How to hide friends list on Facebook
December 17th, 2009 - 3:52 pm ICT by ANI ( 51 comments )
Washington, Dec 17 (ANI): When Facebook came up with new privacy settings, it took away the ability to hide some information that was not to be made public, like the Friends List.
The inability to hide the Friends List caused a bit of hue and cry from a number of sectors, including business people who did not want to expose their professional networks to the public and their competitors.
It was also a concern to some parents who did not want their kids, or a list of their kids’ friends, to be widely available.
Facebook was fast to react by announcing on its blog, a day later, that users can now uncheck the “Show my friends on my profile” option in the Friends box on their profile so that it will not appear to the public.
However, it was not very clear on exactly how to make the changes, as the checkbox is not in the Facebook privacy settings.
CBS News has given the following steps on how to make the changes:
1. Click on Profile on the blue bar at the top of the screen.
2. Scroll down to the beginning of your Friends list and click on the pencil to the right of the word Friends.
3. Uncheck the box that says “Show Friend list to everyone”.
Though it will not hide your Facebook friends list from your friends when they look at your profile, unchecking the box will hide your friends list when a non-Facebook friend views your public profile.
Also, this information will be available to applications and application developers.
In addition, this procedure does not hide other publicly available information including your name, profile picture, gender, current city, networks you belong to, and pages you’re a fan of.
Most Facebook users have by now gone through the mandatory privacy settings wizard, but you can revisit your settings at any time by hovering over settings in the tool bar on the top of the screen and selecting privacy settings.
If you don’t do this, a fair amount of your information might be available to the public including the names of your kids and other family members (with links to their Facebook accounts), your relationship status, and where you work. (ANI)
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Tags: application developers, blog, cbs, cbs news, checkbox, city networks, current city, facebook friends, hue and cry, parents, pencil, privacy settings, professional networks, public profile, sectors, tool bar, wizard, word friends
December 18th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
it’s really anyc thing thuo ‘ve jst joined. thanx 2 seksjja ma frd.
December 29th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
The problem is not fixed by the unchecking box option. If a non friend has a mutual friend with you, they can view your entire friends list still. They simply click ‘view all’ on the on the mutual friends box on your public profile and then ‘everyone’. This is a real concern and contradicts FB’s reactionary so called ‘fix’. If they have accepted that you must be able to hide friends from non friends, how can they ignore this flaw.
December 31st, 2009 at 4:56 am
Until recently I was able to remove my friends list from my profile completely using the little pencil icon .. as they said: by unchecking “the ‘Show my friends on my profile’ option in the Friends box on their profile”
However I logged in today and found that this change has been reversed without any form of prior warning. Presumably this setting was changed some time ago by facebook and has made my private information visible. In essence, private information has been made public without my permission, without forewarning me.
If a user had not logged in for months they may have found that private information has been made public without their consent the entire time. They will not have seen the big banner or privacy settings wizard until now, but the settings were already changed.
They changed my privacy setting without my permission!.
I consider this a violation of my privacy.
January 1st, 2010 at 3:07 pm
Facebook needs to fix this problem now. Look how many people are in need!
January 1st, 2010 at 7:22 pm
it took me ages to set up all my friends lists and manually permitted some and restricted others. now, with the ‘new’ privacy settings all that work was for nothing. i dont want all my friends to see all my other friends - that was the whole point for me to structure them in groups/lists… i have deactivated my account this morning untill they reintroduce those options…
January 1st, 2010 at 10:08 pm
I feel soooooooooo VIOLATED by facebook’s decision to expose my friendslist to everyone (regardless of what they claim about being able to hide the list from non-friends). This is a really regressive move! Why would you claim to be ‘improving’ security and privacy features when in fact you’re reducing the privacy options that one has? I don’t necessarily want some friends to see my friendslist. I’ve had instances where certain people on my friendslist went thru’ the list and started hitting up other people on the list randomly. Just because I want to maintain ‘friendship’ with one person does not mean I want to expose my other friends to them. I certainly don’t appreciate being exposed to other people’s friends either!
If facebook does not address this issue and address it quickly, I will certainly be deactivating my account. This is simply scandalous! How do u take away from what one already has???
