Securing your Facebook Profile

I recently went through the process (again) of locking down my Facebook profile. Every single time Facebook change their privacy policy, I recommend that you review your profile – look at it from the view of a random – that is someone who is not your Facebook friend.

I’d recommend sharing absolutely nothing with the public. Facebook currently forces you to share your profile picture, your cover photo and your name. In all honesty that is all anyone who knows you needs to find you. Why share anything else with the randoms?

Think about this: personal information you share with randoms can be used steal your identity, track your whereabouts, and con your family and friends. Is it worth the risk of ignoring this? You may ask why Facebook don’t just default all the privacy settings to “Friends Only” – well that is a good question – but my guess is that the more information public that you publish the better it is for their business partners. Advertisers. I know I sure as hell don’t want my details, location, habits and connections shared with corporates.

I hope you make the effort to follow these instructions to lock-down your profile.

If you are a ‘pro’ Facebook user and have setup custom lists and custom access groups, then I’d ignore this entirely. This is intended for the average Facebook user who doesn't really know or care about the privacy options.

Our aim here is to make as little of your information public.

Step 1: About You

Ok, so giving everyone in the known universe access to your details is stupid. If you do nothing else recommended in this guide – do this.


1. Click on your name to view your profile







2. Click on ‘About’. 
You will now see a screen with blocks of information about you (Work and education, about you, living, Basic Info, etc...)

3. On each block of information, you’ll see an Edit button - Click it
Next to every text-box there is a drop down menu. Make sure each one is set to Friends. (you can quickly verify this by looking at the icon – if it is the silhouette of two people you've selected friends

(You will have to perform this step for every section)

Do this for every information entry point – even if you have not filled it in, then click “Finished Editing”

4. There is only one section on the “About” screen that needs special attention. In the Basic Info section, make sure that “Show my sex on my timeline” is unchecked

Step 2: Your Friends

Here, we are protecting your friend’s identities. Randoms can use this information to con other friends by pretending to share a common acquaintance. Additionally, they may be able to guess who your parents are (and thus secret password questions) by simply profiling your friends pictures.

1. Click on your name again to view your profile

2. Click on the “Friends” Block – it’s on the right of the ‘about’ block

3. Near the top right of the screen, you’ll see the Edit button

a. Click it

b. On the pop-up, select “Friends” from the drop down list.

c. Click close

Step 3: Your Photos

This is a no-brainer for me too. I don’t want my personal photos to come up in Google searches. Hell no. People in the UK can sue you if their child is in a photo that you took of your child, yet they ignorantly share photos of those same kids on the internet!

1. Click on your name again to view your profile

2. Click on the “Photos” Block – it’s on the right of the ‘friends’ block

3. Now click on the ‘Albums’ tab

4. For each album, click on the dropdown box next the text that shows you how many photos are in the album. Select “Friends”

5. If you have setup your “close friends” list, you could select this as well. This is useful if you have hundreds of friends and only want to share your photos with the ones you actually still talk too.

There are three albums that you cannot mark as private, these are:
a. Mobile uploads - You’ll have to manage each photo in here manually

b. Timeline Photos - You’ll have to manage each photo in here manually

c. Cover Photos - These are public photos; if you have any photos of you or your family in here I’d move them to another album or delete them.

Step 4: Things You Like

1. Click on your name again to view your profile

2. Click on the “Likes” Block – it’s on the right of the ‘maps’ block (which is next to the photo block)

3. Now click on the Edit Button

4. Make sure every category is set to Friends

5. Make sure you also change the ‘other pages you like ‘as it is easy to miss and a lot of your ‘likes’ will fall into this category

Step 5: Privacy Settings

You’d think everything above would be in here somewhere… well it’s not. Go figure.

1. At the top of the screen, on the right of your name you’ll see a little cogwheel.

2. Click it and then click “Privacy Settings” and you’ll see a screen like this

3. Set the following

a. Who can see your future posts – Friends

b. Who can look you up using the email address of phone number you provided – Friends

c. Who can look up your Timeline by name – Friends

d. Do you want other search engines to link to your Timeline – Off

4. Now click on the “Limit Last Posts” Link, and click the button labelled the same

5. Facebook will now warn you. Don’t be intimidated. Click “confirm”

Step 6: Timeline and Tagging

1. (If you’ve just finished step 5, skip this item) At the top of the screen, click on the cogwheel again and select “Privacy Settings”

2. Select “timeline and tagging” on the left

3. You’ll see a screen like this

4. Change these settings

a. Who can see posts you've been tagged in on you time line – Friends
b. Who can see what others post on your timeline? – Friends
c. When you're tagged in a post, who do you want to add to the audience if they aren't already in it? – Only Me

Step 7: Congratulate Yourself

Well done. You've locked your face book profile down… for now.
Hope this helps you
--Jason.