I'm really annoyed about having to write this post because I believe the wrong info I posted is mainly the fault of Facebook's Bad Interface Design. And the worst part is that, because it's related to protecting your privacy, it could have serious consequences for some people.
In two earlier posts, Privacy Controls in Facebook Pt. 1 and Reader Question: Restricting Access to Wall Posts, I described how you can customize your Privacy Settings to specify which of your friends can/can't see what's on your Wall (on your Profile page). And I showed the section on your Profile Privacy Settings page where you can edit these settings—not surprisingly called Wall Posts.
But then yesterday, when a reader wrote me with a specific question related to privacy settings, I was doing some testing and discovered something surprising. I restricted one of my friends from seeing my Wall Posts and then typed her name in the box for "See how a friend sees your profile" and it still showed my Wall Posts. I asked my friend to confirm if she could see things on my Wall (in case the problem was with the "See how..." feature) and she said she could.
At that point, I thought I had discovered a major bug and did a Google search to see if anyone else had reported it and couldn't find anything. Hmmm...
Well, it turns out that the Wall Posts section doesn't apply to posts you put on your Wall—only to ones that your friends have posted. I confirmed with my friend that she couldn't see any posts from my other friends. (But she could still see comments from my other friends on any of my status lines, links, etc. that appeared on my Wall.)
I won't go into the whole story of how I found out this is the way it's supposed to work but I will say that Facebook does actually tell you this... IF you click on the little question mark next to the Wall Posts heading.
Now call me crazy, but I think if I say I'm restricting someone from seeing my Wall Posts, I'm expecting they're restricted from seeing ALL my Wall Posts, including mine.
So how DO you stop people from seeing your Wall Posts as well? Well, you'll have to do that in a few places. If you don't want them to see your status lines or links you post to other sites, then you need to use the Status and Links dropdown box on the same Profile Privacy Settings page.
Note: If you do customize settings on this page, make sure you click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page to make them take effect.
If you don't want them to see your Photos or Notes or info from any other applications you're using, you'll have to change those settings for each one from the Application Settings page (get there from the Settings dropdown menu at the top of the page). For example, here is the Settings box for my Scrabble application, where I can restrict certain people from seeing anything I've done with that game.
You can also prevent having any stories from the application from being posted to your Wall in the first place, from the Additional Permissions tab.
If any of this isn't clear, please let me know. I'll be updating the earlier posts as well to clarify how this works. I apologize for any confusion or inconvenience they may have caused you.
Posted in Corrections, Facebook, How To, Privacy/Security, Updates, User Interface
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
You've definitely confirmed my operating belief that anything I put on FB is really for the entire world.
Far less than 1% of the world population is going to try to master these multi-dimensional controls.
Thanks for trying though!
Yep, that's my philosophy as well. Not just for Facebook, but for anything on the Internet. For example, there was a story in the news this week about someone who got fired from a job for complaining about her boss in a password-protected chat room. Whether or not this was an invasion of privacy doesn't diminish the fact that the info got "out there." Poster beware!
hi, thanks a lot for the help. but for some strange reason it still isnt working for me. i went into the application ''how well do u know me''...i went on the application settings for this app and i customized it so that all my friends except my limited profile list would see my own posts to my wall. i clicked 'okay' and everything but when i went on ''how a friend sees ur profile'' they can still see these posts. There must be a way... isnt there? :-( thanks for ur help in advance.
Thanks for the info and and I agree the wall help box is misleading.
From my understanding the only way it's possible to prevent certain 'friends' from viewing your wall is to prevent access using Status and Links as described above. This prevents viewing of your wall and also your status.
Thanks for your comments. Even the "Status and Links" option doesn't prevent people from seeing what's on your Wall -- only those two specific types of postings.
I've been getting a lot of questions lately about some of these issues, so I'll post an update of some stuff I've found out recently to try to make things clearer.
I discovered this, too--luckily with no embarrassing mishap involved! What I'd like is the ability to differentiate between material on my wall posted by me and material posted by others, regardless of what that material is (e.g. wall post, comment, etc.) I might post something totally innocuous, but have no idea what a friend might say in a comment under that post. I'd like to make those comments visible only to me. So far, that kind of control doesn't seem to exist.
That's a good idea David. Unfortunately, it's kind of an all-or-nothing approach at the moment. I think the easiest way for them to implement something like this would be to offer an option to approve posts from others (comments, etc.) before they get published. That way, you could choose which ones your other friends see.
Heya!I find your advice about Facebook very helpful and easy to follow:).
Do you think that there is any way in which you can hide the comments you make about your friends' photos from other people ?
Thanks.
:)
Thanks for the comment, Ash. Unfortunately, the comments feature is an area of Facebook where you have almost no privacy control. The only option available is to prevent having comments on certain types of posts (e.g. photos, links) from showing up in your friends' Highlights section on their home pages. But that doesn't prevent them from seeing the comments attached to the post itself. Likewise you have no way of preventing people from seeing comments others make on your posts -- the only option is to delete the comment, but lots of people could have seen it already before you have a chance to delete it.
