Profile & Timeline Privacy
Adjust What People Can See
Here's an overview of who can see what's on your profile and tools you can use to control what you share on your profile and timeline.
Overview- To edit things like places you’ve lived or your family and relationships, click About below your cover photo, then hover over the info you’d like to change and click Edit. Use the audience selector next to this info to choose who you're sharing it with.
- Anyone can see your public information, which includes your name, profile picture, cover photo, gender, username, user ID (account number), and networks (learn why).
- Only you and your friends can post to your timeline. When you post something, you can control who sees it by using the audience selector. When other people post on your timeline, you can control who sees it by choosing the audience of the Who can see what others post on your timeline setting.
- As you edit your info, you can control who sees what by using the audience selector.
- Before photos, posts and app activities that you’re tagged in appear on your timeline, you can approve or dismiss them by turning on timeline review. Keep in mind, you can still be tagged, and the tagged content (ex: photo, post) is shared with the audience the person who posted it selected other places on Facebook (ex: News Feed and search).
- Set an audience for who can see posts you’ve been tagged in on your timeline.
- To see what your profile looks like to other people, use the View As tool.
To select the audience for stuff your friends share on your timeline:
- Click
in the top right of any page and select Settings. - Click Timeline and Tagging in the left column.
- Look for the setting Who can see what others post on your Timeline? and click Edit to the far right.
- Select an audience from the dropdown menu.
Note: Posts on your timeline may appear other places on Facebook, like News Feed and search, for people who are in the audience they're shared with (example: friends, public, custom).
When you share something on your timeline, use the audience selector to choose who it's shared with. If you want to change who you shared something with after you post it, return to the audience selector and pick a new audience.
You can also adjust the audience of many posts at once. Within your account settings, you'll find a tool that helps you change the audience of posts you've shared with Public or Friends of Friends to Friends Only. To use this tool:
- Click at the top right of any Facebook page and choose Settings.
- Select Privacy from the left menu.
- Under the Your Activity section, click Limit the audience for posts I've shared with friends of friends or Public?
- Click Limit Old Posts.
- If you want to undo this action in the future, you'll need to adjust the audience of each individual post. Limiting the audience of your previous posts cannot be reversed in one click.
- If you have shared a previous post with a Custom audience such as Friends except Acquaintances or Close Friends, this tool will not change the audience for those past posts.
- If you tagged someone in the post, the audience of the post will still include the person you tagged and people they include in posts they're tagged in.
- This tool only controls the audience for posts you've shared. If you've been tagged in someone else's post, they control the audience for their posts.
You can see what your profile looks like to other people by using the View As tool. To use View As:
- Go to your profile and click
- Click View As... in the dropdown menu.
- You’ll see what your profile looks to the public. To see how your profile appears to a specific person, like a friend or coworker, click View as Specific Person, type their name and press enter.
Please keep in mind that posts and photos you’ve hidden on your timeline are still visible to the audience they're shared with other places on Facebook, like in News Feed and search. Learn more about choosing who can see the things you share.
Other Tools and Settings
Your email has both a privacy setting (that controls who you share it with) and a setting that controls whether it shows on your profile or not. For example, you can choose to show your email on your profile, but set its privacy to Friends, so your email is shared on your profile and other places on Facebook with your friends.
To adjust who you share your email with and decide if it shows on your profile:
- Click About at the top of your profile
- Click Contact and Basic Info
- Hover over your email and click the audience selector to the right of your email
- Select
Shown on Timeline or
Hidden from Timeline
By default, everyone can see the Friends section of your profile. To adjust who can see your Friends section:
- Go to your profile
- Click Friends below your cover photo
- Click
at the top of the page and select Edit Privacy from the dropdown menu
- Select an audience (ex: Friends, Public) to choose who you share your friend list with on your profile
Note: People may see mutual friends when they visit your profile. Your friends also control who can see their friendships on their own profiles. If people can see your friendship on another profile, they'll also be able to see it in News Feed, search and other places on Facebook.
Only you and your friends can post on your timeline. To prevent your friends from posting on your timeline:
- Click in the upper-right corner of any page and select Settings
- In the left column, click Timeline and Tagging
- Find the setting Who can post on your Timeline? and click Edit to the far right
- Select Only Me from the dropdown menu
If you turn on timeline review, you can see your pending posts from your activity log:
- Go to your profile and click Activity Log.
- Find the Timeline Review section at the top of the page and click the Review button.
- Click Add to Timeline next to an individual post to approve it, or click Hide or Ignore to ignore it.
