Do you have
private pictures of yourself or your family on Facebook which you don't want
the entire world to see? This guide will help you change your Facebook privacy
settings to only allow your friends or people you know to see your Facebook
photos (and everything else you do). You can even customize the privacy
settings of individual albums to share them with a small group of people like
your co-workers or relatives.
There are
three ways in which you can do this. Either, you can customize each wall post's
or photo's settings individually, or set the preferences for specific albums or
use a general setting for all posts and photos you have.
1: Choosing
an individual wall post's or photo's privacy settings
While posting
your photo or post, click on the down arrow left to the post button. Select
Custom from the drop-down menu. Using the pop-up, select who you wish to make a
post visible to. You can select if you wish to show a post to friends, friends
of friends or specific people or a specific list of people.
You can even
hide a photo from specific people or a list of people. This will be especially
useful in situations where you don't want your colleagues to see a certain
picture that makes fun of them or something similar. Normally, when someone is
tagged in a photo, every friend of that Facebook user gets to know
about it. So, if you chose to make a photo visible to friends and someone is
tagged in that picture, all their friends will see that image. To prevent this,
uncheck the Friends of those tagged checkmark.
2: Limiting
the Audience for an entire album
This is much
similar to setting the audience for an individual picture. Just go to your
albums, click on the Settings icon on the bottom right of the album whose
privacy settings you wish to customize. Then select Custom from the drop down
menu. The options Facebook offers are almost the same as those for an
individual photo, however there is one difference.
All those people who are tagged and their friends would still be able to see the photos in your album. To prevent this, you will have to change the privacy settings of each individual photo.
3: Making all
your Photos and Posts Private
This is the
permanent solution against worrying about your Facebook content. However, it
doesn't offer much customization options and should only be used if you are
sure how you will use Facebook. This is a 2 step process and involves
customizing the audience for your past posts as well as those you will make in
future.
Step 1: Limiting Past Posts & Photos
Go to your Privacy Settings, and then go to "Limit the audience for posts you've shared with friends of friends or Public?." Then click on the "Limit Old Posts" button. In the pop-up, click Confirm. This is a permanent change and cannot be undone. However, all those tagged and their friends would still be able to see your posts. To prevent this, you will have to change each post's settings individually.
Step 2: Limiting Future Posts and Photos
Step 1: Limiting Past Posts & Photos
Go to your Privacy Settings, and then go to "Limit the audience for posts you've shared with friends of friends or Public?." Then click on the "Limit Old Posts" button. In the pop-up, click Confirm. This is a permanent change and cannot be undone. However, all those tagged and their friends would still be able to see your posts. To prevent this, you will have to change each post's settings individually.
Step 2: Limiting Future Posts and Photos
While in the
privacy center, click on "Who can see your future posts?" This will
open a non-functional status update box. However, the privacy options that open
when clicking on the down arrow right next to the post button are functional
and act as global defaults for the content you post on Facebook in the future.
Make sure to select friends if you only wish to share content with your
friends. You can however, change this according to your needs; but for most
people, friends would be the best option. You can further improve your privacy
by selecting Custom and then unchecking the check box that appears next to "Friends
of those tagged". This will customize your Facebook settings to show your
Facebook activity only to your friends and those tagged.
You can also select who gets tagged in your content to further prevent your content from appearing in front of unwanted eyes. To do this, go to your Privacy Settings from the Settings icon located at the top right of the blue Facebook bar. Then, in Privacy Settings, click on Timeline and Tagging. Then under, "How can I manage tags people add and tagging suggestions?", select Enabled to review tags that friends add to your posts.
Facebook's privacy settings take some time to adjust but once you are done, you will never have to worry about your content ending up in front of unwanted users.
You can also select who gets tagged in your content to further prevent your content from appearing in front of unwanted eyes. To do this, go to your Privacy Settings from the Settings icon located at the top right of the blue Facebook bar. Then, in Privacy Settings, click on Timeline and Tagging. Then under, "How can I manage tags people add and tagging suggestions?", select Enabled to review tags that friends add to your posts.
Facebook's privacy settings take some time to adjust but once you are done, you will never have to worry about your content ending up in front of unwanted users.