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 July 2023 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 & Privacy» and then «Settings» entry from the menu.
Accounts Center – Profiles
Here you can find all your accounts regarding Instagram, Facebook and Horizon.
Accounts Center – Connected experiences
| Category | Our Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Sharing across profiles | Depending on your requirements |
| Loggings in with accounts | Specify, which accounts can log in to other accounts |
Accounts Center – Accounts
Add or remove accounts from this Accounts Center.
Accounts Center – Personal details
| Category | Our Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Contact Info | 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. |
| Birthday | Shows the registered date of birth |
| Identity confirmation | Not required in Switzerland |
| Account ownership and control | Depending on your requirements |
Accounts Center – Password and security
| Category | Sub-category | Our Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Login & recovery | Change password | Manage your passwords outside of Facebook, for instance using a password manager. |
| Two-factor authentication | Activate | |
| Saved login | Details oft he saved logins | |
| Security checks | Where you’re logged in | List is automatically created by Facebook |
| Login alerts | Activate for all accounts | |
| Recent emails | Emails received | |
| Security Checkup | Check your accounts for security here |
Accounts Center – Your information and permissions
| Category | Our Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Search history | Depending on your requirements |
| Cookies | Depending on your requirements |
Accounts Center – Ad preferences
Depending on your requirements
Accounts Center – Payments
| Category | Our Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Ads payments | Depending on your requirements |
| Meta Pay | Required for certain games and activities. Encryption and security are of good quality in accordance with common standards. |
Your Facebook information
Here you can view or download your information and delete your account.
Privacy – Privacy Settings and Tools
| Category | Sub-category | Our recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy shortcuts | Check a few important settings | Depending on your requirements |
| Manage your profile | Depending on your requirements | |
| Learn more with Privacy Center | Details of all the accounts in Meta | |
| 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 Past Posts | |
| Who can see the people, Pages and lists you follow? | Friends | |
| 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 | |
| How you get message requests | Potential connections | Depending on your requirements |
| Other people | Depending on your requirements |
Privacy – Profile and tagging
| Category | Sub-category | Our recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Profile | Who can post on your profile? | Only me |
| Who can see what others post on your profile? | Only me | |
| Hide comments containing certain words from your profile | Depending on your requirements | |
| Tagging | Who can see posts that you're tagged in on your profile? | 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 | |
| Reviewing | Review posts that you're tagged in before the post appears on your profile? | On |
| Review tags that people add to your posts before the tags appear on Facebook? | On |
Privacy - Public posts
Depending on your requirements
Privacy - Blocking
You have various options to block people, invitations, events, etc. without any effects on your security.
Privacy – Stories
| Category | Sub-category | Our recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Sharing options | Allow others to share your public stories to their own stories? | Don’t activate |
Privacy – Reels
Depending on your requirements
Privacy – Reaction preferences
| Category | Sub-category | Our recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Hide number of reactions | On posts from others | Depending on your requirements |
| On your posts | Depending on your requirements |
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 |
Language and region – Language and region settings
Depending on your requirements
Apps and websites – Apps and websites
Depending on your requirements
Business integrations – Business integrations
Depending on your requirements
Videos – Video settings
| Category | Our recommendation |
|---|---|
| Video default quality | Depending on your requirements |
| Autoplay videos | Depending on your requirements |
| Always show captions | Depending on your requirements |
| Captions display | Depending on your requirements |
| Video default volume | Depending on your requirements |
