Having control over who can see your Facebook content is important for maintaining your privacy. While Facebook has privacy settings that allow you to limit the audience for your posts, restricting access to photos you’re tagged in can be more complicated. Fortunately, Facebook provides tools to block specific people from seeing tags of you in photos and posts.
Use the Limit Past Posts Audience Settings
The easiest way to block someone from seeing your tagged photos is to use the Limit Past Posts audience selector in your privacy settings. Here’s how:
- Click on the down arrow at the top right of any Facebook page and choose “Settings”.
- From the left menu, click “Privacy”.
- Click “Limit the audience for posts you’ve shared with friends of friends or Public?”
- Click “Limit Old Posts” on the popup dialog.
- Type in the name of the person you want to restrict from seeing your old posts and tags.
- Click “Limit Old Posts” again to confirm.
This will prevent the person you entered from seeing any old posts you’ve been tagged in retroactively, without having to go through and delete tags individually.
Things to know about the Limit Past Posts tool
- It only applies to posts that were set to Friends of Friends or Public visibility. Posts limited to Friends will still be visible.
- It does not block them from seeing new tags and posts going forward. You’ll need to remove tags preemptively for that.
- You can enter multiple people’s names to block several friends at once.
- You can remove people later to allow them to see your old tags again.
Untag Yourself from the Photos
Another option is to manually untag yourself from photos. When you untag, it’s like the tag never happened and that friend will no longer see the photo or tag in their feed.
To untag yourself from a post:
- Click on the photo where you’re tagged. This opens it in a lightbox viewer.
- Hover over the tag of you and click the “X” that appears.
- Click “Untag” to confirm.
However, this can be time consuming if you need to untag yourself from a lot of photos. You’ll also need to remember to preemptively untag yourself whenever that friend tags you in the future.
Other things to know about untagging:
- You can only untag yourself, not others.
- The photo will still appear in your profile photo grid marked “Untagged”.
- The friend can still see the photo, just without your tag.
Delete the Tag Notifications
Whenever someone tags you in a post or photo upload, it appears in your notifications. These notifications also appear in the feeds of your friends.
If you delete the notification, your friends will no longer see that you were tagged in that post in their feed. To delete a tag notification:
- Click on the Notification drop down arrow at the top right.
- Find the notification that says you were tagged and click the “X” on the right to delete it.
This prevents the tag from showing up in your friends’ feeds. However, it doesn’t remove the tag from Facebook. Your photo grid and the original poster will still show you tagged.
Remove Tags with Facial Recognition
Facebook’s facial recognition software automatically detects faces and suggests tags in photos. If someone accepts the suggestion, you get tagged.
You can prevent tags via facial recognition:
- Go to “Settings” then click “Face Recognition” under Privacy.
- Toggle the facial recognition setting to “Off”.
This stops Facebook from automatically tagging you based on their face scan technology. However, friends can still manually tag you so it’s not foolproof.
Facial Recognition Considerations:
- Turning it off removes all existing tags suggested via face recognition too.
- Your friends can still tag you manually in new photos.
- It applies to all tags of you, not just tags by specific friends.
Unfollow the Friend
Another option is to simply unfollow the person who tags you in the problematic photos. When you unfollow someone:
- Their public posts no longer show up in your News Feed.
- Your public posts no longer appear in their feed.
- You remain friends on Facebook.
To unfollow a friend:
- Go to their profile page.
- Hover over “Follow” and click “Unfollow”.
This won’t let you see future tags from that person. However, it also blocks all their other posts too.
Block the Person Entirely
The nuclear option is to outright block the friend from being able to interact with you at all. When you block someone on Facebook:
- They can no longer tag you or see things you post.
- You no longer see anything they post either.
- They are removed from your friends list.
To block a friend:
- Click the gear icon in the top right and choose “Settings”.
- Go to “Blocking” on the left column.
- Enter the name of the friend you want to block.
- Click “Block” to confirm.
