Facebook has various privacy settings that you can use to make sure that strangers can’t find out what you’re posting. Some social networks have started to crack down on this even more, with Facebook leading the way when it comes to privacy.

This added functionality on Facebook can give you peace of mind when you post to your timeline, knowing that randoms won’t be able to see your future posts. Here’s how you can ensure this is enabled from within your account.

How to make your Facebook private – 5 Simple Settings

Facebook generally allows you to enable Privacy within your Facebook pretty easily. This can be done in 5 steps;

1. Making your posts private
2. Blocking others from seeing your friends list
3. Stop others from seeing the pages you follow
4. Remove your profile from Google search engine results
5. Limit who can send you friend requests

If you edit these settings, you should be able to ensure that your Facebook profile stays private.

Make your future posts private

This will ensure all your posts no longer come up in other’s timelines that you’re not friends with. To do this, all you have to do is;

1. First, log into your Facebook account.
2. Next, in the top right corner of your display, tap the Settings menu.
3. Once in Settings, then click into the Privacy Setting tab.
4. Under Your Activity, you should be able to scroll down and see a “Who can see your future posts?” option. Make sure this is disabled.

You can also edit any of the other privacy settings from within this menu. This includes the Limit Past Posts option, which will stop others from seeing things that you’ve already posted on Facebook.

Putting these basic Facebook privacy settings in place is the perfect way for you to ensure that your account is totally private.

Change who can see your friends list

There may be other parts of your Facebook profile that you want to keep private. This can include the friend list you have assigned to your account.

Fortunately, you can stop other Facebook users from seeing your Friend list from within your Privacy Settings too.

Just scroll down to the section “Who can see my Friends list?” and select “Only Me” if you want to stop others from being able to access it.

Limit Who Can See What You Follow

Another thing that you can prevent strangers from seeing is the pages that you follow on Facebook. Facebook page.

To stop others from seeing this, you can again head to the Settings panel, and select Privacy from the menu. From the several options available, go to the “Who can see the people, Pages and lists you follow?” option.

Here, you can adjust how many people can see your profile. You can select anyone you want, your Facebook friends or again opt for Only Me.

Stop other search engines from displaying your Facebook account

If you want to make your Facebook profile even more secure, you can stop search engines outside of Facebook from showing your profile page. This means that people won’t be able to find your profile picture, old posts or anything else associated with your account.

Within your Settings scroll to the “Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile?” option – make sure to disable this if you want to make your profile private in Google and other search engines.

Limit who can send you friend requests

The last thing that you’ll want to do is manage who can send you a friend request, whether that’s no-one, completely strangers or only friends of friends. This will stop others from adding you on Facebook.

You’ll see the “Who can send you friend requests?”option within your Settings. Make sure to choose settings that you’re comfortable with. When you do this, you’ll make Facebook private to your own preferences, and hopefully stop any strangers from bothering you in the future.

Conclusion

If you are worried that someone is monitoring your Facebook account, fortunately there are options that you can change in your privacy settings to ensure your account is secure.

Addressing the privacy and visibility of your social media accounts is increasingly important to many of us. With more and more time spent online, making sure your Facebook profile can only be seen by those you wish is a good idea.