from Facebook Essential Training
with Susan Cline

Whether you are concerned about your personal privacy, or are trying to get more people to find you, it’s up to you to control who can see your search result on Facebook and in search engines.

Facebook defaults to showing Friends of Friends your limited profile. This page includes your current profile photo, your list of friends, and basic information from your Info tab, along with a link to send you a message or add you as a friend.

To change your search result privacy settings, log in to Facebook, click on Settings, and choose Privacy Settings from the drop down menu. Then choose Search from the Privacy Settings list.

Next to Facebook Search Results: Who can see your search results on Facebook is a drop-down menu. By default, Friends of Friends is selected. This means that anyone who is a friend of any one of your Facebook friends has full access to your profile. To allow everyone on the web to see everything in your profile, choose Everyone. To allow your friends and networks to see everything, choose Friends and Networks. If you prefer to only let your chosen friends to see your information, choose Only Friends.

Public Search Results are what is shown in the list of results when someone searches for you on Google or other search engine. By default, it is unchecked. If you want the public to find out that you are on on Facebook, click in the box next to Allow.

If you want to see what certain people see when they access your page, click on the Preview My Profile… button.