Whenever we talk about working online, the first few suggestions we get are, use Facebook security, use Facebook privacy settings and make sure you share the information which doesn’t create any issue in future.
One of the most common questions which many people are still not clear about Facebook is the privacy.
Though Facebook gives us many options to ensure that our Facebook profile can be hidden from everywhere, I’m sharing a quick guide on how you can hide your Facebook profile from public search engines like Google.
In the early stages, everyone was kind of scared to reveal their identity on the Internet. But things have changed now.
Maybe it is safe to say that Facebook changed the concept of going online and revealing the identity. Every Profile on Facebook is cached by Google so it is hard to miss the one you are searching for.
So today I am going to tell you how you can protect your privacy from the Facebook Public Search.
When you simply type the name in the Google search box, you can see the magic. It also returns image search results at times where can see people’s pictures from Facebook.
But, you can stop search engines from showing a preview of your FB profile each time one searches for you on Google. The steps are simple.
How to stop Search engines from showing your Facebook public profile:
1. Log in to your Facebook account and go to privacy settings. Here is the direct link.
Under privacy, you will see an option that reads, “Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile?”
Click on Edit. Here, you will see the option to uncheck the settings.
Click Turn Off.
P.s: As some search engines cache information, your profile preview will be available for some more days even after you turn the public search off.
Do let us know if your Facebook public search is enabled or disabled. If you find this how-to guide useful, make sure you like and share this post on Facebook.
This is a guest post by Sreera. If you would like to write for ShoutMeLoud, check our Guest submission guidelines.
For now, here are a few other popular articles from ShoutMeLoud:
- How to BackUp Facebook Account – Download Your Data From Facebook
- How to Hide Facebook Friend List from Othersn
Comments on this entry are closed.
If you are blogger, your facebook profile in Google or any other search engine results is good for your growth.
But, what about the common people who needs privacy. Actually, I have seen lot of my friends talking about the privacy in Facebook. So, kinda thought about writing an article. Anyway, Thanks for reading Swamykant 🙂
Hi, I would like to be able to view my Facebook account without every friend I know seeing me online and then start calling my cell phone or messaging me. Sometimes I just need a few minutes to myself and if I didn’t answer the calls/texts then they get offended. There used to be a stealth mode..What happened to that? Can you please help.
Yep but for others who want a more personal web life then it would be useful 🙂
Hi, don’t get me wrong, but why would anyone want to remove themselves from facebook public search? If you don’t want people to find you that means you don’t get what social is. If you are that concerned about privacy, then go delete your facebook profile and just stick to emails. That is better than having a facebook profile and hiding it from everyone. Disclaimer: This is just my opinion.
I totally agree with you Rison….i also hate the ppl who dont reveal their identity on sites. Eespecially when they put disp pic of Film stars, nature, cars…. i meant this post for those ppl. Well, its just personal stuffs. Better let it be like that…
Thanks for reading dude 🙂
Hi Rison,
It is completely understandable that people don’t want to be searchable; that it opens up an unnecessary attack vector to social engineers or people who are just vindictive – is just one glaringly obvious example. I have friends who are school teachers who want to be able to socially network within a small clique of friends and family. To them it’s imperative that they don’t have students finding them on there. If privacy is technically possible for these people, then surely it should be afforded to them.
Just because people want privacy, doesn’t mean that they “don’t know what social is”. That’s a ridiculous statement you made. We’re all well aware of what “social” is; we want to socialize with friends and family, but we’re smart enough to not make our personal information publicly available.
Disabling the public search also stops people from finding you if they search on Facebook.
To the people who have said they don’t understand why people would hide their profile: I have several female friends who have been pestered on Facebook by lots of perverts wanting sex and naked pictures, they have disabled the ability to be searched because of this.
Do you think they should delete their facebook profile now?
Every one has his own personality. So actual identity should be mentioned. Privacy is another topic but personality is not same.
good tips for girls 😆 especially who are flooded with tons of friends requests everyday 🙄
Great tip; I agree with Swamykant that it helps us in growth for bloggers.
My “public search”was never enabled on facebook, yet my profile is still on the search engines. Originally, I put “everyone” (privacy settings) on my fb, and later changed the settings to “only friends.” But the fb profile is still on search engines. Can someone explain why? If I delete my fb account will the information be removed off search engines? Thanks.
I told it before that, privacy and personality is not same. So everyone should maintain this as I did it every time. Why many people don’t tell their actual identity is really folks. I never like it.
Than you for the article.
You can’t emagine how many people can misuse your pictures or info on the net…
I have dissabled the public search a week ago and still i see many of my old profile pictures in google….. how long does it takes to delete such cache…
Please let me know if you have any idea……..
Thanx
Ha ha its a very easy way. Just make a little research with facebook security or privacy. The steps that are told here is totally right and effective. If one needs help with facebook security or others post here may be I can give you the total solution. Thanks for the post.
I m trying to hide myself compelety fro. Public search forever. And the reason is that there is one guy who is bothering me and my family. O matter what I do and block him he is keep on making new facebook ids and sending me disgusting messages. The precess you tell is not working. Can you please help
Hi Alisha, just change your facebook profile URL and change your date of birth as minor, ex: select your date of birth as 10/10/1999 so you come under 18 years. Now he can’t send you the messages and find your profile
Bro but some another person dont know how to do so thats why he wrote the post 😀 we thank full @harsh and @SREERAG 😀 keep posting keep sharing 😀
Every article that I’ve found from managing your likes to security provide information that is not current. I must have the most unique profile and settings because, even though I’ve search for current articles, none of the options mentioned to click appear on my screen. No offence to Sreerag, thanks for posting this article, but even though it’s just a week old, the steps mentioned to not appear for me. Don’t feel bad. As I mentioned, I am so wonderful and unique that none of the steps to do anything referenced online to your Facebook account appear when I’m logged in. In this case, I was excited to see reference to “WHO CAN LOOK ME UP” under Security settings. I made every attempt to locate this, but alas, it does not appear. Please don’t be concerned though. None of my searches for managing groups, likes and security that I have found have anything that matches what I see when I am looking at my account. I glad to see so many found this helpful. Too bad it does not work for me. 🙁
It’s easy to hide himself through privacy settings, I think everyone knows about it ,but the main thing is how to find that person who is hidden ,
Anybody knows how to find it???
Can you give me guidelines on how to avoid Facebook from disabling my account?? I think i’ve made 10 accounts already for the past 3 years, bcoz everytime i make one, facebook will disable it after a few days. Pls help.