What making your account private actually does
Making your Facebook account private means changing who can see your posts, photos, and profile information. When your account is private, only people you have accepted as friends can see most of what you share. Strangers cannot find your posts in search results, cannot see your photo albums, and cannot message you without your permission.
Facebook gives you two main routes: you can adjust individual privacy settings to control who sees specific things, or you can restrict your entire profile so that only friends see your activity. Most people do both — they make their profile private and then tighten a few settings further.
The settings you change are permanent until you change them again. Facebook does not revert them after a certain time, and changing them does not affect posts you have already shared — those stay visible to whoever could see them before.
Key Takeaways
- Your privacy settings are in Settings and Privacy > Settings > Privacy, where you control who sees your posts, your profile, and your friend list.
- Set "Who can see your posts?" to "Friends" to make your activity visible only to people you have accepted.
- Set "Who can look you up?" to "Friends only" to prevent strangers from finding your profile through search or through other people's friend lists.
- Turn off "Allow other people to put your profile on the News Feed" to stop your name appearing when friends interact with your posts.
- Existing posts remain visible to whoever could see them before you change your settings — privacy changes do not retroactively hide old content.
How to change who sees your posts and profile
Open Facebook on your phone or computer. Tap or click the menu icon (three horizontal lines) in the bottom right corner on mobile, or the down arrow in the top right on desktop. Select "Settings and Privacy," then "Settings."
On the left side, select "Privacy." You will see several options. The first one is "Who can see your posts?" — tap or click it and change it from "Public" or "Friends of Friends" to "Friends." This means only people on your friends list can see new posts you make.
Next, find "Who can look you up?" and set both options to "Friends only." The first controls whether people can find you by searching your name. The second controls whether people can find you through your phone number or email address if they have it. Setting both to "Friends only" means only your friends can locate your profile this way.
Controlling who can contact you and tag you
Scroll down in your Privacy settings to "Who can contact you?" Set this to "Friends" so that only people on your friends list can send you messages. If you leave it on "Everyone," strangers can message you even if you have not accepted their friend request.
Find "Who can see your friends list?" and set it to "Friends only" or "Only me." If you choose "Only me," nobody except you can see who your friends are. If you choose "Friends only," your friends can see your friends list but strangers cannot.
Look for "Who can post on your profile?" and set it to "Friends" or "Only me." If you set it to "Only me," only you can post on your own profile — your friends cannot write on your wall. If you set it to "Friends," your friends can post, but strangers cannot.
Limiting how your name appears in other places
In the same Privacy section, find "Allow other people to put your profile on the News Feed." Turn this off. When this is on, your name appears in your friends' News Feeds when they interact with your posts or when Facebook suggests them as a friend to someone else. Turning it off reduces how often your profile gets shown to people who are not your friends.
Check "Who can see your email address?" and "Who can see your phone number?" Set both to "Friends only" or "Only me." This prevents strangers from seeing contact information on your profile, even if they somehow reach your page.
What to do about old posts and photos
Changing your privacy settings does not hide posts you shared before the change. If you posted something when your account was public, it stays visible to the people who could see it then — even after you make your account private.
To hide old posts, you have two options. You can go to your profile, find individual posts, and click the three dots on each one to change who can see it. Or you can use Facebook's "Limit Past Posts" tool, which changes the visibility of all posts you made before a certain date to "Friends only." To find this tool, go to Settings > Privacy and scroll to the bottom.
For photos, go to your profile, select "Photos," and click on each album. Tap or click the three dots and change the album's privacy setting. You can also change individual photos within an album the same way.
Privacy settings that affect what you see, not what others see
Some privacy settings control what appears in your own News Feed or what information Facebook collects about you, rather than controlling who sees your content. These are worth adjusting but work differently.
In Settings > Privacy, look for "Who can see your activity status?" This controls whether people can see when you were last active on Facebook. Set it to "Friends" or turn it off entirely. Find "Who can see your story?" and set it to "Friends" or "Close Friends" — your story will disappear after 24 hours regardless, but this controls who can see it while it is live.
Go to Settings > Apps and Websites to see which apps and websites have permission to access your Facebook data. Remove any you no longer use. This does not make your account private, but it reduces the amount of information Facebook shares with third parties.
Checking your privacy settings are working
After you change your settings, test them by logging out of Facebook or using a private browser window to view your profile as a stranger would see it. Search for your name and see what appears. If your profile still shows up in search results with your posts visible, go back to Privacy settings and make sure "Who can look you up?" is set to "Friends only."
Ask a friend who is not on your friends list (or create a test account) to search for you and try to view your profile. They should see only your name and profile picture, not your posts, photos, or friend list. If they can see more than that, return to your privacy settings and check which ones are still set too wide.
Remember that Facebook's privacy settings change occasionally, and the exact wording or location of options may shift. If you cannot find a setting described here, search for it in Settings using the search bar at the top of the Settings page.
Frequently Asked Questions
If I make my account private, can my friends still see my posts?
Yes. When you set "Who can see your posts?" to "Friends," only people on your friends list can see your new posts. Your friends will continue to see everything you share, just like before — the change only affects people who are not your friends.
Does making my account private hide my old posts?
No. Posts you shared before changing your settings remain visible to whoever could see them at the time you posted. You can use "Limit Past Posts" to change all old posts to "Friends only," or you can hide individual posts by clicking the three dots on each one.
Can people still find me if my account is private?
If you set "Who can look you up?" to "Friends only," only your friends can find you by searching your name or using your phone number or email. Strangers will not see your profile in search results, though they may still see your name if a mutual friend mentions you in a post.
What happens if I send a friend request to someone after making my account private?
They will see your profile picture and name, but not your posts, photos, or friend list — the same as any stranger would see. Once they accept your friend request, they can see everything you have shared with friends.
Does making my account private stop Facebook from collecting my data?
No. Privacy settings control who sees your content, not what Facebook collects about you. Facebook still tracks your activity, your location, and your interests regardless of your privacy settings. To limit data collection, go to Settings > Apps and Websites and remove apps you no longer use, and adjust your ad preferences in Settings > Ads.