Facebook has become one of the most popular social media platforms, with over 2.8 billion monthly active users as of 2020. With so many people using Facebook, questions around privacy settings and visibility of activity often come up. One common question is whether someone can see if you viewed their Facebook profile.
The Short Answer
In most cases, no – someone cannot tell if you specifically view their Facebook profile. Facebook does not notify users of who views their profile. The exception is if you interact with any of their content while viewing their profile, such as by liking a post or commenting. Then the user would see that activity the same as on anyone else’s timeline.
Visibility Settings on Facebook
When you view someone’s profile on Facebook, they do not receive any notification that you did so. This applies to friends, people in your network, and generally anyone on Facebook unless you interact with their content.
There are a few visibility settings related to viewing Facebook profiles:
- Friends list visibility – Controls who can see your list of Facebook friends. Options are public, friends, only me, or customized.
- View As settings – Allows you to see what your profile looks like to the public or specific people.
However, none of these settings notify the user when their profile is viewed. The visibility settings only control what information you make available on your own profile.
When Someone Can Tell You Viewed Their Profile
There are a couple cases where someone may be notified that you viewed their Facebook profile:
- You interact with their content – If you like, comment on, or otherwise interact with any posts, photos, videos, etc. on their profile, they will see your activity just as they would on their own timeline.
- Mutual friends mention you – If a mutual friend tags you in a post or comment on the person’s profile, they will see that.
Other than those situations, simply viewing a Facebook profile does not trigger any notification to the user that you looked at their profile.
Pages and Public Profiles
The visibility settings work differently for Facebook Pages and public figures compared to personal profiles:
- Pages – Pages related to businesses, organizations, products, artists, etc. can see insights on how many people view their Page and what posts are most popular.
- Public profiles – For public figures, politicians, celebrities and others with a public presence, there are statistics available on total views and follows.
For Pages and public profiles specifically, anonymous aggregated analytics are provided to give insight into their reach and viewership. However, they still would not see which specific people view their profiles.
Can You Tell Who Views Your Profile?
The visibility settings work both ways – just as others can’t tell if you looked at their Facebook profile, you also cannot tell who specifically is viewing your profile. The one exception is that Facebook notifies you if someone views your profile after you have blocked them.
Outside of Facebook
While Facebook itself does not notify users of profile views, there are some third-party apps and browser extensions that claim to show you who views your Facebook profile. However, most experts recommend avoiding these for privacy and security reasons, as they often request broad permissions to function or contain malware.
The safest approach is to assume no one will be notified when you view their Facebook profile unless you interact directly with their content while viewing it.
Conclusion
Facebook is designed to maintain privacy around views of user profiles. There is no direct notification sent when someone views your profile and you cannot see who specifically has viewed yours. The only case where a user might realize you looked at their profile is if you interact with their posts and content while viewing it.
For the average Facebook user with a personal profile, you can be confident your views of other profiles remain anonymous. Public figures, businesses and organizations may have more analytics available on views of their official Pages, but could still not identify specific people viewing their profiles.
Here is a table summarizing when someone can see you viewed their Facebook profile:
| Action | Can They See? |
|---|---|
| View profile and posts | No |
| Like or comment on post | Yes |
| Tagged by mutual friend | Yes |
| View as Page or public figure | Only anonymous analytics |
Protecting Your Privacy on Facebook
If you are concerned about maintaining privacy around your Facebook activity, here are some tips:
- Adjust privacy settings – Control who can see your posts, friends list, and other info.
- Limit old posts visibility – Change the audience on past posts to only share with who you want.
- Unfollow people – Stay Facebook friends but unfollow their posts from your News Feed.
- Restrict tagging ability – Pre-approve any tags to stop others mentioning you.
- Browse anonymously – Use private browsing mode on your internet browser when surfing Facebook.
Facebook also allows you to download all your information for review, and delete your account permanently if you no longer wish to use it. Think carefully about what information you share and with whom to retain control over your privacy on social media.
FAQs
Can Facebook admins see who viewed their profile?
No, even Facebook admins and employees cannot see who specifically views their personal profiles. The visibility restrictions apply equally to everyone on Facebook.
Can someone pay to see who viewed their profile?
There are no options within Facebook itself to pay to view profile visitors. Some third-party apps claim to offer the ability, but they are often unreliable or scams.
Is there a way to browse Facebook 100% anonymously?
Not within Facebook itself, but you can use private/incognito browsing modes in your internet browser to visit Facebook without activity being traced back to your account and without logging your browsing history.
What happens if you delete your Facebook account?
Deleting your Facebook account permanently removes your profile and all information from their systems. You have a short period to reactivate your account before permanent deletion. After deletion, no one would be able to visit your old profile.
Can someone tell if you screenshot their profile picture?
No, downloading or taking screenshots of content on Facebook goes undetected. Even saving photos or videos from someone’s profile would not trigger any notification to that person.
Other Social Media Privacy Considerations
Similar visibility rules apply on other major social media networks:
- Instagram – Does not notify someone when you view their profile or stories. Interacting with posts shows activity.
- Twitter – Views of user profiles are not trackable. Liking or retweeting tweets shows activity.
- LinkedIn – Profile views are anonymous unless you are in the premium tier. Engaging with content shows activity.
- Snapchat – Can see total profile views in past 24 hours but not specific people. Views disappear after initial loading.
In general, simple viewing of profiles and posts does not trigger notifications on most major platforms. But interacting through likes, comments, shares, etc. will show the activity to the other user just as it would on your own feed.
Understanding these visibility rules can help you maintain privacy when browsing social media profiles. Most platforms are designed to keep profile views anonymous, but interacting with content always leaves visible traces that the user will see.
Conclusion
Unless you interact with posts or content within someone’s Facebook profile, they have no way to know you viewed their profile specifically. Facebook considers profile browsing private and does not track or show users who visits their page.
Facebook Pages for businesses and public figures have some analytics available on views and follows, but even those are aggregated anonymously. So you can comfortably browse Facebook profiles without others being notified in most cases.
To maintain privacy on your own Facebook account, be selective in what profile information you make public, restrict past post visibility, and limit tagging permissions. With the right settings and behavior, your Facebook profile browsing habits can remain private.