Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms, with over 2 billion monthly active users as of 2022. On Facebook, users can share photos and videos by posting them directly to their profile or news feed, or by creating photo albums. However, one common question people have is whether their Facebook albums are public by default, or if they can control the privacy settings.
The Short Answer
The short answer is: it depends. When you first create a Facebook album, the default setting makes it visible to “Friends” only. However, you can change this setting and make your album public, private, or customized to be visible to certain groups of people. The privacy settings for albums allow users to control exactly who can see their photos and videos.
Public vs. Private Album Privacy Settings
There are two main privacy options for Facebook albums:
- Public: Anyone, even people without a Facebook account, can view the album and its contents.
- Private: Only people you select as an audience can view the album.
When you first create an album, the default setting is private to “Friends Only.” But it’s easy to change this to make your album public if desired.
How to Make a Facebook Album Completely Public
Here are the steps to make a Facebook album open to the public:
- Go to your Facebook profile and select the “Photos” tab.
- Click on the album you want to make public.
- In the upper right, click on the audience selector that probably says “Friends” by default.
- Change the audience to “Public.”
- Save your settings.
Once you change the audience to public, anyone can see your album and the photos/videos it contains. There may be reasons to share an album publicly, such as to easily share photos from a public event, but it’s important to be aware that the album contents will be visible to everyone.
Other Album Privacy Options
In addition to Public and Friends-only, Facebook provides several other options for controlling album privacy:
- Specific friend list: Choose a customized list of friends to view the album.
- Only me: Keep the album private so only you can access it.
- Custom audience: Enter specific people, lists, or groups who can view the album.
Using custom audiences gives you granular control over album access. For example, you could create an album showcasing photos from a family reunion and limit viewing to just immediate family members.
Album Privacy vs Individual Photo Privacy
It’s important to understand that the album privacy setting applies to the entire album. However, you can also customize the privacy of individual photos and videos within an album:
- Click on a photo and use the audience selector to change who can view that specific item.
- You can make a photo more private or more public than the album privacy setting.
- For example, you could have a “Friends Only” album but with a few public photos mixed in.
So album privacy will default all items inside to that setting, but items can be adjusted individually for more control.
Can You Tell if a Facebook Album is Public?
If you come across an album shared by one of your Facebook friends, how can you tell if it’s public or private? There are a few ways:
- Click the album name and look for a globe icon. This indicates the album is fully public.
- If you see a lock icon, it means the album has some privacy restrictions.
- Try sharing the album link with a friend not on Facebook. If they can access it, the album is public.
- albums default to Friends only, but aren’t always locked down.
How to Check Your Album Privacy Settings
To view or manage the privacy settings on your existing Facebook albums:
- Go to your profile and click “Photos.”
- Click the “Albums” tab to see all your albums.
- Click on the album you want to check.
- Look for the audience selector icon in the upper right and click it.
- This will let you view and change who can see the album.
Checking your albums periodically is a good idea to confirm the privacy settings are configured as you want.
How to Make an Album Private After Posting Publicly
If you shared a Facebook album publicly but now want to make it private, follow these steps:
- Go to the album privacy settings as covered above.
- Change the audience selector from Public to Friends, Only Me, or your other desired setting.
- Be aware that anyone who could view it publicly may have copied/saved photos already.
- Optional: Remove any specific photos you no longer want public.
The album and its contents will now become invisible to the public. However, you have limited control once photos and videos have been publicly available for any length of time.
Can You Delete a Public Album Completely?
If a Facebook album was made public in error, you technically can delete it to remove all traces. But this is challenging once content has been public:
- Public photos/videos may have been downloaded, copied, and reshared already.
- Deleting the album does not delete copies saved by others.
- Cached or archived copies of the album may still exist online.
- Search engines may retain copies in cached web pages.
So while an album can be deleted, removing all public traces of its contents is difficult. This underscores the importance of checking your privacy settings before sharing albums widely.
oto Albums vs Photo Posts
Facebook uses the term “album” to refer specifically to sets of multiple photos and videos. This is different than individual photo or video posts:
- A post with a single photo or video has its own privacy setting.
- You control post privacy and album privacy separately.
- So you could make a post public that points to a private album.
Again, it’s smart to always double check both post and album privacy settings before sharing images publicly.
Conclusion
Facebook albums do not have to be public or exposed to everyone by default. The initial privacy setting when creating an album is Friends-only. However, users can easily change this to share an album publicly if they desire. Checking and configuring album privacy settings granularly is good practice before posting any content. Once made public, removing all traces of an album’s contents is extremely difficult, so share thoughtfully!