Are you too fed-up with people stalking you on Facebook and want to completely lock your Facebook profile? Then, you might be at the right place. We all realise that social media platform has become an integral part of our lives. However, this also means that it becomes a medium for stalkers. We all have been through this situation when stalkers keep searching your profile or unwanted people download your profile photos to create fake accounts. The solution for this is to have you lock your Facebook profile.
Locking your Facebook Profile is not an easy task; I realise it consists of some tricks here and there. However, I’ll try to be as settled as possible to help you understand Facebook security flaws and how you can protect your Facebook Profile from stalkers.
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Why Should I Lock My Facebook Profile?
We all know Social media occupies most of our lives, including Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, etc. We can say that Facebook is the oldest and has always been everyone’s favourite.
According to Statista, Facebook has 2.83 billion monthly active users globally. That’s a massive chunk of the population. Though it might look like a virtual country, it empowers people and gives them a chance to connect with the world and witness a new virtual world. However, the worst side of Facebook is its high Privacy issues. As everyone shares their data on Facebook, it increases the risk of information being misused unnecessarily.
Solving Privacy Issues
Facebook has developed a new feature that protects the user’s personal information from being shared with unknown persons. It is the Facebook Profile Lock feature, which was recently introduced. With this, Facebook removes the ability to collect personal information, posts, or any other data regarding a particular person from your Facebook account by someone else.
Pretty cool, right?
Recently, Facebook introduced the ‘Profile Picture Guard’ to secure users’ profile pictures. However, considering the other Privacy issues, now Facebook has developed the Profile lock feature.
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What is the Facebook Profile Lock Feature?
Facebook has already provided several privacy options. This latest Facebook profile lock feature enables users to lock their profile photos and posts. Those not on your friend list cannot look into, share, or download your profile photos and posts. It also restricts the third party from seeing the posts on your timeline. If you have already shared any public post on your timeline in the past, it will now only be visible to your friend list.
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What would your profile look like?
- Once you have locked your profile, a lock icon will be visible to others indicating that your profile is now locked.
- Your profile image cannot be seen, shared, or downloaded by that individual.
- Neither they nor anybody else will be able to access your profile picture.
- They will not be able to see any of your posts.
- This means that they won’t be able to see the most current or oldest updates on your timeline.
- They won’t be able to see any of your profile pictures or albums.
- Only a small approved portion of your information will be visible to them.
However, if they want to see your profile and get to know you better, they may send you a friend request.
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What Are The Changes That Occur While Locking The Profile?
- Locking your Facebook profile won’t impact your friend request settings. Anyone can send you a friend request, and you also can send a friend request to anyone.
- The message settings also remain undisturbed. You can send messages to anyone and also can receive messages from anybody. However, you can restrict users from sending messages, not on your friend list.
- Information such as hometown, current city, education details, etc., would be invisible to unknown people if you have locked your profile.
- Your profile pictures, cover photos along with about information are also locked to unknown users who are not on your friend list.
- Those who are not on your friend list are unable to view or zoom your profile picture. Only your friends could view, zoom, or share it. If anyone apart from your friends try to zoom into your profile pic or view it full screen, it would show your profile is locked.
- If you feel unsafe about unknown friend requests, you can permanently block them.
- Any public post that you have shared on your Facebook profile in the past will now be changed to “Friends,” meaning that only your friends will be able to see those posts.
- Locking your profile will activate the tag review and profile review features. This means that whenever someone tags you in a post, you will receive a request to approve or reject the tag. Additionally, you will also need to approve the post after approving the tag before it can appear on your profile.
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Why is Facebook Profile Lock Feature Important?
According to Facebook, in December 2020, hackers from Bangladesh and Vietnam corrupted the whole privacy system of Facebook. In addition, they have stolen the data of Facebook users. This Facebook lock profile feature will remove the ability of such groups to abuse the Facebook platform and scrape data from people’s accounts across the world.
People should avoid clicking on suspicious links and accepting friend requests from untrusted sources to support the Facebook privacy system. Facebook also introduced a Vanish mode to resolve privacy risks. The unique feature of this model is that it deletes all the chats and media files after a certain period once you activate it. In addition, it has another vital safety feature. If someone takes a screenshot of your profile, Facebook will notify you about them instantly. Here are the steps to activate vanish mode.
- Get the latest version of Facebook from the Play Store or App Store.
- Open the specific chat.
- Swipe up from the bottom of the chat.
- This will activate the Vanish mode. With this, the background colour of the chat changes to a black colour indicating the mode is now activated.
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How To Lock Your Facebook Profile On Android Devices:
Step 1: First, open the Facebook app on your Android device.
Step 2: On the home page, tap your Profile picture.
Step 3: Tap on the three dots Menu
Step 4: Select the Lock Profile option from the options on the page.
Step 5: Select the “Lock Your Profile” option at the end of the page on the Lock Profile Page.
Step 6: Once done, A pop message will appear on the screen saying, “You locked your profile. Only your friends can see the photos and posts on your timeline.“
Step 7: Tap Ok to complete the process.
iPhone users need to do the following steps:
- Go to Facebook, and then tap on your name in the three-line menu on the bottom right.
- Dot your name with three fingers.
- To lock your profile, use the Lock Profile button.
- To be sure, tap Lock Your Profile a second time.
Your profile will be locked, and if you want to confirm, just come out from that page. Then, again log in to your profile. There you will get the notification that your profile has been locked.
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If the profile lock is not available on your Facebook page, manually modify the Facebook privacy settings to enable lock profile mode. If you want your friend to lock their profile, you can invite friends to lock their profiles to allow them to this model. It must be understood that this feature is not yet available everywhere. At present, you can only lock your profile in a few countries.
How To Lock Facebook Profile Via Desktop
If you primarily use your Facebook account on your desktop, don’t worry, we will list the steps to lock your Facebook profile there as well. Here’s the easy step-by-step process to do so:
Step 1: Open Google Chrome, Firefox or any browser on your desktop.
Step 2: Then, log in using your Facebook ID and Password.
Step 3: Once that is out of the way, you will see the Facebook Home Page. From here, head over to your profile page by clicking on your picture at the top right corner of your screen.
Step 4: In here, right under the Edit Profile button, you will see three dots. Click on them.
Step 5: As soon as you do that, you will get a bunch of options. Click on the last option, that is, Lock Profile.
Step 6: You will see a popup window. Here, click on the Lock Your Profile button. That’s it!
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With that, you have successfully and easily locked your Facebook profile on your desktop.
Follow these steps If Lock Profile Feature is not available in your country:
If this feature is not yet available where you live, you can still attain some amount of privacy by following these steps:
Step 1: Limit past posts by going to Settings & Privacy – Settings – Posts – Limit Past Posts to friends only. You can also set your future posts to friends only as well from the posts setting.
Step 2: The same limitation can be done for stories too from story settings.
Step 3: Turn On Profile Review & Tag Review manually from settings.
Step 4: Select friends list visibility from public to friends or only me.
Final Thoughts
Facebook is an excellent social media for global communication. However, as the world is getting more concerned about data privacy, it is time to protect your Facebook accounts for good. Locking your profile secures your data from hackers and stalkers.
After locking, you’ll have to re-enter your password on all the devices. Once you have locked your Facebook profile, Facebook will add an indication to your profile.
However, bear in mind that once you activate this function, you will no longer be able to publish to the public. Instead, friends can only see the posts and share them. Stay Safe!
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