January 2nd, 2010 at 8:49 pm
EVERYONE, please complain to facebook using one of these links:
http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=updated_privacy_bug
http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=ui_privacy
Don’t expect facebook staff to read this thread. Submitting to the above links has a greater chance of being heard.
Here is a group of ppl who are also upset with facebook privacy issues:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=27233634858
January 6th, 2010 at 4:06 pm
I have just deactivated too for this reason.
February 19th, 2010 at 6:55 pm
Shocking that they would invade our privacy like this without even telling us!
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:59 am
They need to re-add the ability to hide friends list from current friends. This used to be possible with limited profile but no longer. This is a serious privacy issue and I can not believe Facebook still had not re-added this feature.
March 11th, 2010 at 12:51 am
Thanks!
March 14th, 2010 at 1:43 am
Nice article, it is also helpful but i am in search of that how to hide friends from my friends when they view my profile….
March 14th, 2010 at 1:44 am
i have the sam issue as macwoods have…
March 14th, 2010 at 3:24 am
THIS is shocking???? u people have no lives. WHO CARES if people can see your friends list. I mean, really, what is the worst that can happen? Are you ashamed of your friends, or two timing someone? no? then what is the deal? This is NOT shocking sweetie. The corruption and suffering in the world, now THAT is shocking!!!
March 15th, 2010 at 9:54 am
LA, you might not mind your contact list being published, but I and many other certainly do. That there are worse things to worry about in the world does not negate the issue, nor does it make Facebook’s conduct acceptable.
If your mobile phone company published all the phone numbers of your friends on the internet without your permission, would you accept that? Facebook has published the contact details of our friends without our permission.
We had specified that our contacts be hidden, as we found that information to be personal, AND also because it protects our friends from spam / stalkers / other privacy abuses and abusers. To make our contacts public without warning and without our consent is very poor conduct, and not at all conducive to out trust.
March 24th, 2010 at 2:38 pm
I have the same issue with facebook too, and totally agree with Mr B. We all have many different concerns about our privacy. If you don’t understand it, at least respect it. Facebook does not have the right to change the privacy setting without noticing us. But it seems like we don’t have many choices. What can we do about it?
March 25th, 2010 at 12:46 pm
This details are very helpful……By this we can be aware from unwanted friends …
Facebook need to improve the settings of this more than this.
April 12th, 2010 at 11:02 am
than you … really helpful
April 20th, 2010 at 1:53 am
thanks! ^O^
May 5th, 2010 at 11:51 am
This feature was modified in May 2010
Go to:
- Account
- Privacy Settings
- Friends, tabs and connections
For ‘Friends’ you have three choices: Everyone, Friends of Friends, Friends or Custom
To hide all your friends select “custom” and then in “Make this visible to” “These People” select “Only me”
May 6th, 2010 at 2:01 am
Thank you Rolo!! Glad to hear this has finally been fixed :)
May 21st, 2010 at 5:56 pm
I did select te option “Only me.’ But again, if you have mutual friends with a friend, s/he will be able to see your entire friends list. This helps to hide your friend’s list ony if you don’t have mutual friends. Any suggestions? Thank u!
May 26th, 2010 at 7:31 am
well if i have 200 friends, all with 200 friends each i make that 4000 people who i dont know(and incuding some i really wish didnt), have access to my entire friends list!
June 13th, 2010 at 8:19 pm
1. From Account on the top right select Privacy Settings.
2. Under Basic directory information near the top of the page select the View settings link.
3. Select the down arrow beside See my friend list and select Custom.
…4. You have a few options here, you could select the down arrow under Make this visible to and set it to Only me (no one sees your friends list) or you could enter a list of people you don’t want viewing your friends under Hide this from.
June 14th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
My facebook was deactivated for a few months (before the new “friends list fix”). When I deactivated my account, I didn’t have the option to hide my friends list. Now that I just reactivated, my facebook is STILL in the OLD facebook settings (no option to hide friends list). Why don’t I have the new privacy settings? Do I have to have my facebook reactivated for a certain amount of days for it to transfer to the new settings? Or should I just deactivate my facebook account again since I dont have any of the new/improved privacy options. Why is facebook so needlessly complicated? Any help will be greatly appreciated! :)
June 17th, 2010 at 8:00 am
it can be done.
