Sharing and finding you on Facebook
Control each time you post
See how you can choose a specific audience for everything you post.
Control over your profile
Learn how you can select a specific audience for everything on your profile.
What your friends share about you
See what it means to be tagged or added to a group.
About Pages
Learn about public Pages and what information they may receive about you.
Control each time you post
Whenever you post content (like a status update, photo or check-in), you can select a specific audience, or even customize your audience.
To do this, simply click on the sharing icon and choose who can see it.
Choose this icon if you want to make something Public. Choosing to make something public is exactly what it sounds like. It means that anyone, including people off of Facebook, will be able to see or access it. Learn more about public information.
Choose this icon if you want to share with your Facebook Friends.
Choose this icon if you want to Customize your audience. You can also use this to hide your post from specific people.
If you do not make a selection, your information will be shared with the last audience you selected. If you want to change your selection later you can do that too on your profile.
If you tag someone, that person and their friends can see your post no matter what audience you selected. The same is true when you approve a tag someone else adds to your post.
Always think before you post. Just like anything else you post on the web or send in an email, information you share on Facebook can be copied or re-shared by anyone who can see it.
When you comment on or "like" someone else's post, or write on their Wall, that person gets to select the audience.
You can control who can see the Facebook Pages you've "liked" by visiting your profile and clicking "Edit Profile."
Sometimes you will not see a sharing icon when you post something (like when you write on a Page's wall or comment on a news article that uses our comments plugin). This is because some types of posts are always public posts. As a general rule, you should assume that if you do not see a sharing icon, the information will be publicly available.
Control over your profile
Whenever you add things to your profile you can select a specific audience, or even customize your audience.
To do this, simply click on the sharing icon and choose who can see it.
Choose this icon if you want to make something Public. Choosing to make something public is exactly what it sounds like. It means that anyone, including people off of Facebook, will be able to see or access it. Learn more about public information.
Choose this icon if you want to share with your Facebook Friends.
Choose this icon if you want to Customize your audience. You can also use this to hide the item on your profile from specific people.
When you select an audience for your friend list, you are only controlling who can see it on your profile. We call this a profile visibility control. This is because your friend list is always available to the games, applications and websites you use, and your friendships may be visible elsewhere (such as on your friends' profiles or in searches). For example, if you select "Only Me" as the audience for your friend list, but your friend sets her friend list to "Public," anyone will be able to see your connection on your friend's profile.
Similarly, if you choose to hide your gender, it only hides it on your profile. This is because we, just like the applications you and your friends use, need to use your gender to refer to you properly on the site.
When someone tags you in a post (such as a photo, status update or check-in), you can choose whether you want that post to appear on your profile. You can either approve each post individually or approve all posts by your friends. If you approve a post and later change your mind, you can remove it from your profile. Learn more about tagging.
To make it easier for your friends to find you, we allow anyone with your contact information (such as your email address or mobile number), to find you through Facebook search, as well as other tools we provide, such as contact importers.
If you share your contact information (such as your email address or mobile number) with your friends, they may be able to use third party applications to sync that information with other address books, including ones on their mobile phones.
Some things (like your name and profile picture) do not have sharing icons because they are always publicly available. As a general rule, you should assume that if you do not see a sharing icon, the information will be publicly available.
What your friends share about you
Tags
A tag is a link to your profile. For example, if you are tagged in a post (such as a photo or a status update), that post will contain a link to your profile. If someone clicks on the link, they will see your public information and anything else you let them see.
Anyone can tag you in anything. Once you are tagged in a post, you and your friends will be able to see it. For example, your friends may be able to see the post in their News Feed or when they search for you. It may also appear on your profile.
You can choose whether a post you've been tagged in appears on your profile. You can either approve each post individually or approve all posts by your friends. If you approve a post and later change your mind, you can always remove it from your profile.
If you do not want someone to tag you in their posts, we encourage you to reach out to them and give them that feedback. If that does not work, you can block them. This will prevent them from tagging you going forward.
If you are tagged in a private space (such as a message or a group) only the people who can see the private space can see the tag. Similarly, it you are tagged in a comment, only the people who can see the comment can see the tag.
Groups
Your friends can add you to the Groups they are in. You can always leave a Group, which will prevent others from adding you to it again.
About Pages
Facebook Pages are public pages. Companies use Pages to share information about their products. Celebrities use Pages to talk about their latest projects. And communities use pages to discuss topics of interest, everything from baseball to the opera.
Because Pages are public, information you share with a Page is public information. This means, for example, that if you post a comment on a Page, that comment can be used by the Page owner off of Facebook, and anyone can see it. Learn more.
When you "like" a Page, you create a connection to that Page. That connection is added to your profile and your friends may see it in their News Feeds. You may also receive updates from the Page in your News Feed and your messages. You can remove the Pages you've "liked" from your profile.
Some Pages contain content that comes directly from the Page owner. Page owners can do this through online plugins, such as an iframe, and it works just like the games and other applications you use through Facebook. Because this content comes directly from the Page owner, that Page may be able to collect information about you, just like any website.