With millions of stalking eyes wandering on Facebook, protecting your account privacy is more important than ever. Fortunately, Facebook allows you to lock your profile to safeguard your photos, posts, and personal information from prying eyes. Profile locking limits the audience and visibility of the shared content only to your friend list, thus giving you better control over your privacy.
In this read, I’ve detailed why you should lock your Facebook profile, how to do it, and its possible impact.
Why should you lock your Facebook profile?
Initially introduced to safeguard female users from stalkers on the platform, Profile Locking adds an extra layer of security to your Facebook profile. So you won’t necessarily have to delete or deactivate your Facebook account when you are not going to use it for a long time.
Here are all the possible reasons why you should lock your Facebook profile:
- Enhanced privacy: Once active, profile locking makes all the content and private information on your profile private, and only those already on your friend’s list can view it. Other users will still be able to visit your profile but can only view the information you have made public, like your name and all.
- Prevents personal media misuse: As mentioned, locking your profile will hide all the shared content on your profile from strangers. Anyone not on your friend’s list can not see, screenshot, or download Facebook videos and images you have shared on your profile.
- Won’t get tagged in random posts: Random users won’t be able to tag you in potential scammy posts, which, on the other hand, will prevent unwanted notifications.
- Protection from Scams: Scammers often use the private information on your profile to lure you into falling for scams, phishing attempts, social engineering posts, or links. Locking your profile ensures that scammers can not access your private information.
How to lock your Facebook profile
Whether you prefer using Facebook on your portable iPhone screen or the bigger real estate of your PC or laptop, Facebook lets you lock your profile in just a few taps and clicks.
How to lock your Facebook profile on iPhone
- Open the Facebook app on your iPhone and tap the Profile icon at the bottom right corner.
- Here, scroll down and tap on Settings & Privacy, then tap Settings in the drop-down menu.
- Next, scroll down to the Audience & Visibility section and tap Profile locking.
- Here, tap the Lock your Profile button at the bottom.
- Wait for the changes to apply, then tap the OK button.
How to lock your Facebook profile on a PC
- Using the preferred browser, visit facebook.com and sign into your account.
- Click on the Profile icon at the top right corner.
- Here, click on Settings & Privacy.
- Next, click on Settings on the subsequent menu.
- In the left window, scroll down to the Audience & Visibility section and select Profile locking.
- Here, click the Lock your Profile button and wait for the changes to apply.
- Once done, click the Ok button, and you’ll be redirected to your profile.
What happens when you lock your profile on Facebook?
After you lock your profile, here is what happens:
- Only your Facebook friends can see your photos, posts, stories, profile pictures, and cover photos.
- All your old public Facebook posts will automatically change to a friends-only view.
- You can’t make new posts with ‘Public view’ as its setting.
- It will automatically enable two privacy features: Timeline review and Tag review.
- Only a limited part of the about info will be public. To be precise, ‘people who are not your Facebook friends will see a maximum of five profile details.’
How to unlock your Facebook profile
While there is no good reason why you might want to unlock your Facebook profile, as everyone wants enhanced privacy, you can still unlock it whenever you want.
- Head to your Facebook account’s Settings and tap on Profile locking under the Audience & Visibility section.
- Here, tap the Unlock button.
- Next, tap the Unlock your Profile button and wait for the changes to apply.
- Once done, tap the OK button, and you’ll be redirected to your Facebook profile.
Enjoy enhanced privacy…
Locking up your Facebook profile is a simple yet effective way to safeguard your Facebook activity from the prying eyes of stalkers and scammers. By locking your profile, you can ensure that the reach of your information and media on your profile is limited to those you have added to your friends list.
However, if the feature isn’t available, use the existing privacy settings to limit the audience for your posts and make your Facebook experience safe and enjoyable.
If you are still left with some doubts, please don’t hesitate to comment them below, and I’ll hop on to them asap.
The Lock Your Profile feature is not yet available in all regions and countries. However, you can still protect your account using the existing privacy tools and settings.
Once you lock your Facebook profile, only the users on your friend list can view the information and content you have added to or shared on it.
Yes, locking your Facebook profile is completely secure, as it safeguards your private information from potential stalkers.
Read More :
- How to hide likes on Facebook
- How to clear your Facebook cache on iPhone or iPad
- How to change your name on Facebook