->go to privacy
->click on “view settings”
->scroll to “view my friends list”
it can be everyone, friends of friends, friends, specific friends, no one…
(if you can’t find the “view settings” link, just do a page search (crtl+f))
June 17th, 2010 at 8:19 pm
thanks Will, you saved my day, I’ve been looking for that for hours…
June 18th, 2010 at 2:29 am
I still can’t believe that Facebook has made it so you can’t hide your Friends list from everyone else on your Friends list. I do NOT need my business contacts knowing who my personal friends are and if I create a Business Facebook profile then all my business contacts are going to be able to see each other, which is equally unacceptable. This is an outrage!
June 19th, 2010 at 6:33 am
@ will
i do not have “view settings”. i still have the old privacy settings where you had no option to change friends list privacy settings. i think its because i recently reactivated (if my account was active during the privacy setting changes i would have had the new settings)
thanks anyway…i’m still stuck on the old settings
June 24th, 2010 at 5:54 pm
thanks… for all…
July 25th, 2010 at 3:00 am
Even if you successfully disable your friends list they are all still accessible through the “people you may know” section of your friend’s home pages. It lists your friends and your name as a mutual friend. They are also listed on your friend’s “friends” page as “recommended”. This makes disabling your friends list absolutely useless.
October 2nd, 2010 at 8:10 am
just go to “account” at the top right corner then click “privacy settings”…. then find view settings….. (if you can’t find “view settings”, press CTRL+F) CTRLF+F will guide you to find something if you can’t see it (probably caused by excitement or rush)then goto “SEE MY FRIEND LIST” then change “everyone” into “only me”
October 6th, 2010 at 1:59 pm
Thank you Facebook for finally listening to your users ^_^
October 23rd, 2010 at 9:29 pm
Where I work I need to deal with dangerous people. The ability for them to find out who my friends are without having to be my friend in FB could be a huge problem. They could then look them up as some of their workplaces list their business contact info online. This means that I who am used to dealing with their harassment now have to train my friends and loved ones how to deal with them.
October 26th, 2010 at 12:18 am
thanks its work………….
December 8th, 2010 at 6:15 am
plz help out me how cani hide frnds list from other frnds
December 14th, 2010 at 6:45 pm
i cant get ur third option
December 21st, 2010 at 2:41 pm
i cant c this editing option for hiding friends in my profile..plz help…rply….
December 29th, 2010 at 9:26 pm
yes, but there is a new data card. it doesnt works.
January 9th, 2011 at 6:46 pm
Yes, it doesnt works.
January 24th, 2011 at 3:16 pm
I was new to facebook (just for few months)but I have learned to hide my friends so that nobody knew how many friends I have or with whom I am friend. But they changed the setup so that I couldn’t find a way to hide my friends from all others . I gave up and deactivated my account. The best choice ever!
January 26th, 2011 at 10:20 am
I CAN’T FIND THE BOX TO UNCHECK!
January 26th, 2011 at 10:25 am
This cannot be done!!!! I have tried everything! There is no such thing as a “hide friend list” option. No “friend list” option either. Someone please help.
March 8th, 2011 at 8:12 pm
there is no any option showing “show my friends list”how can i hide my fren list
March 10th, 2011 at 2:10 pm
account < privacy setting < view setting < see your friend list (costom)
:)
March 18th, 2011 at 6:01 am
thank u Divyanshu
April 2nd, 2011 at 11:53 am
http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=768
You can change who can see your friends from the “Connecting on Facebook” section of your Privacy Settings page. To get there:
1. Choose the “Privacy Settings” option in the Account drop-down menu at the top of any Facebook page.
2. Select “View settings” in the “Connecting on Facebook” section.
3. Change the setting for “See your friend list.”
April 3rd, 2011 at 10:00 am
thank you sue.. really helpful. :)
April 24th, 2011 at 11:39 pm
Thanks Sue …
October 19th, 2011 at 8:52 am
thank you very much you helped me
October 20th, 2011 at 9:54 pm
thnkx it workd