Facebook’s privacy settings have become increasingly complex over the years, but getting them right is essential for protecting your personal information. This guide walks UK users through every important privacy setting, with specific attention to UK data protection rights under GDPR.
Facebook Privacy Checkup
The quickest way to review your settings is Facebook’s built-in Privacy Checkup tool. Go to Settings → Privacy → Privacy Checkup. This walks you through five areas: who can see what you share, how people find you, your data settings on Facebook, your ad preferences, and your information on Facebook. Spend 10 minutes going through each section — it’s the single most effective thing you can do to improve your Facebook privacy.
Who Can See Your Posts
Go to Settings → Privacy → Activity and scroll through the options. Set “Who can see your future posts” to “Friends” (not “Public”). Review “Limit Past Posts” to restrict older posts that may have been shared publicly. Set “Who can see your friends list” to “Only me” to prevent social engineering. Set “Who can look you up using your email/phone” to “Friends” to reduce unwanted contact. Disable “Allow search engines outside Facebook to link to your profile.”
Profile Lock
Facebook’s Profile Lock feature restricts what non-friends can see. When enabled, only friends can see your full profile, photos, and posts. Non-friends see only your name, profile picture (cropped), and cover photo. To enable: visit your profile → tap the three dots → “Lock profile.” This is particularly useful for women and young people who receive unwanted attention.
Data and Ad Settings
Go to Settings → Privacy → Ad Preferences to control how Facebook uses your data for advertising. Turn off “Data about your activity from partners” to prevent Facebook from using data from other websites for ad targeting. Under “Ad topics,” hide topics you don’t want to see ads about. Review “Advertisers you’ve seen” and remove any you don’t recognise.
Under Settings → Privacy → Off-Facebook Activity, you can see and clear the data Facebook collects about you from other websites and apps. Click “Clear History” to remove this data, and toggle off “Future Off-Facebook Activity” to prevent future collection.
Your UK GDPR Rights
As a UK user, you have specific data protection rights under UK GDPR: the right to access your data (submit a Subject Access Request), the right to rectification (correct inaccurate data), the right to erasure (“right to be forgotten”), the right to data portability, the right to restrict processing, and the right to object to processing. To exercise these rights, visit Settings → Your Facebook Information → Access Your Information, or contact Meta’s Data Protection Officer at the Dublin address.