Facebook offers a multitude of configuration options. It‘s not always easy to keep track of all the various settings offered and to select the best settings for your purposes. Our checklist is meant to assist you to protect your account and all your published information in the best possible way.
We have tried to draw up as universally applicable a set of instructions for private users as possible. Nevertheless, the individual configuration options and settings may differ in specific cases. This checklist refers to the Facebook settings available as at 21th Juli 2020 as displayed in a desktop computer browser.
As a rule, the settings described here are automatically adopted in the Facebook app. Depending on your smartphone and operating system though, there may be some additional settings in the app which are not discussed here.
To display the Facebook account settings, click the arrow icon in the page header, and select the «Settings» entry from the menu.
General – General Account Settings
Category | Our recommendation |
---|---|
Name | Your first and surname |
Username | Is automatically created by Facebook |
Contact | Use a free address without any indication of your identity (e.g. ferrari397@gmail.com). Optionally, you can also register a mobile number, which will then be required for log-in confirmations as necessary. |
Ad account contact | Use a free address without any indication of your identity (e.g. ferrari397@gmail.com). |
Temperature | Your required scale |
Memorialization Settings | Depending on your requirements |
Identity Confirmation | Not necessary in Switzerland |
Security and login – Security and login
Category | Sub-category | Our recommendation |
---|---|---|
Recommended | Choose friends to contact if you are locked out | Don‘t activate |
Where you‘re logged in | List is automatically created by Facebook | |
Login | Change password | Manage your passwords outside of Facebook, for instance using a password manager. |
Save your login information | Don‘t activate | |
Two-factor authentication | Use two-factor authentication | Activate |
Authorised logins | List is automatically created by Facebook | |
App passwords | Depending on your requirements | |
Setting up extra security | Get alerts about unrecognised logins | Activate |
Choose 3 to 5 friends to contact if you are locked out | Don‘t activate | |
Advanced | Encrypted notification emails | Depending on your requirements |
Recover external accounts | Depending on your requirements | |
See recent emails from Facebook | List is automatically created by Facebook |
Your Facebook information – Your Facebook information
You can view or download your information and delete your account.
Privacy – Privacy Settings and Tools
Category | Sub-category | Our recommendation |
---|---|---|
Your activity | Who can see your future posts? | Friends |
Review all your posts and things you‘re tagged in | Activate | |
Limit the audience for posts you‘ve shared with friends of friends or Public? | Limit Old Posts | |
How people can find and contact you | Who can send you friend requests? | Everyone |
Who can see your friends list? | Only me | |
Who can look you up using the email address you provided? | Friends | |
Who can look you up using the phone number you provided? | Friends | |
Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile? | Don‘t activate |
Timeline and tagging – Timeline and Tagging Settings
Category | Sub-category | Our recommendation |
---|---|---|
Timeline | Who can post on your timeline? | Only me |
Who can see what others post on your timeline? | Only me | |
Allow others to share your posts to their story? | Don‘t activate | |
Hide comments containing certain words from your timeline | Depending on your requirements | |
Tagging | Who can see posts that you‘re tagged in on your timeline? | Only me |
When you‘re tagged in a post, who do you want to add to the audience of the post if they can‘t already see it? | Only me | |
Review | Review posts that you‘re tagged in before the posts appear on your timeline? | On |
Review tags that people add to your posts before the tags appear on Facebook? | On |
Stories – Stories settings
Category | Our recommendation |
---|---|
Sharing options | Don‘t activate |
Location – Location settings
Category | Our recommendation |
---|---|
Location history | Don‘t activate |
Blocking – Manage blocking
You have various options to block people, invitations, events, etc. without any effects on your security.
Language – Language Settings
Depending on your requirements
Face recognition – Face recognition settings
Category | Our recommendation |
---|---|
Face recognition | Don‘t activate |
Notifications – Notifications Settings
Category | Sub-category | Our recommendation |
---|---|---|
What notifications you receive | Depending on your requirements | |
How you receive notifications | Browser | Don‘t activate |
Depending on your requirements | ||
SMS | Don‘t activate |
Mobile – Mobile Settings
Depending on your requirements
Public posts – Public Post Filters and Tools
Depending on your requirements
Apps and websites – Apps and websites
Depending on your requirements
Instant Games – Instant Games
Depending on your requirements
Business integrations – Business integrations
Depending on your requirements
Ads – Your ad preferences
Depending on your requirements
Facebook Pay – Account Settings
Category | Our recommendation |
---|---|
Payment methods | Required for certain games and activities. Encryption and security are of good quality in accordance with common standards. |
Support Inbox
No settings possible
Videos – Video Settings
Category | Our recommendation |
---|---|
Video Default Quality | Depending on your requirements |
Auto-play Videos | Depending on your requirements |
Always show captions | Depending on your requirements |
Captions display | Depending on your requirements |