How Facebook Privacy Works With Graph Search

Recently Facebook making changes in their privacy and in graph search, because of which some folks are confused and want to understand. So, in post I will give you a few tips on how to manage which content of yours shows up when different people search.

Search works like News Feed and many other places on Facebook. When people do a search, they'll get back results of things that they can see elsewhere on Facebook. That means different people see different search results, just like different people see different stories on their News Feed. For example, I speak URDU and I only share that info with my friends. That means that if anyone who is not my friend searches for “people who speak URDU” I won't appear in the search results they see. It’s easy to change who you share info with. Just go to the About section of your Facebook timeline. Then click Edit above the section to change who you're sharing with. Remember, the About section is the place where you can change your current city, your workplace or school, and other basic info.

 

You can also go to Activity Log under Facebook timeline to manage your overall activity on Facebook, including what you've shared, like photos, or tags of you. For example: from activity log, click on Photos on the left side then click on Photos of You to see all the photos that you're tagged in. 

Using the dropdown menu on the top right corner you can see which photos are hidden or visible on your timeline. Remember, hidden photos still appear elsewhere on Facebook, like on friend’s timelines or in search. There's an audience icon next to each tagged photo that tells you who this photo is shared with. Since search works with privacy settings, these are the same people that would be able to see this photo in search and News Feed. If you don't want a photo to appear on Facebook, you can always ask the person to take the photo down or you can remove the tag. First, select the photo, or multiple photos. Then, click Report/Remove tags on the top right corner. Click the top option to untag, or click on the bottom option if you want to untag the photo and also ask the person to take it down.

Thanks for taking the time to learn how to manage your info on Facebook. If you find these tips helpful, please share them with your friends. To learn more, visit the Facebook Search and Privacy page.
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Hannah Jones

Author & Editor

From Skopje, Macedonia, Also works as Software Quality Assurance.