When you share content on Facebook, you can choose who is able to view that content based on your privacy settings. There are a few main factors that determine who can see your posts when you share them:
Your privacy settings
Your overall privacy settings on Facebook determine the default audience for your posts. You can control this in your settings under “Privacy.” The options include:
- Public: Anyone on or off Facebook can see your posts.
- Friends: Only your Facebook friends can see your posts.
- Friends except…: Friends except those you have added to a Custom list.
- Specific friends: Only people you have added to a list can see your posts.
- Only me: Only you can see your posts.
The default setting is Friends, which means all your Facebook friends will be able to see your posts. If you want to make a post visible to a wider or narrower audience, you can change the privacy as you create the post.
Individual post privacy
When you go to share a post, you have the option to change the privacy for that specific post. You’ll see a small globe icon that lets you select who can view that post. The options are:
- Public
- Friends
- Friends except…
- Specific friends
- Only me
- Custom
Choosing “Custom” allows you to get very targeted with your post privacy. You can choose to exclude certain friends, make it visible to all friends except acquaintances, limit it to close friends only, and more.
Friends of friends
Even if you limit your post audience to friends only, there is still a way friends of friends can see your content. If one of your friends shares your post, their friends may be able to see it, depending on their own privacy settings.
So while you control who can see your original post, you can’t control privacy settings for resharing. If you want your post to stay between you and your direct friends only, you’d need to specify that when you share it.
Public information
There is some information on your Facebook profile that will always be public, even if your overall privacy setting is Friends or more restrictive. This includes:
- Your name
- Profile picture
- Cover photo
- Gender
- Username and User ID (account number)
- Networks
- Friends list
These details allow people to identify you and send a friend request. But things like your posts, photos, birthday, hometown, and family members can be made private if you want.
Who can see your Friends list?
Your Friends list is one of the profile elements that is always public by default. Anyone can see the list of Facebook friends you have.
If you don’t want your Friends list to be public, you can change this in your privacy settings:
- Go to “Settings & Privacy” then “Settings”
- Click “Privacy”
- Go to “How people can find and contact you”
- Under “Who can see your friends list?” select “Friends” or a more restrictive option like “Only Me.”
Now your full Friends list will be hidden from public view.
Who can see your posts from the past?
When you first signed up for Facebook, the default privacy setting for posts was public. Many users ended up sharing publicly for years without realizing it.
Even if you’ve now tightened up your privacy settings, your old posts might still be visible to anyone. To change this:
- Go to your profile and click on Posts
- In the left column, click on Posts You’re Tagged In
- For any post, click on the three dots in the upper right and select Edit Privacy
- Change the audience to Friends or Custom to limit old posts
You can also limit viewing of old posts on a large scale with this privacy setting:
- Go to “Settings & Privacy” then “Settings”
- Click “Privacy”
- Go to “Limit the audience for posts you’ve shared with friends of friends or public?”
- Click “Limit Old Posts” and choose a more restrictive setting
Private profiles
Some Facebook profiles are fully private so no information is visible to people who are not friends. How do you send a friend request to a private profile?
There are a couple options:
- If you know the email address or phone number of the private profile, you can enter it to send a friend request.
- You can send a message to the profile to try to connect.
- If you have any mutual friends, you can ask them to make an introduction.
- If the profile belongs to someone you know outside of Facebook, you can ask them directly to friend you.
Essentially there must be some outside connection to bridge the gap between you and a fully private profile. Mutual friends are the easiest way to make that connection.
Can you tell who views your profile or posts?
Facebook does not let you see who views your profile. It used to show profile views, but not anymore. However, there are some ways you can get an idea of how many people view your content:
- You’ll get notifications when friends like or comment on your posts.
- Each post shows how many people have viewed, liked, commented, or shared it.
- Facebook occasionally shows you analytics about your posts in News Feed.
While not completely transparent, these signals give you a sense of how many people are engaging with your profile. You just don’t know exactly who.
Other profile view indicators
There are some other subtle signals that can indicate profile views:
- Chat list sorted to “Most Active”
- Seeing mutual friends in common
- Friend recommendations
- People, Pages or Groups you may know
- Being added to Lists
Facebook uses profile viewing activity to power these features. So they provide clues about who might be looking at your profile.
Can you see who views your Facebook Stories?
Facebook Stories have more visibility over who is viewing your content. In your Story tray, you’ll see a Seen By list showing friends who have viewed each story.
To see it:
- Go to your profile Story tray
- Click on a story
- Swipe up to open the list of people who have viewed it
This doesn’t show every single viewer, but it does tell you which friends have seen that particular Story. You can also click on a friend’s name to pull up a Story chat with them.
Post visibility in Groups
When you post in a Facebook Group, who can see it depends on the group privacy setting:
| Group Type | Who Can See Your Post |
|---|---|
| Public | Anyone on or off Facebook |
| Public Unlisted | Any Facebook member |
| Private | Only group members |
| Secret | Only current group members can see posts |
So post visibility matches the overall group privacy. To see which setting a particular group has, go to the group and look for a globe icon in the top corner.
Leaving a Group
If you leave a Facebook Group:
- You stop seeing new posts from the group in your News Feed.
- Your past posts and comments remain visible to current group members.
- You can re-join the group later to participate and see posts again.
So leaving a group does not delete your past participation. But you can manually delete your own posts and comments before leaving if you want.
Takeaways
To recap who can see your Facebook posts and profile information:
- Default privacy is Friends for new posts and content.
- Older posts may still be Public unless you change past post privacy settings.
- You control post audience for each individual post.
- Friends of friends can see posts reshared by your connections.
- Some profile info like name and Friends list is always public.
- Facebook doesn’t show exactly who views your profile or posts.
- Story views give you more visibility over who sees your content.
- In Groups, post visibility matches overall group privacy.
Understanding these nuances allows you to better manage your privacy on Facebook. While not always intuitive, the options are there to limit your exposure and choose exactly who can view what you share.