I feel like I’ve been telling a lot of people how to do this lately, so figured I’d do a blog post about it in case anyone else finds it useful. I’m sure there are others out there, but I’ll try to keep this in plain English as much as I can.

Here is a screencast I did if you’d rather just watch. It’s my first screencast, so be gentle with me :) Otherwise, read on below the video.

So Facebook is cool in that it allows you to set your privacy settings on nearly every part of your profile. You can make things viewable to the following:

1. Everyone: Anyone. Friend or some random stranger can see your profile and whatever details you have made public.
2. My Networks and Friends: All of your Facebook Friends and those people in your Networks. So if you are in the Monterey Bay network, everyone there can see your stuff. If you are in Salvation Army network or whatever your employer is, they can see your info as well.
3. Friends of Friends: People on Facebook you are not friends with, but you have a mutual friend with. So if you are not friends with your boss, but your co-worker, who is your friend, is friends with your boss, then said boss can then see your profile.
4. Only Friends: Only people who you have accepted friend request from on Facebook can see the info.
5. Customize: This is where you can select certain people to not see certain things…I’ll get more into this in a bit.

So, lets get into how to set those privacy settings.

Go to your Facebook Home page. In the top right corner, next to the search box on the blue bar, you’ll see “Settings.” If you hold your mouse over it, you’ll get a drop-down menu. Click on “Privacy Settings.”

From there you’ll select “Profile.” This controls who can see what on your profile.

This is where the “Customize” option comes into play. On this page you’ll see different elements that you can control the privacy of under the “Basic” Tab.  If you don’t want someone to see your status updates and posts, then select the drop-down box next to it. Select “Only Friends” and then at the bottom where it says “Except these people” you type in the name of the person or persons you don’t want to see your status updates. Select “okay” when you are done.  If you selected more than 2-3 people it will probably ask you if you would like to create a group. This makes it easier to limit that group of people in other sections if you want.

Once you are done selecting who you want to limit go to the bottom of the page and select “Save Changes.” When you do that, you will get a confirmation message in yellow at the top of the page saying your changes have been saved.

Now, here is the important part to make sure you blocked the information you intended to block. Right under that yellow box it will say “See how your friend sees your profile,” and will give you a box to type in someone’s name to see your profile as they see it. This is always good to make sure you blocked the information you intended to block.

You can block contact information as well as application information, etc… All by selecting “Privacy Settings” like we did at the beginning. Search through there and you’ll find Facebook allows you to control a lot of areas of your profile and information.

Below are some screenshots to help walk you through the process.

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