Privacy has become incredibly important amid the rise in social media, with users able to access varying levels of privacy and settings to protect their personal information from others.
Locking your Facebook profile means only showing a very limited view to those users who aren’t your friends on the platform. In this article, we’re sharing exactly which information is protected by the locked profile setting, and how to do it.
What Does a Locked Profile Look Like?
If a user who isn’t a Facebook friend of yours clicks through to your locked profile, they will see a very limited version of the profile page you’ve built – alongside a blue shield with a keyhole that indicates the profile has been locked.
Some of the details that will remain hidden unless they request to become your friend and you accept them, include:
- Your photos and posts (both existing posts and any new ones you put up)
- Your profile picture and cover image
- Facebook Stories
They will also be unable to access all the personal information that you add to your ‘About’ page.
In order to unlock and view this information, they will need to become a friend – something that you have full control over as the profile owner. Unlike other apps where users need only follow another user, on Facebook every request comes through as a Friend Request, that must be accepted or denied.
How to Access the Profile Lock Setting
The process of locking a Facebook profile is not available everywhere – however, there are other settings that exhibit the same traits and features.
To access your privacy settings on Facebook, and to lock your profile or limit the visibility of personal information to users who aren’t your friends, follow these steps:
- Open the Facebook app on your device and click on your profile picture in the bottom right hand corner of the screen
- Scroll down and select ‘Settings and Privacy’ from the menu
- Tap ‘Privacy Shortcuts’
- Under the ‘Privacy’ heading at the top of the shortcuts menu, select ‘See More Privacy Settings’ then scroll down to the ‘Audience and Visibility’ heading
- Click on ‘Followers and Public Content’
The menu that appears under this heading allows you to tailor the visibility of different areas of your Facebook profile and activity.
Setting visibility to Public means that anyone can see it.
Setting visibility to Friends means only friends who you accept can see it.
Setting visibility to Only Me hides the information from all other users.
You will notice that some pieces of information also offer options to select ‘Friends except…’ and ‘Specific Friends’. These options allow you to further personalise visibility of your Facebook profile and information and can be explored at your leisure.
Suffice to say, even if the formal locked profile feature is not yet available where you are in the world, there are plenty of ways of tailoring your privacy settings and changing them to filter visibility for various users. We hope this information helps!