Blocking is the most nuclear option but guarantees they can’t tag you or interact with you. It also removes their friendship.
Other things about blocking:
- You can still visit their profile if you know the URL.
- They can’t re-add you as a friend unless you accept it.
- You can always unblock them later to restore the friendship.
Prevent Being Tagged Via Profile Settings
You can utilize your Facebook profile settings to prevent being tagged altogether. To disable tags via profile settings:
- Click “Settings and go to “Privacy”.
- Click “How people can find and tag you”.
- Select “Don’t let anyone tag me”.
This stops anyone from tagging you in posts and photos. Friends won’t even see the option to tag you.
Things to know about tag prevention in settings:
- Applies to all friends and tags sitewide.
- You can still approve tags on a case-by-case basis.
- Friends can tag your Facebook Page if you have one.
Remove Tags From Your Timeline
When friends tag you, it appears on your timeline by default. You can choose to automatically disallow tags on your timeline.
To do this:
- Go to your own timeline.
- Click “Review all your posts and things you’re tagged in” at the top.
- Click the dropdown next to “Timeline Review” and select “Enabled”.
This will send all new tags to approval before publishing them to your timeline. Simply reject tags you don’t want there.
Additional notes about timeline tag review:
- Existing tags on your timeline won’t be affected.
- Friends can still tag you in posts, you just approve what appears.
- Disable this option at any time to revert to automatic publishing.
Review Tagged Photos Before Posting
Facebook allows you to review any tags of yourself in photos or posts before they go live. To enable this:
- Go to “Settings” and click “Timeline and Tagging”.
- Enable “Review tags people add to your own posts before the tags appear on Facebook”.
When enabled, you’ll get a notification whenever you’re tagged. You can approve it or reject it to prevent the tag from being live.
This gives you granular control to block specific tagging instances. However, it requires manual approval of every tag.
Restrict Tags to Photos/Posts You’re In
Facebook allows people to tag you in any post or photo, even ones you’re not actually in. You can restrict tags to only photos that you appear in.
To do this:
- Go to “Settings” and “Timeline and Tagging”.
- Enable “Restrict who can see posts you’ve been tagged in on your timeline”.
When enabled, friends can only tag you in posts and photos that you explicitly appear in. This prevents fraudulent or spam tagging.
Additional information on tag restrictions:
- You must be visibly present in the photo or post content to be tagged.
- Applies only to your timeline tags, not site wide tags.
- Friends may be unaware of restriction when tagging you.
Limit Photo Tagging Audience
By default, anyone who can see a post can also see all the tags on it. You can limit the audience of your tags.
To adjust tag visibility:
- Go to “Settings” and “Privacy”.
- Click “Who can see posts when you’re tagged”.
- Select a limited audience like “Friends” or “Only Me”.
This adjusts the privacy of tags sitewide so only certain people can see posts where you’re tagged.
More details on tag visibility controls:
- Applies retroactively to old and new tags.
- Photos are still visible to original audience.
- Friends won’t know you adjusted the tag privacy.
Remove Tag Notifications in Feed
Many people find tag notifications in their feed annoying. You can prevent tags from appearing there.
To block tag notifications:
- Click the down arrow in the top right.
- Select “Settings & Privacy” > “Settings”.
- Click “Notifications” on the left.
- Turn off notifications for “Tags”.
This stops tags from generating notifications in your feed. However, it also blocks notifications for other interactions like likes and comments.
More notes on blocking tag notifications:
- Tags will still appear on your timeline and in photo grids.
- Prevents clutter from minor interactions in feed.
- You could miss notifications for other meaningful activity too.
Conclusion
Facebook provides many options to control tag privacy settings. The right approach depends on your specific situation.
For blocking a few friends, untagging yourself or limiting past posts may be easiest. To disable tagging altogether, use your profile tag settings. Restricting tag notifications and audience can also help.
Combining several options is best to cover all bases. Take some time to find the right tag privacy settings for your needs.