Facebook Settings

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 20th July 2021 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).
Memorialisation 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
Privacy shortcuts	Check a few important settings	Depending on your requirements
	Manage your profile	Depending on your requirements
	Learn more with Privacy Basics	No settings possible
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
	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

Face recognition – Face recognition settings

Category	Our recommendation
Face recognition	Don‘t activate