How to Keep Your Facebook Account Private
Facebook is designed for sharing with friends, so you can't make a profile that hides everything from friends too. The closest you can get is:
- Hide everything from non-friends (the public).
- Use the "Only me" setting on individual fields you don't want anyone to see, including friends.
- Put specific friends on a Restricted list so they only see what you make public.
A few things stay visible no matter what: your name, your profile picture, your cover photo, and your activity in public groups.
Basic protections
Go to Settings & privacy → Settings → Privacy (or Audience and visibility on newer layouts). Set each item below.
Your posts and stories
- Who can see your future posts: Friends (or Only me if you want a quiet profile)
- Limit past posts to friends: Yes
- Who can see your stories: Friends
Your profile details (under Profile details or Profile information)
- Set each field (birthday, hometown, current city, relationship, email, phone, employer, education) to Only me. This hides them from friends too.
Your friends list
- Who can see your friends list: Only me
Pages you follow
- Who can see the pages you follow: Only me
Finding you
- Who can send friend requests: Friends of friends
- Who can look you up by email or phone: Friends
- Search engines linking to your profile: Off
Tagging
Active status
- Show when you're active: Off
Hide things from specific friends without unfriending them
Add them to your Restricted list: Settings → Privacy → Blocking → Restricted list. They stay friends, but only see what you post as Public.
Check what others actually see
On your profile, click the three dots near your name → View As. This shows your profile from a non-friend's perspective. Anything you still see there is still public.
What you can't hide
- Your name, profile picture, and cover photo are always public.
- Posts you make in public groups are visible to anyone in those groups.
- Comments you leave on public posts are visible to anyone who can see that post.
- Facebook itself sees everything regardless of these settings.
While you're in there: lock the account
- Settings → Security and login: turn on two-factor authentication (authenticator app, not SMS, if possible) and login alerts.
- Use a unique password from your password manager.