Facebook’s “seen by” feature allows you to see who has viewed your posts and profile. While some find this useful, others prefer more privacy and want to remove their name from being seen. Fortunately, Facebook provides options to control this.
Why Remove Your Name from Seen By
There are a few common reasons people may want to remove their name from seen by on Facebook:
- Privacy – To keep your activity more private and avoid letting others see when you’ve viewed their profile or posts.
- Stalking Concerns – To prevent exes, former friends or acquaintances from tracking your interactions and activity.
- Job Searching – If you’re looking for a new job, you may not want employers or recruiters knowing you’ve looked at their company page.
- Drama Avoidance – Removing your name can prevent unnecessary drama or confrontation about your browsing activity.
- Spam Reduction – Taking your name off seen by can reduce the chance of getting friend requests or messages from strangers who notice you viewing their profile.
Overall, removing your name helps limit the information Facebook shows to others about what posts and profiles you’ve interacted with.
How to Remove Your Name from Seen By
You have two main options for removing your name from being seen by others on Facebook:
Option 1: Adjust Individual Post Settings
For each post you want to interact with more privately, you can change the audience settings to customize who can see your name and activity:
- Click the three dots in the top right corner of a post.
- Select “Who can see your post?”
- Change the setting from “Public” to “Friends except…” and type in the names or lists you want to hide the post from.
Doing this for each post keeps your name hidden only from certain people while still allowing your broader friend list to see your activity.
Option 2: Limit the Audience for Your Entire Profile
For a blanket approach that applies to all your activity, you can edit your overall Facebook privacy settings:
- Go to “Settings & Privacy” then select “Settings.”
- Click “Privacy.
- Go to “How people find and contact you.”
- Edit the “Who can see your friends list” and “Who can look you up using the email address you provided” settings to be more limited than “Public.”
This makes your profile more private overall. But it also limits who can see any of your browsing and interactions by default across Facebook.
Other Ways to Browse More Privately
In addition to removing your name from seen by, there are other ways to maintain privacy and browse Facebook more anonymously:
- Use the “Only Me” audience when posting to keep things completely private.
- View profiles and posts while logged out of your account.
- Block specific people from seeing your activity.
- Turn off push notifications about post reactions and comments so they don’t show up visibly on your phone.
- Adjust ad targeting settings to limit how data is used for ads.
Pros and Cons of Removing Your Name from Seen By
Removing your name from seen by has both advantages and disadvantages to consider:
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Overall, removing your name improves privacy at the expense of some functionality. It’s about weighing your specific needs and priorities.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does removing your name from seen by remove you completely?
No, your name will still show up to people you directly interact with. For example, if you comment on a friend’s post they will still see your name and that you commented. Removing your name only stops your browsing and viewing interactions from being as visible.
Can you tell if someone has removed their name from your seen by?
You can’t directly tell if individual people have removed their name from your seen by. But you may notice over time that particular people seem to be viewing your content less frequently.
What happens when you remove your name from seen by?
Posts and profiles you view will no longer be indicated as “Seen by You” for the people or groups you’ve hidden your activity from. It gives you more anonymous browsing and less two-way visibility.
Can you see who views your Facebook without being seen?
No, there is no way to fully view who’s looking at your profile or posts without them also seeing your name. The closest option is turning on seen by for your posts but limiting the audience to exclude certain people.
Does turning off seen by remove old views?
Unfortunately turning off seen by or removing your name going forward does not erase records of your past views. It only prevents additional views from being visible from that point on.
Conclusion
Facebook provides configurable options to remove your name from being visible in the “Seen by” list. While you can’t browse fully invisibly, limiting seen by helps increase privacy and reduce unwanted social interactions resulting from visible activity.
By adjusting post audience settings, profile visibility, and other privacy controls, you can browse Facebook more anonymously. It requires some effort to configure, but gives you greater control over your information.
Removing your name from seen by is recommended for those concerned about privacy, harassment, stalking exes, or just preventing unnecessary drama and confrontations about their browsing habit. But it also comes with trade-offs like losing reciprocal transparency with friends. Evaluate your needs and priorities to decide if limiting seen by fits your Facebook usage style.