Facebook Privacy Settings

Before you start adding too much data into your Facebook profile, you may want to change your privacy settings to allow only certain groups of people to view your content. This is a good idea if you have friends, family, and business contacts in your Facebook account.

Follow these steps to edit your profile privacy settings:

1. Log into Facebook
2. On the top right, hover over “Settings”
3. Click on “Privacy Settings”
4. Click on “Profile.”

   Here, you can edit the privacy setting for each piece of information on Facebook. By default, I think everything is open. I would suggest clicking on “Customize..” for each of the drop down and applying these similar settings:

   1. Profile – “Only Friends”
   2. Basic Info – “Only Friends” – “None of my Networks” (see note below about networks below)
   3. Personal Info – “Only Friends” – “None of my Networks” also add in business contacts in the “Except These People”
   4. Status and Links – “Some Friends” – this is where you can add in your specific groups (see image below) – probably close friends and family. “None of my Networks”, add in “Except These People”
   5. Photos Tagged of You – “Only Friends/Some Friends/Only Me,” “None of my Networks, add “Except these people..”
5. Continue editing the rest of the privacy settings to your liking just like in Step 4.

Screenshot of what the privacy settings pages looks like:

Note: You can also allow your network(s) to view parts of your Facebook profile. This will also allow people who are not on your contact list to view your content (for example, if it’s tagged, shared, linked, etc). If you want more control of your content, I would suggest setting your privacy options to “None of my Networks.”

Screenshot of how to add only groups of friends to a privacy setting

This option is available on a few privacy settings (where it makes sense).

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