Facebook allows you to stay connected with friends, family, coworkers, and acquaintances from all parts of your life. However, there may be times when you want to limit what certain people can see on your Facebook profile and in your news feed without unfriending or blocking them completely.
Luckily, Facebook provides several options for controlling who sees your posts and updates. Here’s an overview of how you can stop someone from seeing your Facebook posts without unfriending them.
Adjust Post Audience and Privacy Settings
The easiest way to stop someone from seeing your posts is to adjust the audience and privacy settings for individual posts. When you go to make a post, you’ll see a button that says “Friends” or “Public.” Click on this button and you can customize who is able to see that post.
Here are some of the options for post audiences on Facebook:
- Public: Anyone on or off Facebook can see your post
- Friends: Your friends on Facebook can see your post
- Friends except…: Your friends except for those you exclude can see your post
- Specific friends: You can select individual friends to view the post
- Only me: Only you can see your post
By choosing “Friends except…” or “Specific friends,” you can target who gets excluded from seeing that particular post while it remains visible to other friends. Just type in the name of the person you want to hide it from.
Pros
- Lets you easily hide posts from specific people without unfriending them
- You can be selective about which posts certain friends see
- Customizable for each post rather than your whole profile
Cons
- Need to adjust settings each time you make a post
- The person may still see the post if shared by a mutual friend
- Can be time consuming if hiding posts from many friends
Create a Restricted List
Facebook also allows you to create customized Friends Lists to control your audience. You can make a Restricted list with the people you want to hide posts from.
Here is how to create a Restricted Friends List:
- Go to your Friends page on Facebook
- Click “Create List” at the top
- Give your list a name like “Restricted”
- Type in the names of the friends you want to restrict and click “Create”
Once you have your Restricted list made, when you go to make a new post you can choose to show it to “Friends except Restricted List.” This will prevent the people on your list from seeing the post while it’s still visible to other friends.
Pros
- Lets you set permanent restrictions for specific friends
- Easy to switch between showing posts to all friends or restricted friends
- Only have to set it up once
Cons
- Have to manually add each restricted friend to the list
- All or nothing for hiding posts from those on the list
- Possible to share posts with mutual friends still
Adjust Overall Privacy Settings
In addition to post and list settings, you can also adjust your overall Facebook privacy settings to limit what certain people can see from your profile.
Go to “Settings” then “Privacy” to access your privacy options. Here you can customize privacy for:
- Who can see your future posts
- Who can see your friends list
- Who can look you up using your email address or phone number
- Who can see your posts on your timeline
For each category, you can choose options like Friends, Friends except Acquaintances, or Only Me. Use these settings to tailor privacy around specific friends.
Pros
- Lets you set blanket privacy rules that apply to all content
- Can fully restrict someone from seeing any of your posts or profile info
- Simple overall adjustment instead of post-by-post
Cons
- Time consuming to manually exclude individual friends
- All or nothing approach to restricting access
- Doesn’t always prevent content being shared by mutual friends
Unfollow Someone’s Posts
Another option is to stay Facebook friends with someone but unfollow their posts so their content no longer shows up in your News Feed. This prevents you from seeing their posts but doesn’t stop them from seeing yours.
To unfollow a friend’s posts:
- Go to their Facebook profile page
- Hover over “Friends” below their cover photo
- Click “Unfollow” to stop seeing their posts
You can also unlike pages they’ve shared and snooze them from your feed for 30 days. This removes their content from your News Feed temporarily.
Pros
- Lets you avoid seeing someone’s posts without unfriending
- They won’t be notified that you unfollowed them
- You can refollow them or unsnooze them at any time
Cons
- Doesn’t prevent them seeing your posts and information
- Have to manually unfollow each friend you want to restrict
- Their content may still reach you from mutual friends
Turn Off Tagging
Getting tagged by someone on Facebook also allows them to post content directly to your Timeline without your permission. If you don’t want a specific person to be able to tag you, you can turn off tagging.
Go to “Settings” then “Timeline and Tagging” to adjust these options:
- Who can post on your Timeline?
- Who can see what others post on your Timeline?
- When you’re tagged in a post, who do you want to add to the audience if they aren’t already in it?
- Review posts friends tag you in before they appear on your Timeline?
Change these settings to Only Me or disable tagging permission for the friends you want to restrict. They will no longer be able to tag you in any posts.
Pros
- Prevents unwanted posts to your Timeline
- Lets you review tags before they go public
- Easy to toggle on and off as needed
Cons
- They can still see your Timeline posts and info
- Have to manually exclude each person from tagging
- Won’t stop them posting about you without a tag
Block Someone
The most restrictive option is to outright block a friend from your Facebook account. When you block someone:
- They can no longer see anything you post
- They are unable to tag you
- They can’t invite you to events or groups
- Your messages and chat history will be deleted
To block a Facebook friend:
- Go to their profile
- Click on the three dots in the upper right corner
- Select “Block”
When you block someone, they are not notified. It simply makes your account invisible to them. You can always unblock them later to restore access.
Pros
- Totally removes their access to your profile and posts
- Lets you sever social media ties without unfriending
- They won’t be notified that you blocked them
Cons
- Very restrictive for people you want limited access
- You won’t see their posts or interact with them at all
- Have to manually block each person
Unfriend Them
Of course, you can always directly unfriend or delete someone if you want to completely remove them from your Facebook friends list. This is the most definitive option.
To unfriend someone:
- Go to their profile page
- Hover over “Friends” below their cover photo
- Select “Unfriend”
When you unfriend someone, they will get a notification that you are no longer connected. All social ties will be removed between you and neither of you will be able to interact further.
Pros
- Totally cuts off your online friendship
- Removes all access to your profile and posts
- Simple and straightforward process
Cons
- Very final – can’t undo without re-friending
- May cause social ramifications offline
- Doesn’t allow for nuanced privacy control
Prevent Being Searched
Apart from what they see in your News Feed, you can also prevent people from finding your Facebook profile through search. This offers an added layer of privacy.
Go to “Settings” then “Privacy” to find the option for “Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile?”
Switch this setting to No. Now people won’t be able to locate your profile through public search engines like Google either.
Pros
- Harder for people to seek out your profile
- Works together with other privacy settings
- Lets you control who finds your profile
Cons
- Not foolproof – your info may still show up
- Friends can still tag you in posts
- Visibility depends on your overall privacy settings
Use Other Privacy Settings
Here are a few other Facebook privacy tools that might help restrict unwanted eyes from your profile and posts:
- Login approvals – Require a code to login from unrecognized devices
- Facial recognition – Control the use of facial recognition to identify you
- Two-factor authentication – Add a second login step for higher security
- Activity log – Monitor logins and profile views
- App settings – Adjust what info apps you use can access
- Ad settings – Limit how your data is used for ad targeting
Using all the privacy tools available to you lets you customize exactly who sees what on your personal Facebook profile.
Conclusion
While no solution is perfect, using the appropriate privacy settings, lists, unfollowing, and blocking means you can effectively limit certain people from interacting with your Facebook profile and posts.
Some key takeaways include:
- Adjust individual post visibility for more control
- Create Restricted lists to permanently hide your profile
- Limit the audience for your content and tags
- Unfollow or block especially bothersome friends
- Use privacy settings to stay private in searches
- Customize based on the level of restriction you want
With so many options to choose from, you can find the right balance for keeping your Facebook account open to the people you want, while limiting access from those you’d rather restrict, all without permanently deleting or unfriending anyone.