It's definitely an area that Facebook could improve.
Thanks for posting this one. I had discovered this through testing as well...I am glad you wrote about it so I don't have to wonder if it was just me.
Facebook could DEFINITELY improve on this one!
Glad you found it helpful, April. Thanks for commenting!
Hi. When any friends bring up my page on facebook, they get the info page instead of the wall. I want the wall first. What can I do to change it?
Hi Melodie.
I assume you're talking about your personal profile and not a fan page? If so, this appears to be one of Facebook's famous "random bugs." I've found several reports by other people recently of the same problem, but haven't found a solution yet. If I do, I'll definitely let you know.
Hi, great site and very helpful! I've got a question about "which of your friends can/can't see what's on your Wall (on your Profile page)." I have a "what's on your mind" currently up, to which someone has replied leaving a post on my wall. I did what you said to make it so that only certain people could view these comments, or so I thought. I have set a few of my friends on the "Wall Posts" privacy content area it is set to "Only Friends" and then I have a couple set to "Except These People". When I then try the "See How A Friend Views Your Profile" as one of these friends I can still see the comments on my "What's Your Mind" on my Wall. What am I doing wrong? I don't want to block them from seeing posts that I make, only replies friends make so I didn't think I needed to follow your adjusted steps here. If it makes any difference I'm using Firefox...Thanks.
Hello , thanks for trying to help us ... I followed all your steps and people who are in my wall block list , I blocked them on wall posts AND on status and links are still able to see my wall , I tried it twice ... any more ideas or way to solve it ?
Thanks a lot !!!!
i'm having the same problem as connie, i've blocked someone from seeing wall posts (which we now know doesn't work) and also blocked them from status and links AND photos, but using my husband's account as a test, i'm still able to view ALL of the posts i'm hoping to keep from this particular person. any suggestions?
i did find this on the fb site under bugs and known problems:
My privacy settings restrict somebody from seeing my Wall posts, but the Wall still displays when I view my account as that person.
When you restrict someone from seeing your Wall posts, they will still be able to see posts that you make, comments on those posts, and Recent Activity stories that appear on your Wall.
Thank you so much!!! This is the only info out there for this kind of wall security!
Hi! thanks for this clarification.
I have a question. I've been doin a lotta research to figure this out, using some of my friends as test objects.
How is it possible to make wall posts on my wall from some of my friends invisible for some other of my friends?
I've been using my friends account to check out some people, and i look on his wall. On his wall, i see wall posts from to people. Later, when i log on to my own profile, and checks out my friends profile from my own profile, these wall posts from those people won'
t show, it's like they have never been made. It's weird, cause they are there, but they only show if i'm logged on to my friend's profile. If i look at his wall from my profile, it doesn't show.
Anyone see what i mean and can explain this?
Remy
Thanks for the question, Remy.
Are you talking specifically about Wall Posts, i.e. when someone writes on your friend's Wall (vs. posting a link or photos or some other type of content)? If yes, then there are two possibilities. If you and your friend's friends are not Facebook friends yourself, then you won't see their posts. If you are friends with those people, they must have turned off the ability for others to see their Wall posts. You can do this by going to Settings > Privacy Settings > News Feed and Wall and unchecking the box that says "Show Wall posts."
If you're talking about other types of content, you won't see most of that on your friend's Wall. The only content you can see on another person's Wall from your own account are things that they post, Wall posts from mutual friends (if enabled), content that your friend is tagged in (like photos or notes), and comments people make on those items.
I hope that answers your question. It's a very confusing system sometimes. I think I'll actually write a blog post about this specific question, because I'm sure lots of others are wondering the same thing.
Thanks again for commenting.
Great! That explains it. I'm talking about when my friend's friends are posting wall posts on her wall. I am not a friend of my friend's friends. These wall posts won't show when i go to his profile to look at his wall.
Thank you for helping me out!
Glad it helped!
I want one of my friends to not see my wall, at all. How do I do that?
i have a question about wall posts. as of recently, people post to my wall, i receive the notification and everything, and then sometimes i am able to see the posts and sometimes i'm not. a lot of times if i refresh it the new posts have disappeared. the rest o f my wall content is still there, including my status..but for some reason today's posts will sometimes appear and sometimes not. any thoughts?
My problem is that only I can see whatever info I post on my wall / live feed ! WHen i check my friends wall, they have various info and links from other friends, but mine don't show anywhere !!! If I want to appear on their wall, I physically have to type a comment in it?!
heyy! i was wondering how we can stop tagged photos of ourselves posting on our personal facebook walls? sometimes when people tag me, the photos are on my wall long enough before i can untagg them
Facebook really needs to make what you post on people's wall PRIVATE ON THE NEWS FEED. Why is that option gone? Please Make it an option!!!!
i agree hope they need that option