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up vote 4 down vote favorite

How can I make my Facebook profile completely private?

I don't want people to be able to see cover photos or my Facebook photo profile.

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1  
That’s not possible. Your photo will be visible even if you set everything to be visible only by you. – Alex May 5 '12 at 21:58
How about a little clarification as to why you don't want anyone to see anything at all? If you want NO information public, why not just cancel Facebook? I mean, being seen is the definition of Facebook. To host your photos, if that is the reasoning in keeping Facebook, there are plenty of other services, like Picasa and Dropbox, to name a few. – Travis Pflanz May 5 '12 at 23:39
@TravisPflanz Facebook is great as long as it works between friends and not strangers. – Patrick May 6 '12 at 7:32
1  
Asker has specified that this should be for "Friends" and not literal "completely private" – Dez May 6 '12 at 13:38

3 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

Go to your privacy settings page and change everything to Friends. Each of the sections have areas that need to be changed:

  • Default Privacy (within custom, then Friends)
  • How you connect (click edit then select Friends for each of the three choices)
  • Timeline and Tagging
    • Click Edit then select Friends for each of the three choices with drop downs
    • Turn on "Review posts friends tag you in before they appear on your timeline
    • Turn on "Review tags friends add to your own posts on Facebook"
    • Click "Who sees tag suggestions when photos that look like you are uploaded" and select Friends
  • Ads, Apps, and Websites
    • Turn them all to Friends within each of the settings or remove apps that you don't want to use
    • In the "How people bring your info to apps they use" area uncheck everything
  • Limit the audience for past posts
    • Click "Limit Old Posts"
    • Set to Friends
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if I set it as "Only me", than my friends won't be able to see it anymore as well. This is not what I want... – Patrick May 6 '12 at 7:33
2  
You didn't specify that in your question. You said "Completely Private". If you want only your friends then where I say only me change it to Friends. – Dez May 6 '12 at 13:34
I'll update my answer for this new information – Dez May 6 '12 at 13:35
up vote 2 down vote

Your name, gender, username, and user ID (account number), along with your profile picture, cover photo, and networks (if you choose to add these) are available to anyone. This is because this information is essential to helping you connect with your friends and family.

Source.

So anybody can see those details—your friends, friends of your friends and pretty much anybody who has the direct link to your account. And if you didn’t turned off the public search feature, anybody who finds your profile by searching you on a search engine (e.g. Google).

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up vote 2 down vote

Go to Privacy Settings -> Ads -> Apps -> Websites -> Edit Settings. Scroll down to "Public Search" and disable it.

No one will be able to see that you even have a Facebook page unless they are your friends.

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protected by Community♦ Sep 1 '12 at 19:12

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