Facebook’s privacy settings allow users to control who can see their posts, photos, videos, friends list, and more. When you make changes to your privacy settings on Facebook, in some cases it will send out notifications to your connections, while in other cases the changes happen silently behind the scenes.
Does Editing General Privacy Settings Send Notifications?
When you edit your general privacy settings, such as who can see your future posts or who can look you up using the email address or phone number you provided, Facebook does not send notifications. These changes happen invisibly without alerting your connections.
Some examples of general privacy edits that do not trigger notifications:
- Changing your posting audience from “Public” to “Friends”
- Opting out of allowing search engines to link to your profile
- Restricting the audience who can see your friends list
So you can rest assured that tweaking your general privacy settings will not bombard your friends and followers with notifications. The changes take effect quietly behind the scenes.
Do Editing Post Privacy Settings Send Notifications?
Unlike general privacy settings, if you change the privacy setting on an individual post that has already been published, Facebook will send out a notification.
For example, if you originally shared a post publicly that all of your friends could see, and you go back and edit it to only be visible to some friends on your Close Friends list, a notification will be sent out.
The notification will say that you “changed the privacy” of the post to exclude some people. This lets anyone who can no longer view the post due to your privacy change know that the post is no longer visible to them.
So editing privacy settings for individual posts does trigger notifications, while broader privacy setting changes happen silently without notification.
Do Editing Photo and Album Privacy Settings Send Notifications?
Similar to posts, if you change the privacy settings on a specific photo or album on Facebook after it’s already been published, notifications will be sent out.
For example:
- You share a photo publicly that all friends can see. Later, you edit it so only friends in a Close Friends list can access it. Notifications will be sent out alerting those who can no longer see it.
- You create an album visible to the public. Later you edit it to be visible to only your friends. The public will be notified they can no longer view the album.
The notification will communicate the specific change you made, such as: “Only Close Friends can see this photo.”
So for individual photos and albums, changing the privacy after publishing will send notifications. However, broader photo and album privacy settings can be updated silently without notification behind the scenes.
Do Editing Video Privacy Settings Send Notifications?
Just like posts and photos, changing the privacy setting on an individual video after you’ve shared it to Facebook will trigger notifications to be sent.
If you posted a video publicly and later restricted the audience, anyone who can no longer view it will be alerted that the video’s privacy was updated.
The notification language will be similar to post and photo privacy change notices. For example: “This video’s privacy was changed. It is no longer visible to the public.”
So revising an individual video’s privacy will send notifications, while updating your general video privacy settings will not.
When Editing Friend List Privacy, Who Gets Notified?
Your friends list privacy settings control who can see your entire list of Facebook friends. If you edit this after you already have connections, notifications are handled as follows:
- If you expand the audience who can view your friend list, no notifications are sent. For example, changing the setting from “Only Me” to “Public.”
- If you restrict the audience, notifications are sent – but ONLY to your friends. General public does not receive notifications.
So notifications are only sent to connections when reducing friend list access, not expanding it.
Do New Friends Receive Notifications About Previous Privacy Changes?
When you add new friends, they will automatically see all of your posts, photos, albums, videos, etc. according to your current privacy settings.
New friends will NOT receive retroactive notifications about privacy changes you made before connecting with them. The notifications are only sent in real time to connections who are impacted at the time of the change.
So new friends only see your content according to your current settings. They will not get any past notifications since the privacy changes happened prior to becoming friends.
Conclusion
In summary, here is when editing privacy on Facebook triggers notifications vs. when it happens silently:
| Privacy Change | Notifications Sent? |
|---|---|
| General account settings | No |
| Individual post | Yes |
| Individual photo/album | Yes |
| Individual video | Yes |
| Friends list restrictions | Yes, to friends only |
| Friends list expansion | No |
So broader privacy setting changes happen quietly in the background, while revisions to individual pieces of content will trigger notifications to those affected. New friends will not receive any past notifications.
The notifications allow your existing connections to understand when you have limited their access to certain content that they may have seen before. Facebook wants to keep users informed when they are no longer able to view posts, photos, videos and other content that they may have had access to previously.
Other Facebook Privacy Settings
In addition to the options covered above, here are some other privacy settings that can be updated without triggering notifications:
- Limiting audience for future posts
- Restricting ability to download your profile information
- Removing ability for search engines to link to your profile
- Turning off ability for others to tag you
- Removing visibility from News Feed for future posts
Changing any of these broader privacy options will not alert your friends and followers.
Customizing Notification Settings
If you want to limit notifications from Facebook in general, you can customize notification settings at a granular level. Options include:
- Muting push, email, text or app notifications
- Unsubscribing from messages from specific friends
- Turning off notifications about friend requests
- Removing notifications when tagged in posts or comments
- Only showing notifications from close friends
Adjusting these notification settings can help reduce clutter and customize which notifications you actually receive going forward.
Other Ways Content Is Hidden from Connections
In addition to privacy setting changes, there are some other cases where Facebook may limit which users see posts without triggering notifications:
- Using machine learning to detect spam, offensive language, nudity or security threats and automatically hiding violating posts from view
- Restricting distribution of “false news” determined by third-party fact checkers
- Limiting reach of posts attempting to sell regulated goods
- Hiding comments and posts after multiple user reports of abuse or harassment
In these cases, since it’s Facebook initiating the content restrictions rather than individual users, notifications are not sent. The limitations happen automatically behind the scenes.
The Takeaway
To sum up what we’ve covered:
- Editing individual posts, photos, videos and friend restrictions after publishing will send notifications
- Broader privacy setting changes happen quietly without notifications
- New friends won’t get notifications about past privacy changes
- You can customize notification settings to suit your preferences
So you can confidently update your general privacy settings on Facebook without worrying about bombarding your friends and followers with annoying notifications. But be aware that tweaking visibility on something you’ve already shared publicly will likely trigger notices to those who can no longer see it.