Protect your privacy & your identity, as well as the identity of your real life (RL) friends, from acquaintances, virtual friends, profile surfers, stalkers, debt collectors, an ex, former bosses, and more. Limit the spam you receive through Facebook and its many applications.
No matter the reason for having both real life or virtual friends on your friends list, continue reading this how-to guide to learn how to add both "strangers" and "friends" to your profile without compromising your identity or safety. Protect your profile from the prying eyes! Please note that
you will need to have your Facebook profile open in another browser window if you wish to apply these changes as we go along. (Make sure you're logged into your Facebook!)
Links to related articles can be found near the end of this blog post; share this with your family, friends, and other Facebook users.
Introduction
We'll go over how you can still take advantage of facebook games that require plentiful (virtual) friends in order for you to unlock more of its features or obtain more gifts and what-not. We'll do this by creating a friend list -- one that's given only limited-access to your profile & your RL friends' profiles, while still being able to access/share facebook games and gifts with one another. Remain connected without being compromised!
Afterwards, we'll go over how to limit having your profile and its crucial information from being on public display to the rest of the unknown world who like to browse through profiles, whether it's a stalker, an enemy, a debt collector, a registered sex offender, an ex, an old boss, or just a pair of prying eyes! Share only what you want, with who you want... Or with whichever friends list you choose! Secure that profile!
This blog post was initially written on a
Facebook note, with screenshots linked to the appropriate steps. If you'd rather take a peek at that, feel free to do so!
Making a Limited-Access Friend List
The first step to protecting your privacy, preventing stolen identities & killing unwanted spam, is to create a friends list that's limited in what they can see/access. Toss all of your virtual friends in this list.
- Open a new browser window (or browser tab) and use it to log into your Facebook profile, if you haven't already done so.
- Go to your Facebook "Friends" page. (Use facebook's top menu to get there).
- On the left of that page, click on the button that says, "Make a New List", then enter a name for that list like "All Limited Access", "Gamers Limited", or something you can remember. Hit the enter key when you're done to save it. You can go back through these steps to create more lists if you'd like.
- How to add your current Facebook friends to the list >> Near the top of the list where it says "Add to list", type in the names of those you wish to include in the limited-access list. Or, you can use the "select multiple friends" link beside it, to have facebook show you icons & names of everyone you're friends with. The list will save automatically each time you add a person to it. From now on, when you send out friend invites or when you try to find friends on facebook, it will give you the option to "file" that person to one of your friends list, such as this one we've created.
- If you forget to add a person to your list when you initially accept their friend invitation, you can still add them to this friend list after the fact. In the page that lists all of your Friends, click on that friend's row (not on their picture or on any links), or click on the square "maximize" toggle icon to the right corner of their row, next to the "x" close icon. This will display the friend details of that person without actually viewing/accessing their entire profile. From there, you will see a an arrow icon that points downward, found below their name (next to the "View Friends" link), if you have any friends list set up. When you click on this arrow, a drop-down menu will appear, asking you to choose which friend list you'd like to add that person to. Choose the "All Limited Access" list we just made (or whatever you named it as), & it will add those people to the list & save automatically.
Now that you've got a limited access friends list set up, you will need to change your profile & applications' privacy settings to reflect that this list should be given only limited-access.
Privacy Settings
- Go to the top menu of facebook & select "Settings > Privacy Settings." You will have some things to change in each item listed, so this part may take you a few minutes.Click on "Profile" so we can privatize some of the details shown on your profile, such as your birthday, your "about me" section, etc. From there, choose "customize" on each setting you wish to hide from your limited-access friend list. Set the privacy option to be viewable only to "Friends", and in the "except" field, type in the name of the friend list we made earlier. This will make your profile viewable to all of your friends EXCEPT the friend list we just named. Those people will see nothing. When you're done, click on the word/link called "Privacy" or it may have a link you can click on at the top (in a yellow box) that says "Return to Privacy Options".
- Now click on "Search" to control who can search for you & what they can see when they find you. If you truly want stealth, then set your "Search Visibility" to "Friends Only". But note that doing so means if you have friends who are looking for you on facebook, they will not be able to find you because you are not yet on their friend list!
- On the "Search Result Content" block, make sure that only this is checked: "a link to send me a message". This allows people to send you a message such as, "Hey so-n-so, is this the so-n-so I know from Freemont High School?" LOL Of course, you can also be spammed this way so it's your choice. If you wish, you can also check off the "a link to add me as a friend" so people can request to be your friend right off the bat, & then you can choose to accept/ignore their request.
