten location and ad settings.
Secure the account with two-factor authentication.
Facebook settings do not remove broker listings, so handle those separately.

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

17. Frequently Asked Questions

How do I make my Facebook profile more private?

Run the Privacy Checkup, set your default audience for posts to Friends, limit past public posts, restrict who can find you by email or phone number, turn on tag review and remove third-party apps you no longer use.

Where are Facebook privacy settings?

In Settings and privacy, then Settings. There is also a Privacy Checkup shortcut. Menu names and layouts change, so check the current labels in the app or on the web.

Can strangers see my Facebook posts?

If your posts are Public, yes. Set the default audience to Friends or a custom list, and use the limit past posts option to change older public posts at once.

How do I stop people finding me by phone number or email?

In the privacy settings, change who can look you up using the email address or phone number you provided, and whether search engines outside Facebook can link to your profile.

Does Facebook collect data about me off Facebook?

Facebook can receive information from websites and apps that use its tools. Review the off-Facebook activity or activity information controls to see and limit this where available.

Are privacy settings enough to hide my address?

No. Settings control what Facebook shows. People-search sites and brokers may list your address from other sources, so remove those listings separately.

Sources

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