Advent tip #15: Set your Facebook so you can’t be searched for by phone number or email

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By default, anyone can look you up on Facebook via your email address or phone number. You can change your privacy settings to limit who’s able to search for you. Here’s how:

Click the little “down” arrow at the top right of any Facebook page and choose Settings.
Select Privacy on the left. Under the Who can look me up? section, you’ll see a setting for your email and a setting for your phone number.
Use the dropdown menu next to each setting to select who can look you up using that info: the options are Friends, Friends of friends or Everyone.

Note: You can remove your mobile phone number altogether but note that if you do that it means Facebook can’t send you login approvals, which ensure that you don’t get locked out when using an unrecognized computer or mobile device to log in.

While you’re sorting out your Facebook settings, make sure you lock down your profile so only your friends can see your posts. That was actually our third advent tip – Set your Facebook posts to ‘Friends only’

You can also keep up to date on all the latest Facebook-related news by liking our page.