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 
 
 Review tags before they appear on your profile: On 
 Who can see posts you're tagged in: Friends or Only me 
 
 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.