- In the "Public Search Listing" block, make sure it is unchecked or else you will be searchable via search engines like Google, Yahoo, etc! This could be disastrous, especially if you have all of your contact info, birthdate, etc. publicly visible. If left checked, you open yourself to spam & you've given everyone the starting tools needed to steal your identity.
- Click on the "Save Settings" button at the bottom when you're done. Then click on the word/link called "Privacy" above, or it may have a link you can click on at the top (in a yellow box) that says "Return to Privacy Options".
- Now click on "News Feed & Wall". Uncheck the items you do not want all your friends to see on your Wall or in their News Feed, An example is to uncheck the "add a friend" box. Then your wall won't post a little "So-and-so is now friends with this-and-that", which reveals those RL people's names to those on your limited-access friend list. It's basically up to you what you wish to change here, if anything. When you're done, save it & go back to the main privacy page again.
- Now click on "Applications". On the page that shows up, you can read the Overview that's shown, but when you're done, click on the "Settings" tab/link. You'll notice that the first option is selected for you automatically, which "displays" the following checkbox options to all of your friends. Make sure you uncheck everything here! Then scroll down to the "Beacon websites" option. It's basically for outside websites that you give permission to for the purpose of posting stuff on your wall, accessing your data, etc. Examples: Some sites have a facebook widget so you can view your facebook status from there. News and other sites give you the option to "Share this" article to your facebook. This is what the beacon does. Uncheck it if you never post stuff in your facebook through other sites, or if you never access some facebook data from other sites. Save your settings and you're all done with your Privacy Settings!
Application Settings
Although your profile is now private, your Wall and its posts, and all other 3rd party applications in the Boxes/tabs can still be seen on your profile. If for instance, you have a horoscope box that reveals your birthdate and you do not wish for everyone to know that date, then you will have to edit that application's settings. Also, all 3rd party applications that post to your wall is also viewable, such as ones that say, "
so-and-so sent so-and-so a gift!" These often use your RL friend's names in it, so you should change the settings so that only posts you approve of will be displayed.
- Go to the top menu in facebook & select "Settings > Application Settings." Alternatively, you can click on the "Applications" button on the facebook toolbar, then click on the "Edit" link at the top of it. Or, you can also go to the Home page (use the top menu) and then click on the "Edit Applications" link on the right.
- A list of your applications should be shown. Click on the "Edit" link to the right of each application you wish to privatize. A pop-up should appear with a few tabs in it, usually 3 of them.
- The first tab is called "Wall" and controls what's shown on your Wall. You should select "Prompt me" out of the choices there, unless it's an application where you don't care if it's wall posts/feeds are shown to everyone on your friends list, including limited-access friends.
- Now go to the "Profile" tab of this pop-up, and under "Privacy", set it the same way you did for your profile... Choose "custom", then select to have this item viewable to "Friends only", and in the EXCEPT box, enter the name of the limited-access friend list we made earlier.
- Click on "Okay" and your changes for that application will be saved. You will have to do this for every application listed that you'd like to limit access to!
- Extra Hint: If you access an application often (such as myFarm & other games), I recommend you add it to your "bookmark" list. This will make the application show up under your "Applications" button below so u can get to it quickly.
Conclusion
That's all there is to it! If you like, take a look at the end-result by viewing your profile as somebody else! "How do I do that?", you ask? On the top facebook menu above, select "Settings > Privacy Settings". On this Privacy page, click on "Profile." You'll notice that this page has a block that says, "See how a friend sees your profile", with a blank box beside it. Just start typing in a name of a friend whom you've added to your limited-access list & press Enter (or click on the correct name if it pops up). This will show you exactly how that person sees your profile. Easy, isn't it! (There should be an "Exit 'view as' mode" link at the top for when you're done pretending to be someone else. LOL)
If you need more help in privatizing your facebook experience, feel free to send me a message via my facebook inbox.
If you've found this helpful, then maybe your friends will too!
Share this with your family, friends, and other Facebook users! The Facebook Note version of this article can be found here:
http://bit.ly/SecureYourFacebookProfile
Please do not plagiarize my work! Thank you!
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Comments (1)
On the Facebook - Profile - Info tab the following is listed: Basic Info, Contact Info, Education & Work, Groups, & Pages. Am unable to limit viewing of Pages section. Any clues on that?? Great article - thanks mucho!!! Only problem I had was separately editing photos with same procedure.