[Facebook] How to hide your friends list from everyone

It is no more an argument that 6 out of 10 people use Facebook to communicate with their friends and loved ones. Facebook is one of the most successful social networking sites in the world with billions of active users per month.

While it is convenient to use and it is easy for users to interact with one another, privacy remains a concern for most people using the platform.

As part of my effort to educate people more about how they can secure themselves on Facebook by applying different privacy measures, today, I will be talking about how Facebook users can prevent or restrict people from accessing their friends list.

In this tutorial, you will learn how you can hide the name of friends you have on Facebook from the public, friends, acquaintances, and other people on Facebook and on the web.

You may ask, what is the benefit in doing this? How does it help with my privacy? Well, with privacy comes security. You can not secure what is not private, especially in this present age. Technology has become part of our lives and so also are online social interactions.

Facebook has a way of showing the name of friends you have to the public, which in real sense does not add any value to your status except to expose you and your friends to dangers out there. Most people using Facebook do not know that this is enabled by default, but there is a way to limit it or turn it off.

Also learn: How to hide “add friend” button in your Facebook profile

By default, all the names of friends you have on Facebook can be viewed by “any” registered Facebook users and by the public. The list of friends you have is visible in your profile and can be viewed by anyone at anytime.

This is a risk some are not willing to take, exposing themselves and their friends to the world, more so without the conscience of their friends. Friendship does not need to be public, though Facebook thought otherwise. Thankfully, there is a way to amend this.

Follow the steps below to control who can view your friends list and how to permanently hide your friends list from anyone on Facebook.

Step 1

Go to https://mbasic.facebook.com and login with your username and password to sign in. You’ll be lead to your homefeed or newsfeed. 

Step 2

Scroll down to the bottom and click “Settings and Privacy”

Step 3

In the settings and privacy menu, locate “Privacy Settings” and click on it

Step 4

Under privacy settings, select “Who can see your friends list”

Step 5

Three or four options will be presented depending on how you customised your facebook profile, these include:

• Public – by enabling this, anyone on Facebook and outside Facebook can view your friends list
• Friends – only your added friends can view your friends list
• Only me – by selecting this, your friends list is “only” visible to you and none else on Facebook and outside Facebook. Select this if you want to hide your friends list from everyone

Simply select the one that is most appropriate depending on your preferred choice to activate.

That’s all.

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