How do you hide friends on Facebook?

Woman using mobile device in kitchen at home. — The default setting on Facebook allows the public to see your friend list. This can be changed and customized in your settings options on Facebook. MoMo Productions / Getty Images

The default setting on Facebook enables everyone to see your list of friends. You can change and customize this setting in different ways. First you have to log on to your Facebook account. Click on the Account tab at the top right-hand side of the page, and choose Privacy Settings. Click "Connecting on Facebook," and, under the option to view settings, change the setting for "See your friend list." You can also do this directly from your profile, if you click on the icon near Friends. You can customize basic settings from this page to control who can find and connect with you.

You can also create friend lists with different privacy settings. From the Account tab click on Edit Friends. Create a new list or add a friend to an existing list. You can customize privacy settings so that only members of a certain group share content. You can block individual friends or groups from seeing content and from appearing on your news feeds. To control news feed entries, move your mouse over a news feed from a friend that you want to hide, and a "Hide" button will appear. You can hide the post or hide all posts from a particular friend. However, you can't avoid posts from friends on your Wall; you can only erase specific posts by going through them one by one or as they appear. If you go to the bottom of your home page, you can edit options to see posts by friends, by changing the news feed settings.

Originally Published: May 20, 2011

Facebook Privacy FAQ

How do I make my Facebook page private?

Navigate to Settings & Privacy > Settings > Privacy. In the “Your Activity” section, change “Who can see your future posts?” to ‘Friends’. Click “Limit Past Posts” and change “Who can see the people, Pages and lists you follow?” to “Only Me”. You can also change the settings in the “How People Find and Contact You” section to be as private as you want.

How do I make all Facebook photos private?

While your current photo or profile pic will be public, you can change the setting of your old photo album by navigating to Photos > Albums from your profile. Select “Edit Album” from the three dots and change to “Only me' from the options. Unfortunately, there is not currently a way to make all of your pictures private in mass.

How do I set my Facebook account to private on mobile?

Navigate to Menu > Settings & Privacy > Settings > Privacy Settings. Change all options to the strictest settings.